Loudoun County Youth Shelter
Leesburg, VA
Size:
11,000 SF
The design for the Loudoun County Youth Shelter creates a dynamic institutional facility providing a professional environment for staff and a comfortable home-like atmosphere for displaced youth. The campus style plan allows physical separation of court-ordered and victimized kids while maximizing captured open space and limiting site disturbance. The successful architectural solution employs the repetition of open and closed forms, economically identifying public and private spaces while emphasizing design clarity.
The shelter serves its occupants and the greater community through environmental stewardship achieved in its design. The shelter building is elongated along the southern façade maximizing natural day-lighting opportunities while geothermal wells and photovoltaic panel arrays are just a couple of the systems employed, responsible for the project’s outstanding energy conservation. The youth shelter achieved LEED Gold certification and promises to be a welcome neighbor providing an important service to the Loudoun community for many years to come.