Project Profile: Hope Manor
Highlighting five of WJW's projects in Chicagoland that serve U.S. veterans.
WJW has had a longstanding partnership with Volunteers of America Illinois to design affordable housing for veterans and their families.
Hope Manor Apartments, completed in 2011, was the first of several successful collaborations. This apartment building on the border of Humboldt Park and Garfield Park in Chicago featured many sustainable design elements before green ratings had even been widely standardized.
This project was followed by Hope Manor II in 2014, which transformed a vacant lot in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood into 73 new apartments and homes. The project was made up of three building types: a main 3-story apartment building, six-flat buildings, and a series of townhomes, offering a number of types of new homes for veteran-headed families.
Third in the series is Hope Manor Joliet, which was built in 2017 on the site of a former hospital campus. While the previous two Hope Manor projects also emphasized community green space, Hope Manor Joliet is unique in that the multiple-building design wraps around a large, sloped park. The mix of walk-up apartment buildings and main larger apartment building, create a a campus-like setting.
Next came Marycrest Village, which was completed in 2020. Marycrest was a renovation of an existing affordable apartment building for seniors in Joliet. While WJW did not design the original building, we were proud partners with VOA Illinois and VOA National, to provide a much needed facelift to the building, along with renovated interiors for resident apartments and common areas, including energy efficiency upgrades and a new fitness center.
Hope Manor Village, completed in 2021, is an extension of the Hope Manor II campus in Englewood. Unlike the other three projects, Hope Manor Village is a scattered infill housing development on 16 lots of land previously held by the City of Chicago. Each building was designed to fit into the existing neighborhood context and add much-needed housing to the area. WJW continued our practice of incorporating sustainability into the designs, and earned an Enterprise Green Communities certification for this project!
The Hope Manor projects really exemplify our mission to create from the intersection of people, place, and purpose. Our collaboration with VOA continues and we currently have a new Hope Manor project on the boards (stay tuned). Thank you to VOA for being our partner for some 17+ years!
