It’s called “the Patriot,” and at first glance it would look at home in any luxury housing development in Fairfax County. But this house was built with a little more purpose. The 3,000-square-foot yellow ranch house is specially designed to house wounded veterans at Fort Belvoir, and developers hope that its design will be used as a model for hundreds of other houses across the country. Developer Clark Realty Capital is set to unveil the Patriot and its companion, the Freedom, at a ceremony at the end of the month.
Both houses are part of an ongoing project to rehabilitate or rebuild more than 2,000 houses at Fort Belvoir over the past eight years, project director Casey Nolan said. And with more and more of the nearly 30,000 veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan choosing to remain on active duty even with permanent injuries, some of those houses need to be specifically tailored to those veterans’ needs. While some will stay for up to three years, Nolan said, the houses are also intended for recovering veterans receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Both the Patriot and the Freedom — both designed by paraplegic architect Michael Graves — are built to accomodate not only handicapped veterans in wheelchairs, but also patients recovering from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. They feature wide, open floor plans, adjustable-height appliances and countertops and even therapy rooms and gardens.
Jim Thur, the director of Northern Virginia’s Wounded Warriors program, said all wounded veterans, discharged and on active duty, deserve housing that fits their needs.
“A pretty high percentage return to active duty,” he said. “Until they can go back they may need special housing. Others are going to be stabilized and be discharged. Those folks could all use that housing.”
One double-amputee with five children is already set to move into the new house, Nolan says, and his company hopes more will follow. They’re looking to build 19 handicapped-accessible houses on the base within the next five years.
“We want to do the best job we can to provide for families with these needs,” he said.
