Vancouver - This year a number of Special Jury Awards were given to projects whose designs contributed to their communities in a meaningful way or elevated architectural design for those institutions they were designed for.

Belkin House is a modest, straightforward building appropriate to the continuity and scale of the street and complementary to the existing urban fabric. It provides a supportive sanctuary for the disadvantaged giving them hope, self-esteem and potential to start in a new direction. The success of Belkin House can be measured in the enrichment it provides to individuals and to society as a whole.

Belkin House is an innovative facility, the first in Canada to provide such a wide range of services, programs and shelter under one roof. Belkin House has segregated men’s and women’s emergency shelter, outreach and drop-in services, a thirty-bed Corrections Canada community residential facility, women’s services and transitional housing with integrated resource services and programs - literacy and education classes, counselling for addiction recovery, life skills training to tenants and non-residents and job skills training.

Jury comments: “Recognition of social importance; Provides sense of tranquility, peace and help; Fits into pattern of urbanism, provides sense of sanctuary, solidity and tranquility to residents.”

The Salvation Army recognized that to break the cycle of hopelessness and despair, which the homeless and homeless-at-risk individuals face, more than a warm bed and a hot meal would be required.