SWBR Architects has completed the redevelopment of Holy Rosary Apartments at 414 Lexington Ave. with Providence Housing Development Corp. The firm served as lead architect on the $11 million project. Holy Rosary Apartments was awarded the Barber Conable Award from the Landmark Society on November 10th at the city hall.
Holy Rosary Apartments provides 35 affordable apartments on its main campus and 25 new single-family homes. The 10,000 s/f church has been adapted as a community center, part of which will be leased to Mary's Place Refugee Outreach. The SWBR team transformed the former Holy Rosary Church rectory, convent and school buildings into apartments. The apartments are located at 26 different sites in 30 buildings, which incorporate new construction, rehabilitation, adaptive reuse and historic rehabilitation.
SWBR provided all architectural and structural engineering in partnership with the Providence Housing Development Corp., which also manages the affordable apartments.
As a result of transformation from a former church campus to apartments, Holy Rosary Apartments was the recipient of the Landmark Society's 2013 Barber Conable Award. This award recognizes a large-scale rehabilitation of a historic building in the nine-county greater Rochester community completed within the past two years, including buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places and projects utilizing the Federal Investment Tax Credit Program.
"Holy Rosary Apartments is a unique complex in our community that has made an outstanding effort in the preservation of a historic property," said Wayne Goodman, executive director of the Western NY Landmark Society. "This award was established in 1968 and we do not give this award out each year. We look for large-scale renewal of a historic building to award the Barber Conable Award to, and we wait for the perfect recipient. We are thrilled to honor Holy Rosary Apartments with the Barber Conable Award as it is the first religious and educational building honoree. This building is in a neighborhood where there is a great need. Holy Rosary Apartments, the former Holy Rosary church is ideal as it was transformed from a church into housing with a Mediterranean Revival style, helping many of our community members and giving them a home." Tags: