Architect Peter DeMaria Receives Award for “Hope on Lafayette” Homeless Housing Project from Modular Building Institute

Distinguished Architect awarded for Homeless Bridge Housing project which helps shelter and transition the homeless in Los Angeles, California.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., April 15, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- SteelBlox CEO and Founder of DeMaria Design, Peter DeMaria, accepted a First Place Design Award for his Los Angeles-based project, “HOPE on Lafayette”. Presenting the award from the Modular Building Institute (MBI), was Past-President Mike Wilmot. Selected from a large pool of nationwide and international entries, the homeless housing project was showcased at the MBI’s 2023 World of Modular Conference last week at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a concerted effort to bring positive impact to the LA homeless crisis, DeMaria Design was teamed with HBG/Utopia Development’s Danny Moizel and Damon Summers. Along with R&S Tavares Eng., the team was unwavering in their mission. Navigating the upheaval of Covid-19 impacted construction delays and adversity - their strategy delivered 30 steel prefab modules which now serve as home to over 100 residents in the Koreatown district of LA. DeMaria states, “...the residents of Koreatown worked with our design team in public forums and through their Councilman. These residents care, they take action and they follow through on the moral obligations of their community - an Architect can’t ask for more than that…we were blessed.”

“Hope on Lafayette” focuses on affordable housing and shelter for impoverished individuals giving them a chance to be reinserted as productive members of society. It features housing quarters, laundry facilities, a large communal courtyard and Salvation Army Service Providers. Successful as a Bridge Housing project, it was originally spearheaded by former LA Mayor Gil Garcetti and now hopes to serve as a case study for ambitious new LA Mayor, Karen Bass.

DeMaria is considered a trailblazer within the modular/prefab architecture industry and his hybrid designs forge attractive SteelBlox modular solutions with his personal pursuit of “housing for the masses”. Attending the Las Vegas event, TEAMprefab interviewed DeMaria hoping to unveil the architectural inspiration behind the Hope project. His non-surprising response…. “People are meant to be loved, and things are meant to be used - and too often the opposite is true. The focus of our project is PEOPLE, not Architecture - Architecture is a means to an end”.

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Michelangelo DeMaria
TEAMprefab
md@teamprefab.com
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