Village Center at Anderson Center for Autism - Staatsburg, NY

The Village Center- the campus maintenance hub successfully shares a prominent structure with the student supportive services, unlike typical peripheral and utilitarian campus operations facilities.

Inventive in its mix use, beside the maintenance administrative offices, its workshops and storage facilities, it also houses the visiting family amenities. So, there is a welcoming forecourt with picnic tables, as well as hospitality suites enabling families to spend time with students in a private, relaxed, home-like atmosphere. The unusual interface between facilities management and student services, all under one roof, provides valuable opportunities for basic job training — allowing students to learn, for example, how to organize household supplies and distribute them across campus.

Architecturally, the Village Center is contemporary, yet rendered in authentic and traditional materials that recall nearby historic Hyde Park, the birthplace and hometown of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The goal was quality architecture with a sense of permanence as it bridges the new with the old to reinforce the campus historic fabric at the Anderson Center for Autism.