Segal: AIA lauds Gayborhood apartment complex

Would you believe it's been over a year now since the John C. Anderson LGBT-friendly senior apartments opened to much fanfare? Well, all of us involved in the process of developing the building have been so exhausted from the quick four-year building project that we didn't plan a celebration.

But all you have to do to celebrate is walk into the building and meet the residents. To this day, whenever I get the chance, I wander on over there and it just inspires me.

The residents are more than what any of us on the board of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund ever expected. Many of them have become true community and neighborhood activists. Numerous organizations have utilized the building for their own events and fundraisers. My personal favorite event at the JCAA happened just a few weeks ago.

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the Haas Foundation's annual LGBT Media Convening, a convention of LGBT journalists and bloggers from around the country, was held for the second time in Philadelphia in March. About 70 writers converged on the city, many of whom had heard of the project and wanted to visit JCAA. So, we offered up a cocktail party with our residents.

Most of the summit attendees were young and the interaction between them and the residents was amazing to watch. The residents led groups of 10 on tours of the building and many even opened their apartments to show them their new homes.

The building has won lots of accolades in the last year, but watching the residents show off their homes was worth so much more than any award.

Today, we got some incredible news.  The John C. Anderson LGBT Friendly Senior Affordable Apartments will be presented with the AIA (The American Institute of Architects) 2015 Housing Award at its national convention in Atlanta this May.  Here's what their judging committee had to say:

John C. Anderson Apartments | Notes of Interest John C. Anderson Apartments (JCAA) is a 56-unit affordable senior housing development located at the heart of the "Gayborhood" section of Philadelphia's historic Washington Square West neighborhood. The area is the traditional center of LGBT life in the Philadelphia region. Though thought of as a truly urban and highly diverse neighborhood, rapid escalation in real estate values has begun to squeeze some people out.  Older residents have been particularly vulnerable to this trend.  The impetus for this project arises from an appreciation within Philadelphia's LGBT community of the great courage shown by its current generation of elders during the early struggles for gay rights, by a recognition of the challenges folks still face in finding safe, affordable and accepting accommodations in which to live their senior years, and by a strong desire to accommodate those needs within a familiar neighborhood setting.

Activists within the community were instrumental in securing major funding to enable JCAA's development. A public/private partnership was then forged between the DMH Fund (a not‐for‐profit organization focused on addressing needs of youth and seniors within the LGBT community) and a highly experienced affordable housing developer to turn their vision into reality. The involvement of DMH Fund provided the structure by which members of the community could remain active participants throughout the detailed design and construction phases and insured that the community would have a say in all major decisions made along the way. John C Anderson Apartments is the first "LGBT‐friendly" affordable senior housing project to be developed in the eastern United States with such direct community involvement. Its realization has been the source of great community pride.

Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation's most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. You can follow him on Facebook  and Twitter.