New Washington DC Men's Shelter Opens
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Director of DC DHS, Laura Zeilinger, praised, “Barbara Price at Coakley & Williams [Construction] who led that team has done an absolutely phenomenal job together with Blue Skye Construction. As you see the space you will see their attention to detail.”
On January 24, 2022, the new Department of General Services (DGS) and DC Department of Human Services (DHS) construction project, 801 Men’s Shelter, located at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, Washington, DC, celebrated its grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony. This new building replaced the old men’s shelter in the Ward 8 Anacostia community. The Design-Build team of Coakley & Williams Construction (CWC), in a joint-venture with Blue Skye Construction, with architects, Wiencek Associates Architects + Planners, carefully designed and built the new 801 Men’s Shelter to ensure that the St. Elizabeths East Campus Historic foundations would not be undermined. This project is built to LEED Gold standards.
WATCH: The Goodfellas help Coakley & Williams Construction / Blue Skye Construction joint venture build the new 801 Men’s Shelter in Washington, DC. Courtesy of NBC4 Washington.
Barbara Price, CWC Senior Project Manager, with The Goodfellas in front of the new 801 Men’s Shelter.
Creating Pathways to Stronger Futures
Director of DC DGS, Keith Anderson, said, “I am pleased to present one of the first major shelter redevelopment projects in the district for adult men right here on the St. Elizabeths East Campus. It is the premier shelter that combines a wide range of services under one roof to support the transition of single men toward a better life. Additionally, it is one of the first major ground-up residential projects at St. Elizabeths to be completed. The 801 East Men’s Shelter will be reshaping entire lives and creating pathways to stronger futures. This Design-Build project features a multipurpose room, health care clinic, and a large kitchen that can be used for culinary learning. There is also a green roof with seating. I am pleased to report that 30 Certified Business Enterprises worked on this project as well as 280 District residents. I want to thank the joint-venture of Blue Skye Construction and Coakley & Williams Construction and I want to give a very special thank you for the work that you did with the Department of Employment Services [DOES] creating a job training program for this site. From your work, The Goodfellas work crew was created. This hard-working group of men lived at the preexisting shelter and chose to train and work alongside the DGS team to build the new shelter.”
CWC project team infront of the new mural at 801 Men’s Shelter. Left to right: Greg Harraka, Bill Simons, Doris Banks, Lynn Stith Bennett, Barbara Price, Joanne Sherwood, Judy Panbach, Bruce Rosenthal, Connor Groh and Pat McCrary.
Built with Intention
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser had high remarks about the new building:
“This [building] is the caliber of work that we expect and is very intentionally built. When you can build with intention you are more likely to get the results that you want.”
Congratulations to all partners on this project. We are proud to build the newest men’s shelter in our Washington, DC community.