Paralyzed Veterans has awarded the 2014 Barrier-Free America Award to the Ed Roberts Campus

Post Date: October 9, 2014
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WASHINGTON, DC 10/2014 – Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) has awarded the 2014 Barrier-Free America Award to the Ed Roberts Campus, for accessible architectural design demonstrating the importance of equal access in the built environment for all individuals who have a disability. The award was presented to this year’s recipient at Paralyzed Veterans’ 2014 Mission: ABLE Awards Gala, held last night.

Susan Henderson, Board President, Ed Roberts Campus, and President of the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), was on hand to accept the award, along with William Leddy, Principal Architect from Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, and Caleb Dardick, Project Manager, CDA Strategies who were also honored for their design work.

“Receiving the Barrier-Free America Award from Paralyzed Veterans is especially gratifying for the Ed Roberts Campus and DREDF,” said Henderson. “This award acknowledging the universal design and beauty of our building has special significance because it comes from PVA, a fellow advocacy organization that we have worked with for decades to ensure equal access, equal opportunity, and independence for veterans and all people with disabilities.”

The Ed Roberts Campus, located in Berkeley, CA, is named after the late Ed Roberts who, throughout his distinguished career, led the movement in California to bring individuals with disabilities into the mainstream of society.

The 82,000-square-foot building sits atop a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station and houses several organizations that serve people with disabilities. A major goal of this campus was to build a noninstitutional barrier-free building that would eliminate the need for exterior ramps for accessibility.

“The Barrier-Free America Award is all about honoring projects, and the people behind those projects, who go above and beyond basic wheelchair accessibility to a high level of ‘inclusive’ design for all people,” said Mark Goeller, associate director of architecture services for Paralyzed Veterans of America. “The Ed Roberts Campus exceeds existing accessibility codes and demonstrates how accessible design can disappear through seamless integration.”

The Barrier-Free America Award, established in 2001, honors and promotes leadership, innovation and action in the architectural, design and construction communities for advancing accessibility—an advancement that improves the quality of life for everyone. Through their work, architects, designers, developers and other key decision-makers can play an extremely important role in removing the barriers that people with disabilities face everywhere, every day. Previous recipients of the award have included architects, business people, philanthropists and television personalities.