The Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA) and its partner companies cooperated to assist in the design and construction of a welcome center in Germantown, Md., for Boyds, Md.-based Warrior Canine Connection’s Healing Quarters. The 400-square-foot welcome center was completed in July 2016. The Healing Quarters is located on 80 acres of Maryland’s parkland 20 miles from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Larry Williams, executive director at SFIA, said his organization is honored to have a role in helping the Warrior Canine Connection further its goal to create the facility. “As we build this new Welcome Center together, we also take major step toward rebuilding the lives of more Veterans and their families,” he said.
SFIA met at the site in June with a team of construction experts from its membership and a group of veterans to begin constructing a 20-foot by 20-foot steel frame structure for the welcome center. The center will serve as the first stop for visitors to Healing Quarters and function as a central facility for meetings, media presentations and similar events. Corporate partners assisting in the construction and design of the facility include Aegis Metal Framing, Allied Distributors, All-Span Inc., ClarkDietrich Building Systems and Simpson Strong-Tie Co.
Rick Yount, executive director at Warrior Canine Connection, said his organization’s mission is to bring healing to those who gave so much to the U.S. would not be possible without partnership with organizations including SFIA and its members. “We are grateful to SFIA and our other supporters for their work in helping us to create a new facility to accommodate the important breeding and training necessary to expand the program to more of the 446,000 Veterans affected by [posttraumatic stress disorder] and [traumatic brain injury],” he said.
Warrior Canine Connection estimated Healing Quarters and additional program locations will allow the organization to serve more than 48,000 veterans and active duty service members by 2025 when the multi-year renovation and construction project is completed. The facility will provide breeding, training, mission-based trauma recovery services, career training and expansion of animal-assisted therapies and forms of integrative medicine including equine-assisted therapy, creative arts therapy, therapeutic farming and gardening.
Yount said the steel used in the welcome center is more than a building material. “It is a fitting symbol of the enduring strength and resolve of the warriors who have risked everything to come to the aid of their country, and of those who now come to the aid of those veterans and service members,” he said.
Owner/general contractor: Warrior Canine Connection, Brookeville, Md.
Engineers: Matsen Ford Design, Waukesha, Wis., and Steel Framing Industry Association, Waukesha
Steel stud and track: ClarkDietrich Building Systems, West Chester, Ohio
Truss system and design: Aegis Metal Framing, Chesterfield, Mo.
Truss fabrication: All-Span Inc., Bridgeville, Del.
Truss installation: Construction Specialties Inc., Zeeland, Mich.
Hold-downs: Simpson Strong-Tie Co., Pleasanton, Calif.