Virginia Tech design students to turn Dublin Middle School into affordable housing for seniors

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) - Virginia Tech students are making some positive changes In the New River Valley. They are working on transforming the currently-vacant Dublin Middle School into affordable housing for seniors.

Design students from Virginia Tech are working with the Town of Pulaski to restore the middle school that was built in the 1950s. Once renovated, the building will house up to 40 local senior citizens. Students and town officials met Wednesday to talk about design ideas and rental rates.

“Knowing where to put the walls, how to configure the floor plan, has been a challenge, but it’s been like a puzzle, and it’s been very fun and it’s very satisfying when you come out at the end and you have a floor plan you’re really happy with,” said Cassidy Stackpole, a design student.

One reason the students said Dublin was perfect for the project is there’s a lack of affordable housing impacting the New River Valley, which is something they want to help correct.

“To be able to give back to that specific demographic, knowing that living in southwest Virginia can be hard sometimes, just kind of really helpful in that aspect, you know, how we can help them,” said Dalton Hart, another design student.

Lisa Tucker teaches the class. She says revitalizing buildings like old schools not only preserves history but is more sustainable.

“These school buildings, what they’re finding as they’re consolidating around Virginia and other states. is they have all of these school buildings that are really expensive to tear down. They’re also in pretty good condition, oftentimes. It makes a natural place to gather the community and reuse the building. You know, they’re really well built, usually they’re built to last. They have nice big windows and huge spaces that make for nice one-bedroom apartments,” said Tucker.

She also mentioned she’s proud of her students and wants to see this project inspire other communities as well.

The students hope to have the finalized designed plans for the property by the end of this semester.

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