Courtyard Home Plans

Housing units a priority at Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood --With the addition of several ready-to-deploy units and a growing training load, housing has been a focus of much of the construction at Fort Leonard Wood.

One of the largest ongoing projects involves the gradual replacement of older, "rolling pin"-style basic training barracks with a more recent design.

Called "starship barracks" due to their self-contained design, the facilities combine sleeping quarters, classrooms and physical training space in the same complex.

Once complete, each "star base" complex will include five of the L-shaped barracks -- each can house a company of 240 trainees -- surrounding a central courtyard, plus a battalion headquarters, a dining hall and other shared facilities.

"We're actually going to build 10 of those on the installation," said Mark Premont, director of the fort's Plans, Analysis and Integration Office.

Four of five barracks buildings at one of the new complexes opened in November (another complex built in 2005 is used by the Military Police School). An additional complex is under construction and land has been cleared for a third, Premont said.

"We were gonna build one every two years, that was the plan," he said, but congressional funding will determine how quickly the work is done.

In the meantime, the older barracks remain in use, as do more than a dozen modular facilities erected to handle the increase from the 2007 Iraq War surge, Premont said.

More experienced soldiers and their families also are being treated to new digs as part of the fort's contract with a private management company.

Following the lead of several other Army facilities, Fort Leonard Wood privatized most of its on-post housing in 2004.

The company is responsible for maintaining and gradually replacing housing at the post. In return it receives the money the Army otherwise would allocate to pay soldiers' rent off-site.

Financial problems at the first company contracted with, Dallas-based American Eagle Communities, led to a delay in construction, Premont said. But almost 500 new family residences and several community centers have been built since Balfour Beatty Communities, based in London, England, bought out the contract in 2008.

cleviscora: housing plans and designs

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