NJIT's Rima Taher Works with Habitat for Humanity to Save a Veterans Memorial Hall in Passaic, NJ

Rima Taher, Senior University Lecturer at the Hillier College of Architecture & Design at NJIT, is working with Habitat for Humanity on a project in Passaic, NJ to rebuild Albert Lawson Memorial Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, which was deemed unsafe and forced to close in December of 2019.

The new building will house the reimagined and reconstructed Albert Lawson VFW Hall on the ground floor, and affordable residential units for veterans on the second floor. The groundbreaking ceremony was headlined by Hector Lora, Mayor of the City of Passaic and the construction is already underway.

The project costs about $2 million. The City of Passaic, the local VFW post, and Habitat for Humanity partnered to construct the apartments above the building. Volunteers from the community and Habitat for Humanity, as well as future residents will help build the homes.

The CEO of Paterson Habitat for Humanity, Scott Millard, thinks that this project can become a model on how to save VFW halls in New Jersey and around the country. It provides housing for veterans and potentially it could become a lifeline to the country's Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts. The project was presented at the national Habitat for Humanity conference back in April of 2022 in Atlanta.

Taher is a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey and practices as a civil/structural engineer with her own consulting firm “Taher Engineering LLC”. The architect is David O’Neil from the architecture firm of Chen O’Neil in New York. O’Neil has a long experience working on affordable housing projects. For more information about Paterson Habitat for Humanity please visit: patersonhabitat.org.