Jesse Taylor Veterans Center

RiverRock Engineering provided site-civil engineering and site design services, pro bono, for the Jesse Taylor Veterans Center — a new home for Vets Helping Vets Anderson at 1856 Bleckley Street in Anderson, SC. The center gives local veterans a permanent place to gather, connect, and find support, and it was built by a team of local firms who donated their time and talents to serve those who served.

The need traces back to 2014, when the local VA clinic in Anderson closed the counseling program a group of veterans relied on. Rather than let their support network disappear, fourteen of them kept meeting — and made a decision that still defines the group today: every honorably discharged veteran is welcome, regardless of rank, branch, or background. Vets Helping Vets Anderson is now 170 to 180 strong, representing service from World War II through Iraq and Afghanistan, and it lives by its name. Members maintain yards for aging and disabled veterans, build access ramps, run errands, staff honor guards at veterans' funerals, and step in wherever a fellow veteran needs a hand. For years the group met wherever it could find room. The Jesse Taylor Veterans Center gives that mission a permanent home.

The finished 4,500 SF center is built for community. Inside, a large meeting hall hosts weekly gatherings, classes, and workshops beneath a "Welcome Home" flag; Doris's Kitchen keeps the coffee on and the meals coming; and the Master Gunnery Sgt. Joe Walter's USMC Library lines the walls with books. Outside, the American, South Carolina, and POW/MIA flags fly over a new flag plaza. RiverRock's role was to make the site work for the people it serves — with room to gather, room to grow, and accessible parking and routes so every veteran can reach the front door with ease.

About the Project

Our contributions

RiverRock Engineering provided the site-civil engineering and site design for the Jesse Taylor Veterans Center. Our scope included the overall site plan and layout, more than 150 parking spaces across two lots — enough to hold the 170 to 180 veterans who gather every week — and numerous ADA-compliant accessible parking spaces served by accessible routes connecting the parking to the building — so that every veteran, including those with mobility needs, can reach the center safely and easily. We designed the vehicular circulation and site access, and coordinated the grading and site improvements that tie the building, parking, and flag plaza together into one welcoming campus.

What the process looked like

The Jesse Taylor Veterans Center was a community effort from the very start. RiverRock worked alongside Vets Helping Vets Anderson and a team of local partners — including Studio Main (landscape architecture), Pan Carolina Engineering, V Ballard Consulting, Jimmy L. Davis Construction, and Anderson Grading and Trenching — to carry the project from groundbreaking to a finished, fully furnished center. We built the site plan around the way veterans would actually use the space, prioritizing accessible parking and routes, easy circulation, and room to grow, then carried the civil design through approval and construction. Seeing the flags raised, the doors open, and veterans already gathering inside was the best kind of project outcome — and exactly why we were glad to be part of it.

Gallery

A closer look at Jesse Taylor Veterans Center