2023 Golden Hammer Awards Nominations Now Open

Storefront for Community Design and Historic Richmond will partner for a seventh year to host the Golden Hammer Awards to recognize professionals and community members improving our neighborhoods.

Do you have a project that was completed after January 1, 2022? Application fees are $75 for businesses, $15 for nonprofits, and $10 for community member entries. Applications must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. on September 10, 2023.

Cyane Crump, Historic Richmond’s Executive Director noted, “Last year, the collective work of our nominees reflected innovative solutions to address contemporary issues, marking a year of progress towards a more vibrant Richmond with more housing, more food, more parks, more history and more education.  We can’t wait to see the creative projects submitted for 2023’s Golden Hammer Awards!”

Projects must be completed after January 1, 2022 and located in the greater Richmond area (City of Richmond, Counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico) to be considered for the categories of: Best Restoration, Best Adaptive Reuse, Best New Construction, Best Residential, and Best Placemaking & Urban Design.

"Year-round Richmond's historic places and community-created placemaking is celebrated by neighbors and visitors," said Shawn Balon, Executive Director, Storefront for Community Design. "We welcome grassroots community driven placemaking projects that have improved a neighborhood today and for generations to come.  We are excited and look forward to seeing the submissions this year!”

The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond. Historic Richmond and Storefront for Community Design will partner for a seventh year to host the awards program to recognize professionals and community members improving our neighborhoods through restoration, adaptive reuse, new construction, placemaking, and historic preservation.

Storefront Kicks Off Inaugural DesignRVA Celebration

Storefront for Community Design announced its inaugural DesignRVA celebration will take place on June 24 at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design. This year DesignRVA highlights the critical need in areas of health and wellness, land use, transportation, and housing. The event will initiate community ideas and focus conversation around the question, “How would YOU design a more equitable and fair Greater Richmond?” 

“The launch of our DesignRVA program is one way, we’re sharing the power of design with the Richmond community. We’re always excited to engage with people and demonstrate to them that they have the capacity to improve their neighborhoods as well as themselves. through design.”

— Bernard Harkless, Board Chair

DesignRVA is a one-of-a-kind free event that introduces children ages 8-14 to the design of our area, while informing them how their voices can be a part of the planning, creation, and improvement of the places where we live, work, and play. Storefront for Community Design invites families from across Greater Richmond to participate in this inaugural community day.

“This will be a unique, hands-on experience for the children that participate that they won’t be able to get anywhere else. We want to let Children’s ideas run wild in designing Richmond from the ground up, and there will be many activities planned for them.”

— Shawn Balon, Executive Director

Children and families will engage with volunteers from community-based organizations and design professions like architecture, engineering, urban planning, and construction to build elements of a neighborhood. Children will take their elements to a designated communal space, which will evolve throughout the day, and build a shared vision of a more equitably built environment for their community. A stamped event “passport” will serve as a unique event souvenir for participants. Food trucks and entertainment are also part of the day.

Top Blog Posts of 2022

This year has been a great one! We celebrated 10 years of impact, enhanced programming, brought on new team members and board members, created a new Advisory Council, hosted a fun Golden Hammer Awards, and built our strategic roadmap for the future. We are extremely grateful for what we have accomplished with our small team, Board of Directors, and community partners. Thank you for helping Storefront for Community Design inspire equitable community-driven design in the built environment.

We've got big things in store for 2023! Until then, we thought it would be fun to share the top read blog posts of 2022. It’s fun to see many of our stories and resources from past years resurface as we adapt to the changing landscape of our communities. Enjoy and have a Happy New Year!

Recapping the 2022 Golden Hammer Awards

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image: The Inaugural Teens’ Choice Award is presented to the Playground+ team.

Storefront for Community Design and Historic Richmond hosted the 2022 Golden Hammer Awards on October 27 at Hardywood Brewery. As Richmond-area non-profits with interests in historic preservation and neighborhood revitalization, we were delighted to co-present the awards for the sixth year and recognize professionals and community members improving our neighborhoods through restoration, adaptive reuse, new construction, placemaking, and historic preservation. The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond.

Our nominees completed projects in many of Richmond’s well known historic districts - Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Scotts Addition, Monroe Ward, Northside, Manchester, the East End, the Carillon, Monument Avenue and Downtown’s central business district – but this year we see, for the first time, projects focused on the revitalization of public housing and public investment in areas of South Richmond. The focus on the public housing projects developed in the city during the era of Urban Renewal contrasts with parallel efforts by private developers and county governments to revitalize suburban areas that were developed during a period of white flight from Richmond’s city center.

A church, a gas station, an early downtown “skyscraper,” a school, an Art Deco commercial storefront, a fraternity house, a 1970s shopping mall, the riverfront, and multiple iconic civic institutions - these unique and authentic elements of our historic built environment are now seeing new life thanks to the work of our nominees.

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The collective work of our nominees reflects innovative solutions to address contemporary issues, marking a year of progress towards a more vibrant and equitable Richmond with more housing, more education, more accessibility, and more places for people to just be themselves.

This year, we also introduced a new Teens’ Choice award voted on by Storefront for Community Design’s City Builders. As part of our youth program this fall, we met with participants to present the 12 winning projects and asked for their vote to pick the Teens’ Choice award. The City Builders even designed two awards that was presented to the winner.

photo credit: Magali deVulpillieres Photography

And the Golden Hammer Award goes to….

Categories included:

Best Adaptive Reuse:

• NOVA of Virginia Aquatics – 100 Nova Way

• Oakwood Arts – 3511 P Street

• RVA Kids First Collective – 100 Everett Street

Best New Construction:

• Small: Richmond’s Frist 3-D Printed Home – 217 Carnation Street

• Medium: The 2200 at Cary – 2200 West Cary Street

• Large: The Current – 21 East 4th Street

Best Placemaking and Urban Design:

• Brook and Marshall Placemaking Project

• Huguenot Flatwater Accessible Ramp – 8600 Southampton Road

• “Seed Award for Reimagining Public Housing” Playground+ - 1500 Harwood Street

Best Restoration:

• Historic Restoration in Poplar Lawn – 41 D’Arcy Street

Best Restoration – Community Institution Revitalization:

• Sarah Dooley Center for Autism – 8000 Brook Road

• YWCA Richmond – 6 North 5th Street

Teen’s Choice Award

• Playground+ - 1500 Harwood Street

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2022 Golden Hammer Event Program and Nominations

Check out all of the 2022 Golden Hammer nominees and winners in our event program here.

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Thank you to our 2022 Golden Hammer Awards Sponsors!

2022 Golden Hammer Awards Call for Submissions Now Open

Storefront for Community Design and Historic Richmond will partner for a sixth year to host the awards program to recognize professionals and community members improving our neighborhoods.

Do you have a project that was completed after January 1, 2021? Submit your project by September 12 at 11:59pm to be in the running for a Golden Hammer Award!

About the Golden Hammer Awards
The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond. This year's award event will take place on Thursday, October 27 from 6-8pm at Hardywood Richmond!

Categories include:

• Best Restoration: Includes restoration by a homeowner, contractor, or developer. Includes historic tax credit projects.

• Best Adaptive Reuse: Includes projects that were rehabilitated for a new use, multi-family residential, and historic tax credit projects welcome.

• Best New Construction: Includes neighborhood infill.

• Best Placemaking & Urban Design: Arts and culture projects, park and green-space projects, transportation and infrastructure projects, or other neighborhood enhancing features including large scale (i.e., parks, urban streetscapes, etc.) and small scale (i.e., community garden, grass roots programming, etc.).

• Best Residential: Single-family residential projects.

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Sponsorship Opportunities! 

Annual support for our organization, programming, projects, and events is critical. Interested in becoming a sponsor for the Golden Hammer Awards? Check out our sponsorship benefits and opportunities for more information.

Storefront Celebrates 10 Years with Exhibition

On May 6, under stormy skies, Storefront for Community Design hosted a block party at 205 E Broad Street and was honored to see so many supporters show up to celebrate! Guests enjoyed food truck fare, music, desserts, t-shirts, great conversations, and the unveiling of our 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact Exhibition. Thank you to Baskervill, our exhibition sponsor, along with our other event sponsors: Singlestone, Century Construction Company, Inc., Gilbane, Lynx Ventures, Timmons Group, Hanbury, and Anova.

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image: Monica Escamilla Photography

It has been amazing to see the impact that Storefront has made across Richmond. Thank you to the Founders of Storefront and VUCarts Middle of Broad (mOb) studio for taking your initial visions and evolving them over the last ten years. Richmonds is growing rapidly, and our work is now more important than ever. With a new strategic plan, we are poised to inspire equitable community-driven design and engage the next generation of designers.

If you were unable to make the block party celebration, don’t fret! The 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact exhibition will be up through September. Stop by during the next RVA First Friday to check it out. Also, we still have t-shirts for sale so get one while you can! Also, learn more by downloading the 10th Anniversary Celebration Event Program and check out the photos below highlighting a wonderful evening with friends of Storefront.

“It has been an incredible journey being part of Storefront for the past five years. Our city has changed dramatically during my time on the Board of Directors and especially over the past ten years, and the services that Storefront provides has been an integral component of this growth.”

— Bernard Harkless, Board Chair

In-Kind Sponsors:

• Keith Fabry Printing

• Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches

• Nonprofit Management Services

Additional Recognitions:

• 1 Smokery Pl. Food Truck

• 10th Anniversary Storefront volunteers

• Arley Cakes

• La Cocinita Food Truck

• Marketing volunteers: Katy Latimer, Maureen Neal, and Susan Sekerke

• Monica Escamilla Photography

• Studio of Jiyoon Cha (design of 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact Exhibition)

• The Eye of Life Band

• The Right Reverend L7

Save the Date for #storefrontcelebrates

We’re throwing a party and YOU are invited!

There will be food, music (inside and out), other First Friday happenings, and of course—let there be cake! Mark your calendar, you don't want to miss it. Do your friends a favor and share the invitation using #storefrontcelebrates so they can be part of the fun.

Join us for the festivities on May 6 from 5:30-9:00pm at 205 E. Broad Street.

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SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Thank you to our current 10th Anniversary sponsors! Your sponsorship is making a difference in our community. There's still time to become a sponsor. Click below for sponsorship benefits and opportunities.

Recapping the 2021 Golden Hammer Awards

credit: Magali Photos

Storefront for Community Design and Historic Richmond hosted the 2021 Golden Hammer Awards on October 28 at Hardywood Brewery. As Richmond-area non-profits with interests in historic preservation and neighborhood revitalization, we were delighted to co-present the awards for the fifth year and recognize professionals working in neighborhood revitalization, blight reduction, and historic preservation in the Richmond region.

The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond. For over 20 years, we have celebrated our nominees and award winners in person but in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we hosted a virtual announcement of the awards on our websites and through social media. It was great to be back in person this year to celebrate with so many friends, family, and colleagues!

This year, the collective work of our nominees reflected innovative solutions to address contemporary issues, marking progress towards a more vibrant and equitable Richmond. Thank you to all of our nominees, award attendees, and to our sponsors: Williams Mullen, Dunbar, SingleStone, Baskervill, and Thompson Consulting Engineers. We can't wait to see what you do next year!

credit: Magali Photos

credit: Magali Photos

credit: Magali Photos

And the Golden Hammer Award goes to…

Categories included:

Best Adaptive Reuse: Includes projects that were rehabilitated for a new use, multi-family residential and historic tax credit projects welcome.

• WINNER: Hatch Kitchen RVA at Clopton Siteworks

• WINNER: Cooperage II

Hybrid Award for Healthy and Sustainable Workspaces:

• WINNER: Collaborative Work Space/The Emerald Barn!

Hybrid Award for Urban Trends in Creativity and Collaboration:

• WINNER: Arts and Letters Creative Co.

Best New Construction: Includes neighborhood infill.

• WINNER: Bringing Families Home

Best Placemaking: Arts and culture projects, park and green-space projects, transportation and infrastructure projects, or other neighborhood enhancing features.

• WINNER: The JXN Project – Unveiling The Vanguard: A Virtual Experience

• WINNER: Low Line Green

• WINNER: Church Hill North and Kitchens at Reynolds

Best Residential: Single-family residential projects.

• WINNER: 805 Chimborazo Boulevard

• WINNER: Villacarillo Residence!

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2021 Golden Hammer Nominations

Check out all of the 2021 Golden Hammer nominees and winners here.

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Golden Hammer Awards 2019 are now OPEN!

2019 GOLDEN HAMMER AWARDS WELCOMES NOMINATIONS

Richmond, VA – June 4, 2019 – Historic Richmond + Storefront for Community Design will co-host the Golden Hammer Awards on Thursday, October 24, 2019 at the historic Monumental Church. Nomination information for the 2019 Golden Hammer Awards can be found at historicrichmond.com/2019-golden-hammer-awards. Applications must be submitted before 12:00 p.m. (Midnight) on September 8, 2019. The 2019 Golden Hammer Awards are sponsored by Quinn Evans and Atlantic Union Bank.

Historic Richmond Executive Director Cyane Crump said, “We are thrilled to celebrate the projects bringing new life to our historic built environment and the impact they have on our neighborhoods and community. The Golden Hammer Awards aligns with the mission and values of both Historic Richmond and Storefront for Community Design. We are excited to continue this partnership for the third year!”

Projects completed after January 1, 2018 located in the greater Richmond area (City of Richmond, counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico) will be considered for the categories of: Best Restoration, Best Adaptive Reuse, Best New Construction, Best Placemaking, and Best Residential.

“With over 30 submissions last year, and the high quality of work, craftsmanship, and the scale of the nominations, we were delighted to award 10 Golden Hammers!” said Ryan Rinn, Executive Director of Storefront for Community Design. “Teamwork and partnerships have always been critical to preservation and placemaking in Richmond and we look forward to another year of high quality submissions.”

Contact:
Katherine McDonald, (804) 643-7407
kmcdonald@historicrichmond.com
Ryan Rinn, (804) 322-9556
ryan@storefrontrichmond.org

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About the Golden Hammer Awards. The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects thought Greater Richmond. In 2018, 10 projects were awarded the coveted Golden Hammer Award designed by Richmond artist Jason Adkins. Winners included the Richmond Ballet, 1717 Innovation Center, Jefferson Green Condominiums, Monroe Park, the Institute for Contemporary Art, 125 N. 25th Street, 2013 & 2015 Venable Street, Holly Lawn, Main Street Station Train Shed, and Ellwood Thompson’s the Round Building.

About Storefront for Community Design. Storefront for Community Design is Richmond, Virginia’s nonprofit design resource center. Storefront improves the quality of life in the city by facilitating access to planning and design resources. Storefront matches professional designers who volunteer their time with members of the community to uncover Richmond’s urban potential. Visit storefrontrichmond.org, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @StorefrontRVA.

About Historic Richmond. Historic Richmond is a non-profit organization dedicated to shaping the future of Richmond by preserving our distinctive historic character, sparking revitalization and championing our past and future architectural legacy. We are champions of the past and passionate fans of its future. Visit HistoricRichmond.com, join us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram @historicRVA.

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Awards Ceremony

Thursday, October 24, 2019
Monumental Church
1224 E. Broad Street
Reception & Awards 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Veils of Ignorance: A Collection of Works 2004-2018

Burt Pinnock’s Veils of Ignorance: A Collection of Works 2004-2018 is on display this month at the Storefront for Community Design downtown at 205 E Broad Street, Richmond, VA.

On the one hand: Philosopher John Rawls purports that to develop a truly equitable social contract, we must imagine ourselves behind a veil of ignorance. We know nothing of ourselves, our natural abilities or position in society or sex or race or nationality. We only know that people are simply rational, free and moral. Now create a society.

On the other hand: In 1922, the monument of Booker T. Washington Lifting the Veil was dedicated in Tuskegee, Alabama, with an inscription that reads, “He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry.”

These projects from architect Burt Pinnock evoke the sentiment of the dropped veil while simultaneously exploring the possibilities that arise when that veil is ultimately lifted. Collectively, they strive, as Booker T. Washington did, to educate and reveal truths about our history and who we are in an effort to get us to John Rawls’ vision of designing a more equitable society. 

On the one hand…
But on the other.

Burt Pinnock, b. 1964, Tuskegee, Alabama
Burt Pinnock is an architect in Richmond whose work evokes the sentiment of the dropped veil while simultaneously exploring the possibilities that arise when that veil is ultimately lifted. Collectively, they strive, as Booker T. Washington did, to educate and reveal truths about our history and who we are in an effort to get us to John Rawl’s vision of designing a more equitable society.

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OPENING First Friday

November 2
from 6:30 to 8:30
205 E. Broad Street

Storefront for Community Design + MoB Studio