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!”
Storefront Announces Search for New ED
Hello SFCD Community,
Over two years ago Shawn Balon took over as Executive Director of Storefront for Community Design (SFCD) and led us through a time of transition and growth. Under Shawn's leadership in 2022, SFCD announced a bold, new vision and a three-year strategic plan. Shawn guided the successful implementation of the plan’s first year with significant impact towards our mission to make design accessible for all who love our city of Richmond.
As is often the case with talented and accomplished individuals, however, their services are constantly in demand. It is with warm wishes and sad hearts we announce that as of May 26th, Shawn will no longer be with SFCD and will be transitioning to a new role at Timmons Group as Studio Director for the landscape architecture group in Richmond. Shawn has graciously agreed to support select projects during the transition, including DesignRVA in June.
As a board we’d like to thank Shawn for his commitment to SFCD and the Richmond community, and we wish him success in his new role.
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?”
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.
Storefront Launches Development of ‘Design Richmond’
Storefront for Community Design announced the launch of the development of Design Richmond: An interactive guide to exploring and shaping our city. The interactive guide and activity book will empower residents, specifically youth ages 13-18, to become active participants in the design of their communities. The comprehensive community-developed guide will also support the Richmond 300 Master Plan.
The success of similar guidebooks in Baltimore and Chicago were the inspiration for the book. Design Richmond will be organized into four chapters: Health and Wellness, Land Use, Transportation, and Housing. Each chapter will encourage residents to investigate the city’s past planning and design, discover current challenges, and design solutions.
Storefront kicked off the initial development of Design Richmond in fall 2022. In 2023, Storefront is collaborating with urban planning and design professionals, consultants, nonprofit partners, educators, interns, and youth to create the guidebook and launch it in 2024. The book will provide supplemental activities for middle school classrooms and nonprofit programs, an accessible resource for Richmond residents, and new curriculum for Storefront’s City Builders Design program.
Storefront Welcomes Spring Interns
Storefront for Community Design is excited to welcome spring semester interns to our team. As Design Education Interns, they will help us create the Design Richmond guidebook and coordinate our City Builders Design programming.
Welcome Natalie Díaz! Natalie is currently in the Master’s of Urban Planning program at VCU where she came to know Storefront for Community Design after meeting a staff member who was guest lecturing in her class. After eight years of teaching Spanish, Natalie was ready for change and decided to go back to school. As Design Education Intern, Natalie is collaborating with our team and stakeholders on the creation of the Design Richmond activity book and will lends a hand to the City Builders program.
Welcome Nyka Belotti! Nyka is a two spirit man studying sculpture at VCUarts. He has been an advocate almost all his life and strives to give a voice to the voiceless. As Design Education Intern, Nyka is collaborating with our City Builders Design program as an educator and collaborates to give youth the confidence and tools to change their own city!
Five Ways to Get Involved in 2023
Are you looking for ways to get involved at Storefront for Community Design in 2023? Check out the following opportunities and consider supporting us in 2023.
VOLUNTEER FOR UPCOMING COMMUNITY VISIONING EVENTS
We are seeking residents and professionals who are passionate about community voice, equitable design, and collaborative partnerships to volunteer at upcoming community events for the Jackson Ward Community Plan. The next community event will be held on February 11.
BECOME A DESIGN MENTOR
We are looking for two qualified design professionals to join our City Builders Design 12-week program in spring 2023. Design mentors will receive a stipend for participation along with the reward of developing the next generation of designers. Learn more and apply by January 13.
Top Blog Posts of 2022
This year has been a great one! We brought on new team members and board members, created a new Advisory Council, enhanced programming, 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 great to see many of our posts and resources from past years resurface with the changing landscape of our city. Enjoy and have a Happy New Year!
Storefront Launches Roadmap for 3-year Plan
In May 2022, Storefront for Community Design announced a bold, new vision and a three-year strategic plan. We will firmly focus on transforming our low-cost design and planning assistance programs and expanding our design education programs to inspire community-driven design in the built environment.
This is a living, breathing plan that we will continue revisiting over the months and years ahead. Since kickstarting our plan in July, we've been building an intentional roadmap that prioritizes actions and creates measurable goals. We are excited to share it and begin collaborating with you as we continue to realize our vision.
Storefront Recognized with AIA Virginia's Highest Honor
Storefront for Community Design received the American Institute of Architects Virginia (AIA Virginia) Chapter’s Architecture Medal for Virginia Service at the Visions for Architecture celebration on November 4 at the VMFA. The award is the highest honor that AIA Virginia hands out and recognizes an individual or organization that makes an “unusually significant contribution” to Virginia’s built environment, or awareness of the built environment.
In a letter to Storefront informing them of the award, AIA Virginia noted they wanted to recognize Storefront for its influence and contributions to uplifting underserved populations through the power of design. “AIA Virginia is delighted to honor Richmond’s Storefront for Community Design,” said Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, Interim Executive Vice President at AIA Virginia. “Since 2011, Storefront has been a stalwart non-profit design hub that seeks to make design programs and resources accessible to all. Leveraging their large network of volunteers, they have prioritized equitable growth, benefiting Richmond and the broader metropolitan area.”
Since 2011, Storefront has convened over 370 low-cost design and planning assistance projects and over 20 design education initiatives to community members, businesses, nonprofit organizations, local governments, schools, and neighborhoods. Last year, Storefront celebrated 10 years of community impact and recently launched a new strategic plan that will focus on more community-driven design. The organization plans to serve over 200,000 residents in Richmond through community design over the next three years.
Recapping the 2022 Golden Hammer Awards
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.