Storefront Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Each year, Valentine’s Day reminds us to purposefully demonstrate love, care, and support for our families, friends, and communities. This year’s holiday also marks Storefront for Community Design’s 10th anniversary and we want to shout a huge THANK YOU for your support in making our first ten years a success.

Since the beginning, we set out to make design accessible to all “for the love of our city.” Through partnerships and community collaborations, we continue to discover new ways of seeking Richmond's physical and social transformation through design and community voice. After an incredible ten years, we remain humble, yet excited for the possibilities that lie ahead for our organization, partners, and neighbors.

Our Board of Directors, staff, and partners are excited to celebrate this milestone anniversary throughout the year, so stay tuned for ways to get involved. To kickstart our celebration, here’s a few ways you can show your support today.

• Donate to Storefront to support our next ten years

• Volunteer as a Session Designer

• Share our story with your network

Whether you’ve been with Storefront from the beginning or just a short time, we wanted to celebrate our anniversary with a look back over the last ten years. Enjoy the memories and accomplishments of our community and we look forward to making many more with you in the coming years. Now, it’s time to celebrate!

image: Timeline of Storefront Milestones

2009: The Beginning

Sometime in 2009, Storefront Founding member Burt Pinnock, FAIA, NOMA, received a call from Cynthia Newbille, 7th Voter District Council Representative. The Old and Historic District (O&HD) had been expanded in her district and she wanted to figure out how to bring design services to her constituents, many of whom lived below the poverty line. With the added design overlay of an O&HD, things like adding a ramp or replacing windows became that much more complicated for community members.

Soon after, he connected with others who were convinced that a city-wide design center was desperately needed. With a vote of confidence from the City Council, Storefront was founded on February 14, 2011 in the East End of Richmond on 25th Street. Additional founding Partners included community members, members of the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods, affordable housing developers, City of Richmond Planning and Economic Development departments, members from VCU’s Urban and Regional Planning program, and practicing architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and preservationists.

Storefront set out to make design accessible to all “for the love of our city” by providing pro bono design and planning assistance to support local businesses, residences, organizations, and neighborhoods. Think of Storefront as the architecture, design, and planning equivalent of legal aid for a free clinic. Our services would soon connect Richmonders to one another in a variety of ways, with the end goal of seeing an improved quality of life for all residents of the City of Richmond.

2011-2014

In 2011, Storefront’s programming included Community Workshops, Community Improvement Days, and Design Session. To this day, our Community Workshops and Design Sessions have been the lynchpin throughout our programming. Community workshops have facilitated public input and engagement offerings for neighborhood, civic, merchant, and friends’ associations throughout the city; Design Session has provided a pro bono design assistance program that offers one-on-one advise, sketches, and plans of action from volunteer design and planning professionals; and Community Improvement Days have created a way of gathering volunteers to add fresh coats of paint, plant trees and flowers, and pick-up trash in our neighborhoods. Since 2011, Storefront has completed over 300 Design Sessions, over 25 community engagement processes and workshops, and 10 design education series with an estimated value of services well over $300,000

In 2012, Storefront partnered with mOb studiO (short for “Middle of Broad”), an interdisciplinary, service-learning design lab consisting of three VCUarts design departments: fashion, graphic, and interior design. The studio provides the opportunity for up to 30 students to participate during the semester. After joining forces, we moved our office to the Art & Cultural District at 205 E. Broad Street creating a collaborative workspace with mOb studiO. Since our conjunction, we continue to administer our community design and civic advocacy programs from this space and open our doors every First Friday to showcase design, process, and community engagement work as part of the Arts & Cultural District’s Art Walk where more than 8,000 people have visited our storefront.

image: mOb studiO; Final poster project to educate community members on the benefits of a food forest

2014-2017

In July 2014, we were named “Best of Richmond” in the categories of Urban Planning and Community Development by Richmond Magazine. At that time, we also embarked in a three-year partnership with Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) and mOb studiO to co-create and destigmatize mental illness through our Recovery by Design program. After a successful first year, we received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to continue engaging in “making” with over 90 participants recovering from addiction, intellectual disabilities, and mental illness. Through pre- and post-interviews, we learned that participants showed improvements in sociability and expressed general excitement in skill building.

While our clients are Richmonders, we are part of a larger national movement of community design. In 2015, we hosted the Association for Community Design’s national conference, drawing more than 175 attendees from 18 major cities where we had the opportunity to talk with our national neighbors as well as our next door neighbors in the heart of Richmond’s Art & Cultural District.

In our early years, we began focusing on community organizing in Northside’s Highland Park neighborhood where we built on six years of engagement efforts as part of the Highland Park Quality of Life development and implementation plan. A major request of the quality of life planning process was to strengthen the neighborhood youth. With this in mind, Storefront led the idea of the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC), a teen serving, non-profit collaborative in Highland Park.

In 2016, Storefront received funding through the Robins Foundation Community Innovation Grant to open 6PIC in partnership with four non-profits including Art 180, Groundwork RVA, Saving Our Youth Virginia, and Untold RVA. After additional fundraising, design, and build-out of the space, 6PIC opened in June 2017 providing a resource and engagement outlet that serves an average of 20 youth per day while providing a space for Storefront’s presence in the Northside. Since opening, 6PIC continues to be an evolving partnership between Storefront, Groundwork RVA, Saving Our Youth Virginia, ART 180, Boaz & Ruth, Community 50/50, Untold RVA, the Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW), RVA Rapid Transit, Virginia LISC, Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC), the Highland park Quality of Life Team, and Richmond Public High School students.

image: Youth Innovation programming at Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC)

Since 2000, the Golden Hammer Awards have honored excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout greater Richmond. In 2017, the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods (ACORN) disbanded and Storefront (with the support from Better Housing Coalition) and Historic Richmond partnered to administer and co-host the Golden Hammer Awards and gearing up for our fifth year of successfully highlighting excellence in our communities.

2018-2020

In 2018, 6PIC partners completed a strategic planning and evaluation process to define how the layered, integrated services of multiple non-profits can overlap and intentionally improve equity and health in the community. This launched the City Builders program with support from Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and Capital One. The vision of City Builders realizes 6PIC’s mission of growing urban youth leaders and advances civic power for Northside residents through place-making projects and neighborhood-based skill building in program areas offered by 6PIC partners.

In 2019, Storefront and mOb studiO hosted a nationwide architecture and youth competition funded by the NEA Artworks to consider how to re-present the history and figures monumentalized on Monument Avenue. The competition, called Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion, asked participants to reconsider Monument Avenue through its role as a historic urban boulevard, its viability as a 5.4-mile interurban connector, its presence in Richmond given the city’s emergence as a diverse and progressive city, its significance in the history of the United States, and the debate about Confederate statues in public spaces. The exhibition of competition finalists opened on February 14, 2019 at the Valentine Museum.

image: Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion Exhibition at the Valentine Museum

In late fall 2019, Storefront’s Board of Directors and staff engaged in a workshop to help shape and guide the Strategic Planning process and the future of Storefront programming. Key partners and stakeholders throughout the community were involved to develop a plan that represented the transition from idea-rich conversations to a strategy that would strengthen the organization and hone our impact in the future. The Board for Directors and staff have used this document to begin program implementation and plan for future staffing and operations.

2021: Here’s to Ten More Years!

In early 2021, Storefront announced the selection of our new Executive Director and Center Director making this an ideal moment to reflect upon the progress we’ve made to assist in creating more equitable communities and establish a vision moving forward; an opportunity to discover how we can better align and advocate to the current needs of our communities and future development trends around the City of Richmond. Planning has begun on the following goals and we look forward to working with you to realize our vision in the coming years.

• Craft Storefront’s brand messaging to engage individuals unfamiliar with our purpose

• Build on the successes of our Design Session program by increasing opportunities for low-cost design assistance

• Develop an innovative community engagement methodology for Storefront programming and to share with community members

• Increase the Youth Innovation Studio through robust curriculum development and innovative design programming

• Develop new resources and toolkits to share with neighbors around the city

Let’s get to work!
Press Release

Richmond Magazine: Designs Within Reach

We recently got to share a few projects at mOb studio + Storefront for Community Design with Richmond Magazine and how it all got started. Full interview by Taylor Peterson published on Feb 7, 2020 below:

“There’s no doubt Richmond has changed over the past several years. From 2010 to 2018, the region’s population increased by 12%, ranking as the 44th most populous metropolitan area in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This increase has led to many exciting ventures, from new restaurants to renovated parks. As a city, how can we ensure that everyone reaps the benefits of our growth?

In 2011, Storefront for Community Design, a Richmond-based nonprofit design center, came into existence as an answer to some of these complex questions. Co-founder Burt Pinnock remembers conversations with planners, builders, educators and politicians who were interested in bringing an accessible design resource to Richmond.

“There are residential neighborhoods in historic districts where you have certain requirements to fix the home,” Pinnock explains. “These districts are in some of the more economically challenged communities, where they don’t have resources to hire architects ... to add a ramp to their house, for example.”

“Design provides a vision rather than a … volatile position.” —Camden Whitehead, co-founder, Mob Studio

In collaboration with community partners and volunteers, Storefront offers conceptual work, planning, landscaping, building and designing. The group strategically plans its outreach through affordable design assistance, youth empowerment and community advocacy. 

Block Blitz, Storefront’s recurring beautification effort, organizes volunteers and supplies to clean buildings and add plantings in communities such as Brookland Park, Spring Hill, Fulton Hill and Westhampton. However, the bulk of the organization’s projects stem from a program called Design Session, an affordable application-based design service. According to the program’s manager, Anya Shcherbakova, the services are available to all and not just those who can approach an architecture or design firm.

“Some people don’t know these resources exist,” Shcherbakova explains. “That’s where we come in, to support that knowledge and also learn from the community.”

One way Storefront bridges this gap is through its youth empowerment programs. In 2017, Storefront opened the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC) in Highland Park in collaboration with Saving Our Youth, Groundwork RVA, Community 50/50, I AM MY LIFE, Untold RVA and Art 180. With their name representative of a prominent six-point roundabout in the community, 6PIC uses a “City Builder Model” to empower young residents to facilitate change in their city.

The program doesn’t shy away from the tough issues the community faces. Recently, 6PIC collaborated with Saving Our Youth and RVA Eviction Lab to present projects about Richmond’s growing eviction rates. Richmond has the second highest eviction rate in the country at 11%, according to RVA Eviction Lab.

Participants have also partnered with GroundworkRVA, a nonprofit focusing on green construction and urban agriculture, to design and place trash cans in the neighborhood. Kim Gomez, resource mentor at 6PIC, says giving the youth more control over these projects has helped develop a sense of community ownership, which she hopes can inspire them to create a version of Richmond they can see themselves in.

“Youth have a little more of that energetic charge to make that change,” Gomez says. “Sometimes, as adults, we need that.”

At its Broad Street location, Storefront partners with VCU’s Middle of Broad (Mob) Studio, a class within the School of the Arts. Students in the course work directly with the community, taking on projects ranging from a design-build for Gilpin Court’s Community Farm to interactive recipe walls at the VCU Health Hub in Richmond’s East End. 

Most notably, Mob Studio and Storefront collaborated with The Valentine in a national design competition, “Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion,” to reimagine the statues on Monument Avenue. Four winners were awarded, and finalists had their work featured in a 10-month exhibition at The Valentine, which ended last December. 

Mob Studio also hosted a series of community forums to discuss proposals and ideas for Monument Avenue. For Camden Whitehead, associate professor at VCU and co-founder of Mob Studio, tackling this tough issue through the lens of design allowed a more productive conversation to take place.

“Design provides a vision rather than a ... volatile position,” Whitehead explains. “[When you] have 70 visions in front of people, they end up talking more about their vision and not that their grandfather fought in the Civil War.”

Aside from producing groundbreaking work, Storefront also recognizes the achievements of other designers, big and small, through the annual Golden Hammer Awards in partnership with Historic Richmond. Students from Mob Studio designed the trophy awarded to winners in renovations, green design and affordable housing.

“It’s hard to make things,” Whitehead says. “We want to recognize not only when people make them, but make them well.”

Having recently appointed new Executive Director André Taybron, Storefront is positioned to begin a new phase. Taybron says he is excited to lead Storefront as it continues to help improve the quality of life in Richmond through design and planning.”

FF at mOb + Storefront

jOin us this friday, february 1, from 6:30 to 8pm for the great rubber band airplane race!

students have cOnstructed their Own flyers which will cOmpete in this high stakes airbOurne challenge for the lauded title Of winged mObian !

205 e brOad street, richmOnd, va, 23219

6PIC turns 1!

6PIC's one year anniversary is June 6th! Come say Happy Birthday!
Join us on Wednesday, June 6th 5:30-8:00 for food, dancing, door prizes and 6PIC updates!

Can't meet us? There are still ways to support 6PIC and youth empowerment in Highland Park. Storefront for Community Design is celebrating 6PIC’s 1-year birthday by working to secure many more years of youth empowerment and community ownership in Highland Park.  
 
Join our 100x100 Challenge this June to raise funds for 6PIC’s operating costs (think: power, water, Internet + the amazing people that keep it running seamlessly every day).

It’s easy: be one of 100 people to give $100* to Storefront, so we can keep the 6PIC goodness flowing for years to come.
 
www.6picrva.org/donate/


*Any amount is much appreciated—we just like round numbers.  

6PIC Spring!

The Six Points Innovation Center's Spring programming has begun. Programming this semester includes Empowerment Hour, Green Team with GroundworkRVA, Lyrics and Beats, ArtStories, Multimedia Street Art, Blackademic in Residence, Design classes, Jobs for Life classes, and Higher Education Preparation and Assistance classes. There will also be various workshops and topics classes for teens in Highland Park who want to engage in arts, environment, advocacy, education & history. Six Points is also proud to launch the program, City Builders, which empowers youth to activism and understanding racism in city policy.

Learn more about 6PIC here and check out the spring calendar here.

Stonestreet Diamond Sign gets a facelift

The Stonestreet Diamond Sign at 209 East Broad Street is getting a updated with the help of the mOb Studio. Students in the studio worked individually to discover new material and surface treatments for acrylic. On Friday, they worked together in teams to layer the new faces of the sign with stenciled shapes and the building address. They carefully choreographed their movements around each other and the wet paint in order to shield overspray and avoid scuffing recently painted motifs.

mOb First Friday

Join us for the final First Friday exhibition of the semester at mOb this Friday, May 5th, from 6:30--8:30. Students will be showing off their final outcomes from projects including a new design plan for the south side of the T. Pott Memorial Bridge, some swag for the Richmond Volleyball Club, and some fantastic graphics from the newly formed mOb Press Club.

spring at mOb

What has been going on at mOb recently? Read on for a quick rundown of the activity at the studio this semester.

We started off the semester with a quick design competition amongst the students to redesign the Golden Hammer Award. The Golden Hammer Awards are a recognition of excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects in the Greater Richmond Area. Learn more about the awards next week. 

The students then began working in teams on 11 projects throughout the semester. 

Last Saturday, students headed to Greensville County to clean up the site of an old Rosenwald School, the Greensville County Training School. The interdisciplinary team of students has been working on an identity for the new space, a plan for its repurposing, and a series of brochures and on site graphics to raise awareness.

Another team of students is working with the Richmond Volleyball Club to make their graphics speak to a new, younger demographics. 

The Minority AIDS Support Services group is working to create a comfortable, discrete space in their offices in Hampton, VA, where community members can get tested for HIV and feel supported and comfortable around other clients the non-profit serves. They are exploring interior design solutions for a shared waiting room space. 

A team of students is working for another semester with Brooks Diner in Northside to redesign their exterior sign and offer solutions for a patio while yet another group of students is helping to redesign the look of the Afrikana Film Festival. A smaller, yet fastidious nonetheless, student team is working with the VCU Police downtown to design spatial solutions to make the entrance to new offices on Broad St more abiding and in turn, help them fulfill their mission of becoming better neighbors in downtown Richmond. 

Stay tuned for final solutions and mark your calendars for our First Friday opening next month!

FFF: mOb + the Golden Hammer Awards

Join us on Friday, February 3rd (6:30p to 8:30p) to check out our student designers' prototypes for the Golden Hammer Awards. The past two weeks, mOb students have been tasked with redesigning the award given out at the Golden Hammer Awards, hosted this year by Historic Richmond and Storefront. See you there!

mObjOb8 Round-Up

mObjOb8 ended on Friday with an exhibition, a bridge, and a poster from each of the six teams. The Middle of Broad students (mObians) each suited up for the evening after a long night of model-making. Solutions across the interstate included a hill and vaulted ceiling, housing to replace the housing demolished by the infrastructure, and an amphitheater complete with a goldfish.