Storefront for Community Design

Posted by: Jonathan – Jun 23, 2011

The Storefront for Community Design is a resource for local businesses and homeowners who are seeking inexpensive help with architectural and sustainability planning, tax incentives, and city codes.

A recent addition to Church Hill, the Storefront plans to serve the city of Richmond. Whether you need consulting for your business, home, or community, the organization wants to help.

The tagline proclaims, “For the love of our city!”

Video & article produced by Alix Bryan (vimeo) for Pergula, a community news portal founded by Floricane to support the growth of business and community in Richmond and beyond. Click here to find out more.

The intent is to provide free and discounted access to planning and architectural services that usually run on average from $80-$125 an hour. The roster of talent on board is vast, and represents Richmond public and private resources. Project consultations are free for the first hour, and after that a sliding scale is used to determine the rest of payment.

So far citizens have accessed the Storefront for advice on a variety of projects like landscaping, bakery shop, memorial park, and re-design of a school dormant for 10 years. The Storefront relies heavily on volunteers and just wants to make sure that Richmond city has access to affordable, quality design and planning resources.

The hope is that by making extraordinary talent available for cheap, citizens will participate more in the design process of their city. Read the entire story here.