Richmond shares conceptual renderings from 4 finalists for City Center development project

Marvel and the Richmond Community Development Partners are one of four finalists selected for the Richmond City Center project. Their proposal provides downtown Richmond with new mixed-use, mixed-income city square - a focal point for residents and visitors to experience together.

Responding to the rhythm and texture of the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood, Marvel’s design of the Convention Center Hotel and street level podium break from the fabric of urban renewal that it seeks to replace. The result of this collaborative and locally designed proposal is one that weaves sustainability throughout, prioritizing walkability as well as incorporating sustainable design and building practices from the onset. As a cornerstone for Downtown Richmond, Marvel hopes to complement the history of the district, enabling opportunities for hospitality, commercial and residential assets.

Learn more about the project here!

Follow Marvel on IG.

Desiree V Cooper Memorial Scholarship
Helping to increase the number of licensed African-American, women, and people of color architects.

Reminder: Scholarship apps due April 30

The Desiree V. Cooper (DVC) Memorial Scholarship Foundation celebrates the life and legacy of Desiree V. Cooper by championing the things she was passionate about in her professional career and personal endeavors: providing continual service to her communities and encouraging minorities and women in the advancement of their careers in architecture.

The Foundation is pleased to accept applications for the 2023 DVC Scholarships: The Black Women in Architecture Award, The Harrisburg Memorial Award, The DC Memorial Award, and the NOMA Award.

All awards will be for the full cost of the ARE exams.

Applications are due Apr 30.

In an interview with Jason Hartman, Esther Sperber of Studio ST Architects shares five things you need to create a highly successful career in architecture and so much more.

To highlight from the article, here are Esther’s Five Things:

1. Love architecture — You need to love buildings and get excited about the beauty of stone or the smell of wet poured concrete.

2. Love people — In my opinion, you cannot create good architecture if you do not enjoy people. Buildings are designed to be inhabited and I love imagining how people would use the spaces we create. It used to be common to photograph buildings without any people in them. In recent years we have started photographing our work, especially public buildings, with people in them. I feel that this gives a better sense of what we are trying to accomplish.

3. Love your staff — Like other service professions, we are only as good as our team. Architecture cannot be created alone, and I am fortunate to have a great team at my office. We share ideas, suggestions and bring our own strength to the team.

4. Love running a business — When I started my firm, I did not know much about running a business, tracking costs and projecting profits. Over the past two decades I have learned from friends, colleagues, YouTube and coaches. I enjoy the task of running my business and making sure we are financially stable alongside the creativity of the design process. My work week is incredibly varied. I spend a few hours sketching a new design on trace paper, putting together a fee proposal and spreadsheet schedule for our team, learning about a new product, putting on my work boots to visit the concrete foundation work on a multifamily building, selecting stone for a countertop and giving a lecture to students about the architecture of synagogues. What could be more exciting?

5. Love a new challenge — When you are an architect there is always more to learn than one person can handle. We need to be able to learn from others, ask the right questions and have good intuition about mechanical systems, structure, sustainability and city codes. But there will always be something new that we have not encountered, and a good architect needs to not be intimidated by this, but rather find these new challenges exciting.

Right on, Esther! These are a great five.

Don’t miss out on the other gems Esther shares in the complete interview published here.

We are thrilled to share the news of an exciting project underway, co-lead by MWA Founder Nancy Kleppel! For nearly 5 years Nancy has been working on her first real estate development project as a co-founder of the ownership group, Live|Give|Play. The project, a 70-unit mass timber, Passive House rental apartment building in Northampton, MA, is through design development and entering the construction documents phase, planning for a spring 2023 groundbreaking.

Live|Give|Play was founded to transform how older Americans live with new buildings in walkable connected communities.

The challenge:

·      40 million baby boomers will turn 65 between now and 2030

·      30 million of them cannot afford to age in place due to insufficient post-retirement financial resources

The L|G|P solution:

·   Apartments in walkable neighborhoods of small cities

 ·  More vibrant lifestyles, lower costs, and greater sense of purpose than car-centric suburbs

The Live|Give|Play mission as carried out in the Northampton, MA development project concept has been lauded as a sustainable solution to a housing crisis for baby boomers by a number of publications, including Treehugger in this recent article, titled This Mass Timber Passivhaus Rental Building Is Perfect for Active Adults.

BKSK

With her strong professional background as a trained architect, with deep experience in business development, marketing and operations consulting, Nancy serves as serves as LGP’s architectural and design interface. In this role she recommended the architect for the project, BKSK Architects*, and has advised on team members and project participants throughout. As a project owner and sponsor Nancy participates in all design meetings and provides diverse advisory, moving the project forward on all fronts alongside partners David Fox and Patrick McDarrah.

At present L|G|P is pursuing equity investors and construction funding, learning about the twists and turns of the global economy along the way.

As Nancy says, “A career can take you to unexpected places where the thread connecting everywhere you’ve been to where you are currently going becomes apparent. Along the way you tie up all loose ends, bringing the pieces together, culminating in your life’s work. The feeling of pride and accomplishment and deep respect for all the people who played roles along the way is satisfying, humbling and awesome!”

*BKSK Partner, Julie Nelson will lead an MWA seminar alongside Nina Kinoti-Metz in January.