The Franklinton area of Columbus ranks as a community with one of the lowest household median incomes and highest poverty rates in the country. The degrading physical and socio-economic health of the district represents some of the greatest challenges within the region. This proposal developed a strategy for replacing vacant lots with affordable, prideful housing that responds to the need for retaining young leaders within the community who will lead the under-served population in the future. The residences envisioned develop an open floor plan for group gatherings, provide individual bedrooms with en suite baths, and contribute to a street pattern and form that is familiar, and identifiable. It is estimated that construction costs, including land and site development can provide a prideful, energy efficient residence for less than $100/sf. 

This neighborhood prototype attempts to set parameters for the development of an Ohio sub-urban green-field site. Residences are arranged in an orderly manner on open spaces that connect to a series of community buildings and parks (pavilions, a central meeting house, chapel, fitness and pool area, community gardens, orchards, active play zones...) that are linked to pedestrian ways to celebrate an urban scale while responding to an agricultural context of surrounding ownership. 

The work meets typical developer driven objectives of density, and simultaneously integrates municipal objectives for linking the pattern of development to existing village densities. Integration of sustainable water quality measures, and promoting organic food education, to highlight health and wellness as a part of the neighborhood, have been goals for the prototype development. 

Killbuck, Ohio embodies the socio-economic decline suffered by many towns in the Rustbelt areas of Ohio. As manufacturing was outsourced to second world markets, factories closed, the local economy diminished, folks moved on, and the town deconstructed. Crow Works is an Ohio company that sells products sourced and made in Ohio. Located in Killbuck, the ownership fondly refers to their region as the place where "the Rustbelt meets the Grainbelt".

This proposal established a planning and visioning solution for the redevelopment of a shuttered shoe factory. 

The scheme for the 90-acre site develops a strategy for restoring ecological and human environments. Sustainable initiatives in water quality management, reforestation, native prairie restoration, organic and permaculture food production, as well as the dynamic integration of the physical manufacturing process to maximize human and environmental potentials is central to the scheme. Linkages to the current town with roadway connections, pedestrian paths, and land use modifications are envisioned. 

This mixed-use infill project was undertaken to catalyze redevelopment along a new bikeway that connects an urban district to the French Quarter in New Orleans. The Greenway Bikeway attempts to promote alternative modes of transportation for area residents. Our work set aesthetic goals for the building frontage along the Greenway to integrate into the contextual surrounding, and to orient dynamic uses of the Greenway. An office housing the Greenway's non-profit organization, a bike shop, the residential community's clubhouse, gym, and leasing offices are designed to position along the dedicated bikeway as typical of an orientation to public streets. 

Complimenting signage and graphics designed for the new neighborhood work to reinforce and catalyze the Greenway as a defining piece of infrastructure for the district. 

Statistically, Ohio has some of the most disturbing metrics in the country with regard to the number of girls caught in human-trafficking. In Central Ohio a new facility for Gracehaven is being imagined where security, counseling, and restoration can combat the prevalent threats to this segment of an underserved population. Strategic analyses with constituents of the ground-breaking existing facility, are setting programming directives and goals for a future campus. The design process has developed a campus that supports individual residences arranged in clusters supported by a Central "commons". 

Lancaster Ohio

Lancaster, Ohio is a ‘poster-city’ for the declining mid-western town. Rockmill Brewery is a shining light in a community that has seen industry shutter and witnessed a common exodus of the best and brightest to better opportunities in more vital urban areas elsewhere.

Thankfully, owner/founder Matthew Barbee returned home to Lancaster from Los Angeles in the midst of a successful career to more-or-less ‘save the family farm’. His exposure in California to the culinary and wine scene awoke his gifted palette. His ability to discern subtleties in wine drew him to investigate brewing deliberately with the pure water emanating out of the sandstone on the family farm. Science confirmed intuition-the prehistoric water source used by indigenous people for millennia matched the profiles of the top Belgian breweries.

Fast forward, the work of Matthew, his family and team have brought regional awareness of their work with the Lancaster, Ohio product to cities like Chicago, New York, and from national publications like Men’s Health. The setting, the brewery, the brand have emerged to highlight something vital that is to be appreciated and valued. Here creativity and diligence spawns hope.

Our team assisted with master planning and visioning, We came alongside the team at Rockmill Brewery to assist in programming, acquisition evaluation, securing entitlements, and architecture, The design works provided by us assisted in illustrating a vision that facilitated jurisdictional approvals and supported financing objectives.