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Selected work · Design responses

What the city asked for — and what we designed.

These are proposals and design concepts, not finished buildings. They're the clearest proof of how we work: real responses to what a community actually needs.

We don't lead with a track record we're still building. We lead with fit and follow-through — and the surest way to show it is what we actually put on the table when a city opens a site. Here's how we think.

Proposal · 63rd & Ashland RFP · Chicago, 16th Ward

Ashland Nexus

West Englewood, Chicago — a new engine for the 16th Ward

What the city asked for

Chicago's RFP for the 63rd & Ashland site sought a transit-oriented redevelopment that would bring housing, jobs, and daily life back to the 16th Ward — built around public infrastructure, with real affordability and genuine local economic benefit.

What we designed

  • 162 homes, 65 (40%) permanently affordable — a real mix for young professionals, families, single parents, and seniors.
  • Trauma-informed architecture — open, safe, healing spaces, not cramped and dark.
  • Modular construction (with Volumetric Building Companies) so Ashland Avenue isn't closed for two years — less noise and dust, faster occupancy.
  • "Space equity" — Ori Living robotic furniture giving smaller units ~200 sq ft of extra usable space at no extra rent.
  • The "Ashland Underline" — a covered plaza for local food trucks and entrepreneurs — plus a rooftop SkyDeck.
  • Economic inclusion — a 30% MBE / 10% WBE participation floor and local hiring for the permanent operations and building-engineering careers.
  • Zero displacement, with a capital stack stress-tested by SB Friedman before we walked in the door.
Ashland Nexus design concept rendering
Design concept — Ashland Nexus, our proposal for 63rd & Ashland (rendering).
Ashland Nexus interior unit with Ori Living furniture
Inside a unit — Ori Living robotic furniture gives smaller homes ~200 sq ft of extra usable space.
The SkyDeck and food-truck plaza were designed by our Urban Architecture Fellows — meet the Fellowship →
Design concept · Jackson Ward, Richmond, VA · illustrative

Jackson Ward Urban Renaissance

Richmond, Virginia — restoring a historic, historically redlined neighborhood

What the city asked for

Richmond's city-led RFP sought to restore investment to Jackson Ward — a culturally rich, historically redlined district — across publicly controlled parcels, while preserving the neighborhood's character and the people already there.

What we designed

A mixed-use urban block on 3.4 acres blending affordable and workforce housing, small-format commercial, artist studios, and public gathering space with mural walls. The plan was shaped by 120+ community conversations that prioritized preserving history, affordable ownership, and cultural space — leading to a permanent mural commission, live-work units for local creatives, and a community-equity model in the ground-floor food retail. Held long-term, not flipped.

An illustrative concept. Jackson Ward is a target community for us and this is a design concept that shows our approach to a site like it — not a submitted or awarded project.
These are proposals and design concepts that demonstrate how we work. They are not completed developments, and nothing here claims a project has been built or awarded. Nothing on this page is an offer of, or solicitation for, any investment.
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