Our Firmwide Pro Bono Design Initiative Since its founding, LS3P has been committed to pro bono work for a broad range of community partners, including over 25 pro bono projects in the last two years. These projects have ranged in scale from a small signage plan to a conceptual design for a large affordable housing development; each project is important to the organizations in need of design assistance to further their missions. The firm has pledged to donate up to 1% of its design hours to in-kind donations of design services. 2020 Project List St. John Cemetery Summerville Baptist Church Playground Uganda Women’s and Children’s Clinic Cainhoy Reading Rooms Coastal Community Foundation signage Burkina Faso Covid Hospital Windwood Farms Cape Fear Habitat Vigilant Hope Roasting My Sister’s House Rowan Outdoor Classrooms Wilmington Parklet Miracle Hill Ministries 2021 Project List Tanzania Hostel Miracle Hill Overcomers Gazebo & Amphitheater Restoration Village – Jumpstart Minis Sterling School Outdoor Classroom United Ministries Master Plan Missing Middle Prototype The Wilmington Journal US Colored Troops Sculpture Install Eden Village Passage Home Affordable Housing Teen Housing Connection Hornets + Grier Heights Community Center 2022 Project List Edisto Recreation Center CARES Framework and Health Equity Carolina Theatre of Greensboro (CA Services) City of Charleston Hope Center Star Gospel Mission CCSD Teacher Housing Whiteville Tiny Homes Community 2023 Project List Kids Making It First Tee Triangle MUSC Hollings Cancer Center Urban Ministry Pathways Center BackPack Beginnings Graphic Design Eden Village Community Outreach With the pending completion of Eden Village, a Design In Kind program project, our Wilmington office headed up a holiday campaign around the timely closeout, by all chipping in to stock a new tiny home for a homeless man and his dog whom we occasionally see on the streets. Necessity items from toiletries to kitchen utensils to essentials and warm items were collected and organized into storage containers labeled with the appropriate contents. Read more HERE. Passage Home Affordable Housing Raleigh’s Passage Home is committed to creating solutions to this problem. The nonprofit has a mission to “break the cycle of poverty and create multi-generational self-sufficiency for the individuals and families of Wake County by helping them achieve housing and income security,” and providing access to affordable housing is a key part of its strategy. LS3P was eager to participate in this effort, and undertook this housing equality challenge as part of the firm’s 1+ commitment to donate 1% of staff hours to pro bono work. The designers enlisted the Raleigh Planning Department and a pro-bono team of civil, landscape, arborist, and modular building consultants to contribute multidisciplinary expertise, and the process started with listening. Read More HERE. Uganda Women’s and Children’s Clinic This medical campus in rural Uganda will provide lab spaces, maternity wards, patient rooms, emergency services, optometry, dental, doctor housing, and a physician training center targeting maternal and infant care. A chapel anchors the patient care buildings which cascade down the site, with interstitial spaces programmed to facilitate connection and wellness. The use of local materials and typologies creates an architecture that is uniquely African and deeply rooted in place, community, and making; passive solar design strategies such as a floating roof, solar chimneys, and strategic dogtrots will allow the net-zero equatorial campus to function without HVAC. Read More HERE. RECOGNITIONS: 2021 Progressive Architecture Award; 2020 AIA North Carolina Merit Award, Unbuilt Category; 2020 AIA Wilmington Citation, Unbuilt Category; AIA Wilmington Design Award Cainhoy Elementary Reading Room The Rotary Club of Daniel Island is “a service and fellowship organization focused on building better communities and changing lives.” The Club wanted to help local students at Cainhoy Elementary School get excited about reading, and came to LS3P for help designing a Reading Room. The team identified and surveyed an unused classroom, and LS3P’s Charleston office held a design charrette to generate ideas for a kid-friendly design that would complement an existing jungle mural on the wall. The designers created several concepts and enlisted several product reps who are willing to provide free or low-cost furnishings to bring the room to life. The project is currently in the design phase. My Sister’s House A safe and affordable home is essential for human survival and dignity. Upon release from prison, women identify housing as one of their most urgent needs in order to successfully re-enter their communities. Individuals with past incarceration records face significant barriers to housing access and are at greater risk for homelessness due to stigmatization, policies barring them from most federal housing assistance programs, and the challenges of finding employment due to their criminal records. My Sister’s House, owned and operated by Tried By Fire Inc. in New Bern, NC, will create a stable, secure, and supportive home for women during the first 30 to 90 days after incarceration. The organization is transforming a donated house in need of extensive renovation into a warm, welcoming place for transition. LS3P is assisting with a range of services including code studies, construction documents, interior design, and hands-on volunteer work during a series of workdays. Rowan-Salisbury School Outdoor Classrooms School systems around the country are seeking creative solutions for a safer school experience. To meet the need for more space for outdoor learning, the Rowan-Salisbury School System is interested in building outdoor classroom structures for 34 K-12 schools, sized for 12-15 students. LS3P is working with the System to create concept designs for three different types of open-air structures- a rectangular structure with solid roof to shelter from both sun and rain, a rectangular structure with open roof such as louver or trellis to shelter from sun only, or a round/segmented structure such as a gazebo with solid roof to shelter from sun and rain. Each concept will be scalable to three sizes. The structures will be designed for a maximum budget of $10,000 each for the smaller structures and $18,000 for the larger structures, including construction labor and materials. Wilmington Parklet Project When COVID-19 upturned the restaurant industry this year, cities got creative with ways to encourage safer outdoor dining. Wilmington, NC explored the idea of creating temporary “parklets,” or reclaimed spaces from street parking, to expand dining spaces and support restaurants in continuing to serve their patrons outdoors. LS3P worked with the city to generate dining concepts and identify potential parklet locations adjacent to participating restaurant establishments. In Charleston, the design is also underway for an LS3P submission to AIA Charleston’s “sPARKing” Competition to explore “possibilities for expansion of the public realm in a 7×22 parking space.” Miracle Hill Miracle Hill, a faith-based nonprofit in Greenville, SC, aims to help people who are struggling with homelessness to find a better life. For those finding success through structured programs such as those at Miracle Hill, access to safe and affordable housing can still be a huge challenge. This transitional home for women will ease that burden, allowing guests to work towards independence in a supportive environment. LS3P, in collaboration with a Leadership Greenville team, will renovate a 1960’s residential property to welcome six women and/or children at any given time. The project will provide a new kitchen with cabinetry, appliances, and lighting; new flooring; updates to the bathroom, including new vanities and plumbing; new paint; and new windows and roof if possible. Vigilant Hope Roasting Vigilant Hope, a Wilmington, NC nonprofit, has been working to alleviate poverty and homelessness in the area for a decade. One of its programs, Business on a Mission, focuses on job skills training and employment through a coffee roastery; the program’s success has led to the need for expansion by turning an existing retail space in downtown Wilmington into a full-fledged coffee roastery and café. LS3P conducted a Life Safety Plan and Appendix B Code Summary for the 2,595 SF space, which will ultimately support program participants and provide revenue for operations. Foresight Articles