What is Design Coalition?
Design Coalition Inc. is a non-profit architectural and planning office. The office was started 1972 to provide quality, affordable design services and carry out community education efforts related to the built environment.
What do you do?
We provide a wide range of architectural and consulting services:
Who do you work with?
We serve a diverse group of clients:
What kinds of projects have you designed?
Residential projects have included:
Public Facilities and others:
What's a "community design center"? And how can an architectural office be a non-profit?
Community design centers in the U.S.are a legacy of the 1970's. The movement arguably began during the 1968 American Institute of Architects (AIA) convention. In a memorable address, then-Executive Director of the Urban League Whitney Young stated candidly,
"You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights. I'm sure this does not come to you as any shock. You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence and your complete irrelevance. You are employers, you are key people in the planning of cities today. You share the responsibility for the mess we are in - in terms of the white noose around the central city. We didn't just get in this situation. It was carefully planned."
Architects subsequently began to support the creation of community design centers in larger cities, often in collaboration with university schools of architecture.
The Association for Community Design (ACD) is the national organization of Community Design Centers with over 40 members currently. For more, see Association for Community Design website.
How can you offer "affordable design services"? What does that mean?
Fees vary with the type of project, and depend on the type of services that are needed. Like most small architectural offices, we concentrate on certain types of projects and can do these most efficiently and affordably. If you have a project that you are considering seriously, call or write with a description to discuss design costs with one of the architects.
As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Design Coalition also accepts donations and grants, in most cases for programs run out of our office (past examples: cohousing technical assistance; handicapped remodeling service grants; design/arts grants). In other cases Design Coalition functions as a fiscal receiver and/or project coordinator.
What design services DON'T you provide?
Our staff are architects and planners. Depending on the size of a project, we work with and/or retain outside consultants for mechanical and electrical engineering, geotechnical (soil) engineering, landscape design, market analysis and development, interior design, and so on.
What are your community education efforts?
The section on Community has info on some current and past community projects.
Where do you do projects?
Past projects cluster primarily in Design Coalition's "service
area", the vicinity of Dane County, (in southwestern) Wisconsin.
Lou's firm Host-Jablonski Architects provides the same design
philosophy and principles for projects located outside of that
area.