Service to Community - Challenging the American Dream

I just wrote the short collection of paragraphs below. I am applying for a small business grant to cover some engineering costs and the application asked the question: How does your business serve the community. I started out trying to hit all the typical points and keywords that we are all used to. I realize that sometimes the key talking points about community are just loads of bullshit, written and said to get people to like us and support our cause. I understand that getting support is critical to getting anything done. Unfortunately, the message that we’ve been telling ourselves and selling ourselves on is not working any more.

Small Business Grant Application -

How Does Your Company Serve the Community:

My company builds housing. Our current project consists of four dwelling units; a good start which will lead to six, ten, and more. My company is an economic engine that spans beyond the simple fix and flip real estate operations. We require services for concrete, framing, drywall, electrical, plumbing, roofing, and much more.

This business is so much more than me and my young company. Sure, I design the project and get it through permitting, and I hope to profit from it so that I can reinvest that capital to do it again. The positive economic impact for the community is staggering. A team of local builders will assemble the project. They will exhibit their craftsmanship to execute a design of high quality, and inspire our younger generations to see value in our built environments.

My company serves the community by injecting fresh ideas into an urban context that is old, stagnant, and stale. It is expected to have opposition that may paint the work in a negative way. Like any work of design and real estate, it commands a prominence due to the permanence of anything constructed in our communities. Some critics may say that anything beyond the single family home is a monstrosity or monument. Interestingly, those negative criticisms are true, but grossly misdirected. These projects, which provide crucial middle income housing to our local teachers, fire fighters, police offices, and military service members are monuments. They are monuments to the collective spirit of those that built the project with hard work. They are monuments dedicated to the administrators who poured over endless plans and upheld the strict guidelines to keep the public safe.

My company and my work can be seen as a new evolution of the American Dream, a dream that many of us were fortunate to grow up within. One thing we forget about the American Dream; the house, the green front lawn and the white picket fence, was not the family that lived there. We sometimes forget the dream was first constructed by dedicated men and women. When viewed from that lens we begin to see the American Dream not as a vision with a picturesque result, but rather a challenge; a challenge to build and evolve. It is important that we continue to challenge our communities to prevent from becoming obsolete.

As an architect, I issue that challenge. My company is a powerful beacon towards innovation, evolution, and progress. To hinder this in any way, hinders us all. That is how my business serves the community.