Caldwell teaches nonprofit series at Schoolcraft College

SpaceLab member Orletta Caldwell is founder and CEO of Beyond Existing Enterprises. With 20 years in the nonprofit industry, she’s sharing her expertise through a seven-week series at Schoolcraft College. Courses in the series are:

  • Ethics & the Nonprofit
  • Communications & Marketing for Nonprofits
  • Volunteer Recruitment, Management & Retention
  • Grant Research & Writing
  • Leadership & Governance in Nonprofit Organizations
  • Financial Management for Nonprofits
  • Certificate in Nonprofit Management

Classes begin January 19, 2021. Register on the Schoolcraft website.

Ask the Expert: Branding and Design for Your Business Build-Out

It’s important to have good team members around you. (Architects and designers) can save you money because of what we know. – Bryan Cook

In this online panel discussion and presentation, branding experts, architects and designers answer business owners’ pressing questions about designing, building out and refreshing their commercial spaces.

Business owners with existing space and those who are in the planning stages pose questions to our panel of experts:

Meaghan Barry, partner and creative director – Unsold Studio (and recently named one of Crain’s Detroit Business’ Notable Women of Design): “With our clients, we talk about a priority list and a wish list. We identify what is the priority – what will make the most impact.”

Naomi Beasley-Porter, architectural designer – NSPIRD Design Studio: “(Designers) can work together to create a style guide so there are minimum standards in place. It pertains to finishes and quality, so the design is consistent throughout.”

Bryan Cook, registered architect – Berardi Partners: “It’s important to have good team members around you. (Architects and designers) can save you money because of what we know.”

Kenneth Crutcher, registered architect – Crutcher Studio: “If you have a budget, we can work with it, but you have to be upfront and honest about what that budget is.”

These experts have designed some of the best known small commercial businesses in Detroit. Watch to get helpful advice and tips before you build.

This program was featured as a 2020 Detroit Month of Design event with Design Core Detroit.

Detroit businesses share good news even during COVID-19 crisis

SpaceLab members are continuing to operate their businesses and serve their clients. Here’s some great news they’ve shared over the past weeks. We hope the good news motivates you to keep moving your business forward.

Member SDG Architects & Planners is architect for the Detroit City Council Committee of the Whole (COW) office renovation in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (CAYMC) – the first renovation of the area in over 40 years. SDG worked with LLP Construction Services on this Design-Build project. 

photo by LLP Construction Services

Izzie LLC has contracted with the City of Highland Park to disinfect and sanitize the city’s four main buildings: Police Headquarters, Fire Department, Robert B. Blackwell Municipal Building, and the Ernest T. For Recreation Center.

Black Girl MATHgic reached a milestone with founder Brittany A. Rhodes giving her first-ever presentation as a full-time “mathpreneur” at the Mid School Math Conference in Santa Fe, NM, the largest middle school mathematics conference in the nation, in early March.

New members LottMetz Crutcher Architecture – a partnership of Grand Rapids-based Lott3Metz Architecture LLC and metro Detroit’s Crutcher Studio, Inc. – came together to propose larger developments in Southeast Michigan and plan to “positively contribute to Detroit’s urban revolution.” Read more on MiBiz >>>

Karen Burton, along with Saundra Little, AIA, spent time with Melissa R. Daniel on her podcast Architecture is Political. The conversation focused on architecture, their Noir Design Parti project, Detroit and entrepreneurship. Listen here >>>