community design studio

our clients

Community Housing Partners

Town of Blacksburg - Housing & Neighborhood Services

Town of Blacksburg -
Parks & Recreation

Virginia Tech

Blue Ridge Cohousing, LLC

Frontier Housing

Aimco, Inc.

Better Housing Coalition

Private Developers

Individual Homeowners

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our market

Demand for affordable housing and integrated services is on the rise, as is a pressing need for competent and inspiring community design. CDS addresses these issues by assisting in opportunities for various housing types such as affordable multifamily, elderly, and special needs housing. There has also been a continued demand and increased awareness for environmentally sensitive design and development. Our target market includes urban and suburban, as well as rural areas, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and other states where CHP has a history of development and relationships with local community design centers.

redefining affordable housing
through architecture & design

services offered

CDS specializes in providing professional design services to like-minded individuals, private and non-profit developers, community design corporations, and other community based organizations. All of our services work in conjunction so that we can give our clients assistance throughout the design and planning process from start to finish. We provide all of our services with a strong focus on sustainable development and green building practices. We offer all our clients the following services:

Architectural and Sustainable Building Design
Design Charrettes
Planning and Technical Assistance

architectural and sustainable building design

The CDS collaborative design team, under the direction of Colin Arnold, AIA,LEED® AP, provides not just building design services, but also sustainable development and planning practices. CDS team members are experienced in LEED® and EarthCraftTM design and building standards, as well as cohousing community development.

Affordable housing design and building	Historic preservation
green design and construction	Design-build
Universal Design practices	Construction documentation

design charrettes

CDS staff work with residents and partners in a collaborative design-build process.

CDS' collaborative design-build approach uses an integrated and total systems philosophy to the development process. In our design charrettes, we bring together the expertise of various design, construction and engineering disciplines to create designs that benefit all stakeholders. CDS also invites residents or end-users to participate in design charrettes to include their needs and concerns in the design process.

planning and technical assistance

CDS provides valuable planning and technical assistance to non-profit developers, community design corporations, and other community based organizations in their design projects:

Building programming	Zoning process assistance
Site analysis and assessment	Feasibility studies
Design process for Virginia Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program applications	Design process for Community Development Block Grant applications
Post occupancy evaluations	ADA compliance reviews
Measured drawings