With California reopening its economy this week, we are taking a moment to reflect on the progress we’ve made this past year, highlight some of the projects we’ve worked on, and talk with March Studio’s Principal Architect, Todd Erlandson, about how we continue to press forward. 

March Studio was fortunate to receive PPP funding in May 2020, and an additional loan in April 2021, allowing our studio to step into the type of projects we want to pursue -- helping visionary clients, organizations, and social entrepreneurs realize their dreams, discover new possibilities, and make a positive impact through architecture and design.

In the first round of the PPP loan, we learned that alternate sources of funding give us the flexibility to work with more nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs to pursue projects that do good, all while ensuring the designers and innovators bringing those ideas to life are compensated. In addition, we discovered that we could develop a model around this experience and spent the year ideating, strategizing, and planning how we might expand that model and offer something that would really help our nonprofit clients.

So what were we able to accomplish, exactly?

We reactivated, initiated, or completed three different projects with a variety of scope and locale: a medical center in Vietnam, a preschool for refugee children in Mexico, and an outdoor multi-use community space in rural Utah. We sat down with Todd to tell us more about each one.

Cao Bang Medical Clinic, Vietnam

This large capacity medical facility in rural Vietnam will serve the surrounding community at an unprecedented time of need (medically and otherwise) while building trust in the community and enhancing the health of its residents. Our challenge as the design team was to create a welcoming, inviting, and safe space for a community that lacked trust in medical practitioners and healthcare providers, and in a way that was respectful of the community’s values and priorities. PPP funding really allowed us to go the extra mile.

PILA Canyon Nest, Mexico

PILA Global, and their Nest program, opens preschools all around the world to provide safe access to education and shelter for refugee children. PILA’s philosophy around education is to be respectful of the children's abilities and to give them a space that's on a level with what they deserve, or what they need. March applied the same ethos to the outside classroom spaces. We made use of found material and natural planting already on the site — old tires, lumber, stone, and concrete — and built a multiuse outdoor space that is respectful of the children’s abilities as learners.

Open Grounds — Green River, Utah

March Studio teamed up with Epicenter in Green River, Utah - a small town of roughly 850 residents - to design a concept for unused Utah Parks and Recreation land, and create a visual package to communicate the proposed plans. The design concept includes a drive-in movie theater and rodeo, as well as a BMX track, dog park, and fairgrounds for community-curated events like farmers’ markets, food trucks, and festivals. The document ended up being a useful tool to help visualize the possibilities of the space, to engage the community for input and support, and apply for funding to get the project going.

In the past, we’ve collaborated with our clients and partners to create something that helps capture and visually represent their ideas and dreams, so they can take it to the next level and pursue the project further. Now we’re making it part of our mission to take these initial steps together with our clients and provide them with the tools they need to move their projects to the next phase — designing, funding, and building their dream space.

We want to hear from you! What challenges are non-profit or social entrepreneurs facing right now?