HBG Design’s KBCI Volunteer Days – Dallas in Action: Building Stronger Communities with Hearts and Hammers
At HBG Design, our dedication to creating meaningful connections with our communities shines through the Kirk Bobo Creating Impact (KBCI) Grant and Outreach Initiative. This program, named in honor of our co-founder, combines financial support, design expertise, and employee volunteerism to make a tangible difference in the lives of others.
Following the success of our Memphis team’s efforts at Windridge Park, the spotlight shifted to our Dallas office, where the team embodied the spirit of the KBCI initiative by partnering with Hearts and Hammers to preserve a cherished home and uplift a homeowner in need.
Revitalizing a Home, Uplifting a Life
On Tuesday, November 19, the HBG Design Dallas team joined forces with Hearts and Hammers, a nonprofit organization that provides essential exterior home repairs for low-income homeowners, including senior citizens, disabled individuals, and veterans.
During this impactful volunteer day, the Dallas team worked diligently to assist a 93-year-old homeowner, ensuring they could continue living independently in the home they love. The team’s efforts included:
- Trimming and painting to give the home a fresh, vibrant exterior,
- Staining the front door to create a polished and inviting look,
- Repairing gutters for improved drainage and long-term protection, and
- Completing minor but crucial repairs that enhance safety and functionality.
This heartfelt work reflects HBG Design’s core mission of enhancing lives and building stronger communities.
The Mission of Hearts and Hammers
For over 30 years, Hearts and Hammers has been a beacon of hope in the Dallas community, helping homeowners address structural and aesthetic issues that can compromise their ability to remain in their homes. By tackling these repairs, the organization creates stability and security for vulnerable individuals, often providing them with the support needed to avoid relocation.
Our partnership with Hearts and Hammers exemplifies the powerful impact that collaborative volunteerism can have—not only for the recipient but for the neighborhood as a whole.
Building Team Spirit and Connection
Beyond the physical improvements made to the home, this volunteer day fostered meaningful connections—both with the homeowner and within our team. As the Dallas colleagues worked side by side, they strengthened bonds and reinforced their shared commitment to giving back. The day was a testament to how teamwork and compassion can drive impactful change.
Looking Ahead: San Diego on Deck
With Memphis and Dallas having successfully completed their KBCI Volunteer Days, the focus now turns to HBG Design’s San Diego office. Next up, our San Diego team will collaborate with Fred Finch Youth & Family Services to create inspiring spaces for at-risk youth and families.
Stay tuned for the final installment of our three-part series, where we’ll celebrate the efforts of our San Diego colleagues and continue the KBCI legacy of service and transformation.
Thank you to our Dallas team for exemplifying the heart of HBG Design and for bringing our mission to life through meaningful action! Together, we’re creating lasting change—one community at a time.
HBG Design’s KBCI Volunteer Days - Memphis in Action: Revitalizing Windridge Park with Memphis City Beautiful
Part 1: Memphis Sets the Standard for Beautification and Service
At HBG Design, our passion for community engagement comes to life through the Kirk Bobo Creating Impact (KBCI) Grant and Outreach Initiative. Named in honor of co-founder Kirk Bobo, this annual program combines financial support, design expertise, and employee volunteerism to drive meaningful change in the communities we serve.
This year, our Memphis, San Diego, and Dallas offices are taking part in a series of KBCI Volunteer Days, each partnering with local nonprofit organizations to make a difference. First up: the Memphis office.
A Fresh Start for Windridge Park
On Friday, November 15, the Memphis team joined forces with Memphis City Beautiful to revitalize Windridge Park and Elementary School. With tools in hand and a mission to create a more inviting space, our volunteers:
- Cleared litter from the playground and park grounds,
- Refreshed landscaping to enhance the park's appearance, and
- Restored the park’s natural beauty for families and children to enjoy.
This collaborative effort left a lasting impact on the community while fostering teamwork and camaraderie within our own office.
Partnering with Memphis City Beautiful
Since its founding in 1930, Memphis City Beautiful has been a trailblazer in environmental stewardship as the nation’s first beautification commission. Their mission—to create a clean, green, and beautiful Memphis—perfectly aligns with HBG Design’s commitment to improving the quality of life in our communities.
By working together, we’re not only enhancing public spaces but also supporting a vision for a brighter future.
The Legacy of KBCI in Memphis
Over the years, HBG Design’s Memphis office has contributed to many transformative projects under the KBCI initiative, including:
- Tillman Sculpture Park with Carpenter Art Garden: Creating an outdoor space for art and nature to come together in the Binghampton community.
- Paint Memphis Mural Arts Festival: Adding vibrant, large-scale murals that celebrate the city’s creativity and diversity.
- Heights CDC at Treadwell Middle School: Designing and implementing a welcoming new entryway for this vital community hub.
These projects underscore our dedication to using our expertise to build stronger, more vibrant communities.
Coming Soon: San Diego and Dallas Join the Effort
With the Memphis project complete, the spotlight now shifts to HBG Design’s San Diego and Dallas offices, which are gearing up for their own KBCI Volunteer Days.
- In San Diego, our team will partner with Fred Finch Youth & Family Services to enhance spaces that support at-risk youth and families.
- In Dallas, our office will collaborate with Hearts and Hammers to repair and improve homes for those in need.
Each project will bring a unique opportunity to make a meaningful difference, furthering the KBCI mission across the country.
Stay Tuned for More!
This post marks the first in a three-part series celebrating HBG Design’s KBCI Volunteer Days. Check back soon for updates from San Diego and Dallas as they continue this legacy of service and impact.
Together, we’re transforming communities and creating lasting change—one project at a time.
Carpenter Art Garden, HBG, Collaborators Create Neighborhood Impact
Carpenter Art Garden and Local Collaborators Transform Binghampton Lot in Memphis into The Tillman Sculpture Park, an Artistic Urban Greenspace
Memphis, TN - Carpenter Art Garden, and a team of local artists and residents, HBG Design architects, landscape designer Greg Touliatos, and Montgomery Martin contractors, are working together to revitalize urban greenspace in Memphis' Binghampton neighborhood as the vibrant, new Tillman Sculpture Park. The greenspace will be located at the corner of Princeton and Tillman. It is just one block away from Sam Cooper Blvd. and next to the Collage Dance Center. The park will transform a neglected lot--previously obtained by Carpenter Art Garden. It will be a creative and family-friendly space to bring a sense of artistic pride to the neighborhood.
“When complete in the spring of 2024, the park will come alive with winding paths, colorful blooms, unique handmade art sculptures, and an intricate mosaic art tile wall,” says Jazmin Miller, Executive Director of the Carpenter Art Garden, “all crafted by a committed volunteer team of local artists, students, designers, contractors, landscaping volunteers, and Binghampton residents.”
About the new Tillman Sculpture Park
The Tillman Sculpture Park is envisioned as a community-driven public art project: a space, a statement, and an environmental symbol of neighborhood growth.
The project directly resonates with the Carpenter Art Garden's mission of growing young creatives through art education, intervention, and therapy programs, while creating an inhabitable space that negates blight, while birthing creativity and culture.
Design and Construction Collaborators
HBG Design architects, Greg Touliatos Landscape Design, and Montgomery Martin Contractors have joined forces to complete the Tillman Sculpture Garden project, providing design and construction services and materials. Montgomery Martin has been integral in several Carpenter Art Garden projects including the Mosaic Park and its ‘Welcome to Binghampton’ sign.
HBG Design Principal Danny Valle, AIA, has played a key role in leading HBG's design and landscaping volunteers for the Tillman park project through the firm's Kirk Bobo Creating Impact Initiative (KBCI). HBG's KBCI program stems from the ongoing philanthropic advocacy of firm co-founder Kirk Bobo, a proponent of channeling HBG’s specialized skills for the betterment of Memphis.
“HBG Design believes in building a better and stronger Memphis by creating uplifting and inspiring places and spaces,” says Valle. “The Tillman Sculpture Garden project is one example of how beautification projects sponsored by our KBCI program can strengthen neighborhoods and create a more vibrant, livable city.”
The first step in creating the Tillman Sculpture Park was designing a sustainable site plan and landscape design by HBG Design and Greg Touliatos that could be easily constructed on a small budget with mostly volunteer labor. Montgomery Martin prepared the overgrown site and constructed the concrete path and retaining wall designs. On December 1, a group of 30 volunteers from all organizations came out to implement the landscape design by laying mulch, soil, and sod, and planting bushes around the curving sidewalks before the winter season begins.
“The art and the color will emerge in the spring during the project’s next phase,” says Miller, “adding an even greater metaphorical sense of reawakening, of the site and this meaningful project.”
Art Installations by The Mosaic Arts Apprenticeship Program
Art sculptures, to be placed on cement podiums throughout the park, are being created through the Mosaic Arts Apprenticeship Program at Carpenter Art Garden. under the tutelage of professional artist Suzy Hendricks and professional artist and University of Memphis sculpture professor, Kelsey Harrison. The Mosaic Arts Apprenticeship Program offers Binghampton neighborhood middle and high school students apprenticeship opportunities in mosaic design and construction. Students learn the profession, explore specific ways to approach design, and then begin creating their works of art. In addition to learning a creative skill, students also explore the business aspects of a creative career. The objective is to bolster college and career readiness regardless of their chosen field. Additionally, Binghampton teens and residents will be assisting in making art tiles that will be installed over the curving retaining walls. Art collaborators will also include Art Garden youth and University of Memphis art students.
Project Funding
The project brings together community stakeholders across institutions, sectors, and neighborhoods in a significant collaboration. This project is made possible by the following funders: the Kresge Foundation, HBG Design (in kind), Greg Touliatos (in-kind), Montgomery Martin (in kind), Urban Arts Commission, Moms Demand Action, Everytown, The Little Garden Club of Memphis, and Tennessee Art Commission.
The Binghampton Historical Site
Binghampton's geographical history began as a small town outside of the city of Memphis. Immersed in farmland and railroads, Binghampton resided south of the Pope Cotton Plantation. According to the 1900 U.S. Census, the neighborhood reflects early inhabitants of various backgrounds. More specifically, a Black collective of citizens who worked predominantly on farms and railroads.
We believe that from the complexities of history, a blossom of arts and culture emerged and continues to manifest on the landscapes of Binghampton and throughout the city. Through the birth of Tillman Sculpture Park, Carpenter Art Garden hopes to uncover more of Binghampton’s geographical and anthropological history as we pay homage to joy, wonder, and our creative identity as a neighborhood.
Future Project Phases
The Tillman Sculpture Park project will be phased over four cycles. Future generations of Carpenter Art Garden mosaic students will add to the “Art Garden” for community participation over time.
“We believe it is important for more groups of students to have access to such an incredible real-world collaborative public art project,” adds Miller. “In this way, we are creating a laboratory to home-grow site-specific public artists who are trained in cross-disciplinary collaboration and community-based work. We will also be able to draw on alumni from each group to take leadership roles in future building rounds on the site.”
HBG Sponsors 2022 Paint Memphis Mural Arts Festival
HBG Sponsors Paint Memphis Festival: HBG Design is excited to share the relaunch of our Kirk Bobo Creating Impact Grant & Volunteer Program, and announce our 2022 community partner, Paint Memphis!
We will be kicking off our volunteer activities at the 2022 Paint Memphis Festival, a fun and creative event designed to animate the Broad Avenue Arts District through the creation of public building mural art.
Read more about the community-friendly festival event below and come out to experience the day’s excitement.
A Painted Broad:
The 2022 Paint Memphis Festival on October 8 in the Broad Avenue Arts District will make mural art beautification a community experience.
Media Contact: Karen B. Golightly, Paint Memphis, 901-275-1981, [email protected]
Ever been curious about the vibrant building murals popping up all over Memphis, seemingly overnight? The 2022 Paint Memphis Festival will demystify the mural art process during their one-day community painting event in the Broad Avenue Arts District on Saturday, October 8, from noon to 6 p.m. It’s going to be an immersive, creative, and family-friendly experience, fully open to the public.
Over 150 local and regional artists will converge to show off their talents and connect with the community in the making of the largest collaborative mural art event in Tennessee. The festival is also expecting special regional guest artists to include the Carpenter Art Garden, Houston High School, the Girl Scouts Heart of the South Council, and Christian Brothers University.
“Expanding on Broad Avenue’s clever redevelopment tagline, “A New Face for an Old Broad,” our festival artists are giving a colorful facelift to several of the buildings on Hollywood, Broad, Bingham, and Scott Streets,” says Karen B. Golightly, Executive Director and Founder of Paint Memphis. “We want the public to be part of this artistic endeavor, to meet the artists and take part in enhancing the neighborhood, during a day of work (for us), art appreciation, learning, and entertainment.”
“Expanding on Broad Avenue’s clever redevelopment tagline, “A New Face for an Old Broad,” our festival artists are giving a colorful facelift to several of the buildings on Hollywood, Broad, Bingham, and Scott Streets,” says Karen B. Golightly, Executive Director and Founder of Paint Memphis. “We want the public to be part of this artistic endeavor, to meet the artists and take part in enhancing the neighborhood, during a day of work (for us), art appreciation, learning, and entertainment.”Over 50 vendors and food trucks, and a children’s hands-on makers space, will engage artists and art lovers of all ages. Several demonstrations and workshops are planned to help involve the community in the creative process, including:
- A hands-on mural workshop by Zulu Artist
- A skateboarding workshop by Society Memphis
- Performances by Memphis Hoopers and the Kumar Indian Dance Troop
- Live painting by local, national, and international artists.
New this year are corresponding gallery shows by over 100 of the participating festival artists, to be held at some of Broad Avenue’s finest businesses on Friday, October 7, 5-8 pm.
All mural art will be family and community friendly. Designed to spread positivity, Paint Memphis has set up beautification guidelines for the murals.
“No nudity, no profanity, no drug or gang imagery, nothing political, and most importantly, no zombies,” states Golightly. “We’ve gathered input from the neighbors through door-to-door and online surveys, and our artists are great at listening to public wishes to create art that will enrich our neighborhood spaces.”
Paint Memphis is a 501(C)3 organization that paints large collaborative murals involving local and national artists. Since 2015, Paint Memphis’ one-day paint festival has produced the best street and fine art in the South. The organization welcomes all types of artists of all skill levels and styles. Their diverse artist base donates time and talent each year to the mission to turn blight into art.
Learn more at PaintMemphis.org
And check out the artists at www.instagram.com/paint_memphis/
Read about HBG Design's previous Creating Impact Grant and Volunteer Program projects.