Main Street Fellows

Since March of 2016, the North Carolina Main Street Program has partnered with UNCG’s Interior Architecture Department and its Center for Community-Engaged Design to provide design assistance to the 94 Main Street communities across the State. So far, 49 undergraduate and eight graduate Main Street Fellows working with Professor Travis Hicks and Professor Emerita Jo Leimenstoll have completed designs for over 275 projects in over 50 NC towns.

The NC Main Street & Rural Planning Center is a Main Street America™ Coordinating Program and works to stimulate economic development within the context of historic preservation, using a comprehensive approach to downtown revitalization. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the national trust for Historic Preservation. This movement advocates a comprehensive approach to downtown revitalization based on Economic Vitality, Quality Design, Effect Promotion, and Sustainable Organization.

MAIN STREET FELLOWS

WHAT DO NC MAIN STREET FELLOWS DO? 

Fellows of the NC Main Street program provide design assistance to small towns across the state for storefront rehabs and the adaptive reuse of upper story commercial spaces to downtown living apartments. These projects involve a mix of archival research, fieldwork documentation, and digital design work, using a variety of design software programs. Student fellows are both graduate-level and upper-level undergraduates from the Department of Interior Architecture.

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

On a project to project basis, various methods of archival research are performed by Main Street fellows. These methods include analyzing historic photographs, Sanborn Maps, historic newspapers, and postcard collections, as well as conducting in-depth research on properties’ National Register nominations.

DOCUMENTATION

For storefront facade schemes, fellows create design proposals that include conceptual renderings, a detailed work write-up, archival information, and sourcing details. If the project includes the need for an upper story rehab, fellows take interior/exterior site measurements and interior/exterior photographs. After the site visit, schematic floor plans are created along with any conceptual renderings to the exterior of the property.

GET IN TOUCH WITH US

Contact Professor Travis Hicks with any questions or inquiries: tlhicks@uncg.edu