MHAworks organizes and presents the third annual C.F.D. {Creative Food Drive}

Despite the lack of a shining sun and blue skies of this past Saturday, October 19, MHAworks presented the third annual C.F.D. {Creative Food Drive} for the local community of Durham. Twenty competing teams, and sixty volunteers, along with families, friends and the community brought both smiles and pounds upon pounds of food to American Tobacco Campus to show their amazing building skills with cans, boxes and bags of food. Thanks to the teams and the community, this year’s grand total reached 13,500 pounds of donated food, all going to those in need through Durham nonprofits Housing for New Hope and the Food Bank.

CFD is a food drive competition / community festival, where teams comprised of businesses, organizations and community members raise non-perishable food items and design and construct sculptures out of the food.

We want to thank everyone involved, first and foremost among our volunteers, competing teams and judges. Everyone’s participation contributed to a great event!

The 2013 winners:

Best Overall Corporate: RDK Engineers

Best Overall Non-Corporate: Duke students sponsored by Whole Foods

Most Creative: Riverside High School

Most Complex: Stewart Inc.

Most Food Raised: Freelon

People’s Choice: Smith+Gardner

The community of Durham also enjoyed the cool afternoon with our Emcee, Frank Stasio, live music featuring Embers End, Sarah Shook & the Devil, and Lonnie Walker, local beer and food trucks. The Kid’s Zone entertained the little ones with a bouncy castle and pumpkin painting. This year’s panel of judges included the City of Durham’s Honorable Mayor Bill Bell, Michael Hining, President of MHAworks; Adrian Brown of the Durham Chamber, Sherry DeVries of the Durham Arts Council, and Bill Kalkhof, former President of DDI.

Check out all the photos of CFD at our Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more information on CFD, visit their website at www.creativefooddrive.com.

Construction around the MHA offices!

Both our Durham and Greenville offices are seeing a lot of change!

In our Durham office, we're renovating the space in order to make more room for design and meetings. Things are a little crazy in the office, but we know it will all be back in order just in time for us to celebrate our 25th anniversary in style!

In our Greenville office, we're so excited to announced that we have moved! After doubling in staff in the last year, we quickly outgrew our office and happily relocated across the street. Still in the heart of downtown Greenville, we're very proud to continue to contribute to the local business economy, and to give ourselves a little breathing room.

Here are some photos of our construction!

Durham office conference room

Durham office design space

Greenville's new office construction

Greenville's new office construction

MHAworks recognized as "Leaders in Diversity"

MHAworks is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the Leaders in Diversity Award, Triangle Business Journal’s inaugural award program that recognizes the accomplishments of Triangle businesses, individuals and nonprofits as they strive to reflect the rich tapestry of our community. Triangle Business Journal established this program to distinguish companies, organizations and individuals that provide opportunities for underrepresented markets and encourage others to do the same. These named companies and individuals will be honored at an honorary luncheon on September 12, 2013.

We’re very honored to have received this award. We are proud to be a part of a community that recognizes and encourages respect and advocacy of underrepresented groups in the workplace.

To check out TBJ's full article, click here.

Mayor Bell to Judge the Creative Food Drive

We are incredibly honored to announce that the Mayor of the great city of Durham, Bill Bell, will serve as a Judge at our annual food drive competition/community festival, C.F.D. {Creative Food Drive}.

We are so grateful to have him come out and see what our competing teams design and build! With his background in engineering and his passion for the people of Durham, we'll be interested to see how he judges the construction and creativity of the sculptures.

Thank you so much, Mayor Bell!

C.F.D. {Creative Food Drive} is MHAworks' third annual food drive competition/community festival that has raised over 20,000 pounds of food to date.  CFD is comprised of businesses and organizations raising non-perishable food items and designing and building a sculpture in a competition of epic proportions, while being entertained by live music, food trucks, local beer and a kid's zone. C.F.D. will be held on Saturday, October 19, 3-7 pm at the American Tobacco North Quad. Learn more about CFD here!

Last day to vote for the Best of Durham!

Today is the last day to vote for Durham Magazine's Best of Durham, where we've been nominated as Durham's Best Architect! Keep it local and let Durham know your favorites: everything from restaurants to mechanics to book stores to lawyers. Show our favorite Bull City some love!

You can also vote for our annual food drive competition, Creative Food Drive, under Durham's Best Event - just type it in the fill-in-the-blank.

Thanks for nominating us, Durham Magazine.

Hurry - the polls close at 5 pm!

Durham Public Schools visits the MHAworks office

MHAworks recently hosted a group of high schoolers from Durham Public Schools to provide insight and encourage future involvement in the AEC field.

In this session, our staff sat down with the high schoolers to explain the realm of possibilities in the AEC industry and to answer any questions they had about pursuing a career. The students were  enlightened on the several different avenues they could pursue and enthusiastic about the opportunities not previously known to them.

Jaymes Carter, Project Designer, reflects, "Developing the next generation of architects and designers is important to our profession. There are many young individuals who dream of doing great things. Architecture is the perfect canvas for them to begin to paint their future. I enjoy talking with young people to help them see what doors can be opened through education and hard work."

DDI's Summer Series features Orquesta Gardel tonight

At the CCB Plaza tonight at 7:30 pm for DDI's Find Your Cool Summer Concert series, stop by and hear the haunting sounds Orquesta Gardel. We are very proud to sponsor this inaugural series, every Thursday at the CCB Plaza.