Every year at HTK, we have the opportunity to volunteer our time to a charity organization in order to give back to the community. In recent years, we’ve found an outstanding partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Volunteering with this renowned organization provides the opportunity to build affordable, stable homes for families in need.

Investing in the Community

This year, as my co-workers and I were on the Habitat housing site, balancing on ladders and trying to carefully form the roof soffit of a newly constructed home, it struck me. This was so much more than building a home. It’s HTK’s philosophy that when we invest in our community, we are investing in our future. That investment is not just monetary. It means that we come together as individuals to develop, preserve, and restore our City. No district is an island. They flow seamlessly into one another, from the River Market to the West Bottoms, Crossroads, Westport, and on. Just the same, the betterment of one district advances the next, spreading the wealth through our economy and into our homes. By partnering with Habitat for Humanity, we’re not just building a home for a family in need, we’re building a community for ourselves with a brighter, more stable future.

Investing in HTK

Though HTK’s involvement in Habitat for Humanity is an investment in the community, it’s just as much an investment in our employees. As an Architect, it’s one thing to draw a finished structure with all of its components, and quite another to piece the components together with my own hands. For those of us who haven’t had the opportunity to work on the physical side of the construction industry, this is a chance to understand what we do daily on a deeper level. This year’s experience of installing windows, waterproofing, and soffit construction can be added to our repertoire of past activities, such as hanging drywall, laying hardwood floors and installing siding, among many others. These tasks remind us how every detail, from start to finish, comes together to build something bigger.

Each year as we partner with Habitat for Community, we are reminded that we are not just coming together to build a home. We are coming together to invest in our city. This ultimately results in the greater good for not only the community around us, but our own understanding of the intricacies of the industry we work within.

-Marissa Carroll, AAIA