Building a Better Downtown, One Community Project at a Time

Megan Padilla

Three Interstruct projects were named 2024 Golden Brick finalists — and all have one thing in common: no-fee work that reinvests in our community.

Interstruct has called Downtown Orlando home since 2001. In 2020, we doubled down by purchasing land in Parramore and focusing on redevelopment that prioritizes revitalization, infill, and thoughtful, incremental development. That commitment is founded in a belief that real change happens at the local level: block by block, building by building.

On May 7, 2025, Downtown Orlando Partnership honored three of our community-driven, no-fee projects as finalists for the 2024 Golden Brick Awards. Each one is a proof of concept. Each demonstrates how public art, historic preservation, and civic placemaking can meaningfully shape a stronger, more equitable city.

“We’re not outside developers. We live here, we work here, and we’re investing in the place we want our city to become.” — Ryan Young, Interstruct CEO

ArtCube™ Gallery: Activating Public Space on the West Church Corridor

The ArtCube™ is a modified shipping container micro gallery—and the anchor project of Parramore Arts, a gallery-without-walls initiative sponsored by Interstruct. Located on the West Church Corridor at 814 W. Church Street, between Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium, the ArtCube™ creates a 24/7 public art experience that brings vibrancy and visibility to one of Orlando’s most historically underserved areas.

Since launching in 2023, the ArtCube™ has featured rotating exhibitions from Orlando-based artists including Dawrby, AJ Barbell, Delia Miller, JJ the Artist, Alexis Collum, Peterson Guerrier and Angel Rodriguez Lozada as well as several local, national and international video artists. The quarterly exhibitions are curated by Pat Greene of The Corridor Project, as well as Mariah Román and Lafayette Bradford, Jr. of Art of Collab, with support from Ryan Young.

Each exhibition opens with a public reception timed with Downtown Arts District’s Third Thursday Orlando gallery hop, creating intentional overlap between Parramore and Downtown Orlando. To bridge the gap — literally and figuratively — Interstruct provides a free shuttle between the Ford Kiene Building and the ArtCube™ site on the West Church Corridor. This is how Interstruct puts action to the words, “reconnecting Orlando’s cultural and urban fabric.”

“It’s not just a container,” Young says. “It’s a platform — for visibility, for voice, for making the street more alive.”

Looking ahead, the ArtCube™ is more than just a one-off activation. It’s a prototype developed by Young and Interstruct Design for scalable public art infrastructure — a flexible, movable, and architecturally clean solution for developers, city planners, and cultural organizations looking to activate underutilized space in meaningful ways. A dedicated ArtCube™ website now offers this model to new cities, corridors, and communities.

Black Bottom House of Prayer: Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Parramore

From left: after Hurricane Ian collapsed the roof in 2022; trusses and roof added in 2023; exterior restoration completed in 2024
Process photos by T. Ramzy Hicks

Black Bottom House of Prayer, built in 1925, is a deeply meaningful structure in Orlando’s historically Black Parramore Heritage Neighborhood. Located at the corner of Westmoreland Drive and Bentley Street, the church stands in what was once known as “Black Bottom” — an area named for its frequent flooding.

The church was barely standing, but when Hurricane Ian hit Orlando in 2022, it caused catastrophic damage to the roof and bell tower of the already fragile structure. Most saw it as beyond saving. But Pastor Dana Jackson, who had long advocated for its restoration, wasn’t ready to give up — and neither were we.

Over the course of a few years, Interstruct provided no-fee services to stabilize the building and restore the exterior, including:

• Cleaning up the collapse and securing the site
• Producing architectural drawings for exterior work
• Navigating the permitting process
• Managing the full construction scope needed to make the structure safe

“Preserving buildings preserves their stories,” says Young. “And we need those stories to understand where we’ve been and where we’re going.”

Today, the building is structurally sound and ready for the next chapter. Pastor Jackson continues to seek funding to complete the interior restoration, but thanks to years of donated work, the church will celebrate its 100th birthday standing proud.

This isn’t just preservation — it’s cultural repair.

FORDify the Arts Courtyard: Turning Infill into Impact in the Heart of Downtown

2024 Golden Brick Award for Public Works and Placemaking

FORDify the Arts Courtyard is a shining example of urban infill at its best: reclaiming underutilized land to create a dynamic public space that simultaneously holds the past, present and future.

The site — most recently a lifeless asphalt alley — is beside the historic Rogers Kiene Building, restored and gifted to the City of Orlando by its namesake, Ford Kiene. After his passing, Dr. Paul Skomsky led a community effort to honor Kiene’s legacy by transforming the adjacent lot into a usable, beautiful, civic space.

Interstruct Design + Build contributed pro bono design and construction management, incorporating salvaged materials from the former Church Street Ballroom to tie Orlando’s historic architecture into the present-day site. The result is a venue for public art, performances, community events, and everyday gathering — fully integrated into the urban fabric. It is now used as a regular venue for DTO Live! music and art events. DTO Live is an initiative by the Downtown Development Board and United Arts of Central Florida, Inc. (UA), the region’s premier Local Arts Agency. 

The FORDify project lives at the intersection of adaptive reuse, placemaking, and civic memory — a true Golden Brick in every sense.

See the completed project on our portfolio.

Award-winning Team

“We’re showing what can happen when you look at forgotten space differently,” says Young. “You don’t have to add square footage to add value. You just have to care about how it’s used.”

This is what reinvestment looks like.

With offices in Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota and Charlotte, Interstruct Design + Build is proud to partner with clients across the Southeast to deliver commercial projects at the highest level. That success gives us the ability — and the responsibility — to reinvest directly in our home communities. We believe this is the kind of work that shapes a better downtown: community-driven, design-forward, and anchored in purpose.