Habitat for Humanity House - 43 Madison - Dedication
 Gardner PLUS Architects was involved in the production of plans for the Habitat for Humanity House at 43 Madison Street in Rochester, NY. The house is located in the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood of the City and was constructed by 100 women volunteers.
This is the first project that Habitat completed in conjunction with the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America and the first home in the nation to use what will become a national prototype.
Family's joy inhabits women-built habitat
Deborah Alexander
Staff Writer, Democrat and Chronicle
(March 25, 2007) — Nilsa Rivera, the newest resident of the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood, welcomed family, friends and well-wishers to her new home on Saturday.
"I want to thank the people from (Flower City) Habitat for Humanity for giving me this opportunity to be a first-time homeowner," said Rivera through her fiancé, Sam Figueroa, who translated from Spanish to English for her during a dedication ceremony.
The house was built by 100 women volunteers. It is the fifth in the city and third in the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood for Habitat for Humanity.
Rivera, Figueroa and their 2-year-old daughter, Nirialyss, stood on the front porch of the two-story Greek revival style house at 43 Madison St. The family accepted a hammer representing the hard work that went into the home's construction and a Bible symbolizing the spirit of everyone working on the project.
"It's a gorgeous house," said the 24-year-old Rivera.
Figueroa, 28, agreed. "It's beautiful. They did a great job."
The house is nearly complete. All that remains are the finishing touches — laying the carpeting, pouring concrete for a driveway and planting grass seed. The family, who currently live in Chili, are scheduled to move into the house on April 1. Rivera said the first thing she will do in her new home is plant flowers in the front yard.
Figueroa said he learned about the Habitat program from his mother and applied.
The couple qualified for the program after they volunteered as workers on another home being built.
Rivera, who had never used tools before, said she enjoyed the experience. She hammered nails, cut wood and swept floors.
"It's good for women," she said. "They came by themselves to build the house." Arthur Woodward, executive director of Flower City Habitat for Humanity, told the men at the dedication ceremony that the women working on the house set a standard they would have to follow.
Woodward said the nearly 1,300-square-foot house is valued at $90,000.
This is the first project Habitat Humanity has done with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. The Rochester home was the first to use a design that will be a national prototype.
Habitat homes scheduled for sites in Savannah, Ga., and Norfolk, Va., also will use this design.
The house fits in with the different styles of housing in the neighborhood, Woodward said.
He added that the project required doing a few extra things to fit in. The front porch, which runs the length of the house, is not something Habitat normally builds.
Woodward said Rivera and Figueroa volunteered beyond the required 500 hours to qualify for the program. The first 250 hours, they volunteered to work on another person's house.
"That's the appeal," he said. "People become so invested in the home they keep on going."
Rivera and Figueroa laid the first concrete block for the foundation of their new home.
Woodward said it took a little longer for the house to be completed because of the nature of the design and the craftsmanship.
Musette Castle, a Flower City Habitat for Humanity board member and the chairwoman of the Women Build Steering Committee, said the women volunteers came from all over the community.
The volunteers got the word out and the people in the community welcomed them.
"Alone, a woman can survive," Castle said. "Working together, we will thrive."
Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, who also was a volunteer and worked on the roof of the home, said the project "brings to mind the value of opportunity and the power of hard work."
The Rev. Fannie Ethridge-Reeves, who led the opening prayer, noted months earlier there was a hole where the new home now stands.
"Look at what God, through women and others, has done," Ethridge-Reeves said.
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