The building makes use of its size to provide space for a community center and three residences. All residences are of varying size, as to address multiple family situations. Two duplex apartments are accessible from the back, while a larger three bedroom finds its location on the northern exposure. The building provides an intensive green roof to on the smaller structure, with an extensive roof on the upper structure. These elements provide gestures of site extusion and occupiable levels that are further communicated in the varying planes of the site. Use of materials native to the site also increases the communictation of site extrusion while providing recycled uses for otherwise disposable elements. The position of the residential units provides for extensive lighting condtions, this accounts for full daylighting in all the residential unit spaces.

The former "Don's Crankshaft" Building is a property at 122 E. Liberty St. in Cincinnati, Ohio. The front of Don's Crankshaft faces E. McMicken Ave. near Main St. The rear of the building opens onto a vacant lot on E. Liberty St. The structure consists of a two-story, 5,400 square foot building with an adjoining, one-story, 2,890 square foot building, both dating from the 1920s. Until recently, the facility has been used as a machine shop, but is now vacant.

In order to revitalize the Over-the-Rhine area, a sustainable and affordable renovation of Don's Crankshaft is proposed as part of the first phase of a larger rehabilitation effort focusing on four adjacent buildings, and the adjacent vacant lot. The program for the building in this scheme is mixed use.

The ground floor program consists of a 4,555 square foot Boys and Girls Club, which will double as meeting rooms that can be used by community members, local clubs and organizations. This is intended to help give children in the area a place to socialize, learn, and have fun, as well as invigorate the sense of community in the area. A 760 square foot bike lock-up and rental facility is also proposed for the ground floor. This is intended to encourage people in the area to be more ecologically friendly, and ride bikes to their destinations instead of driving.

The second floor will house two 1,132 square foot, affordable housing units. Each unit has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each unit has access to a large garden on the roof of the one-story building.

In order to make the renovated Don's Crankshaft more energy efficient, several sustainable strategies have been employed: