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Page Hardware Participates in Low-Income Housing Build

Page Hardware & Appliance Co. is getting ready to donate nearly $5,000 worth of appliances to a Yale School of Architecture building project over the coming weeks.

The project, known as the Jim Vlock Building Project, is a low-income housing project that has partnered with Page Hardware for the last seven years. Jay Flagge, a salesperson at Page’s and liaison to the project, said the entire process is very impressive.

“What the students do is they have four or five teams each design a house and then they pick a design,” he said.

The first-year graduate students from the Yale School of Architecture then build that house.

Construction of the house in New Haven began in April and is now nearing completion. The project will have an open house and a celebration on Monday, Oct 5, which means Flagge’s work is about to start.

“I should be delivering appliances in a couple of weeks,” he said.

Flagge said that Page Hardware reaches out to vendors to encourage them to donate to the project. “All the appliances are donated by all of the different vendors,” he said. “It is a low-income project and it is a good cause.”

This year alone the store will donate a Bosch stove, a Whirlpool washer and dryer combination unit, and an Electrolux dishwasher, among other appliances. Flagge said nearly all the supplies for the project are donated. “For example, all the lumber is donated,” he said. “And companies like Kohler get involved.”

Adam Hopfner is the director of the Jim Vlock Building Project and is a professor at the Yale School of Architecture. He took over the project in 2007 and then reached out to Page Hardware.

“I first approached Page Hardware & Appliance in 2008, and they have been making contributions to the project ever since,” he said. “Contributions from organizations like Page Hardware & Appliance are essential to our mission, and I am very grateful for their generosity.”

Hopfner elaborated on the importance of the project and what it gives back to his students and to the community. “It is a great way to harness the energy and optimism of the students in order to provide dignified housing to a segment of the population so often under-served by the design community,” he said. “It is so rewarding to see the relationships develop between the students and the folks in the neighborhoods in which we build—neighborhoods that might be financially poor, but that are rich in culture and vitality.”

Flagge said the project continues to be great success and that Page Hardware is very proud to contribute. “The houses they build are just knock your socks off—they are gorgeous,” he said. “It looks good for the community when Yale builds these houses in these neighborhoods. It is also a good thing for us to do and we like doing things like this for the community.”