Attended by generations of Lansingites as Walter French Academy, Walter French Academy of Business and Technology, or Walter French Junior High School, the 1925 Walter French building has been transformed for its next century of service to the Lansing community.

On September 10, the Capital Area Housing Partnership (CAHP) hosted a grand reopening and ribbon-cutting at the former school, which now contains 76 affordable housing units, the CAHP headquarters, and a daycare. The commercial spaces are the last parts of the building to reopen; residents began to move in in January.  

Quinn Evans worked closely with CAHP to design a renovation that would renew Walter French, which had been vacant for two decades, as a community asset. The project received both federal historic tax credits and low income housing tax credits, as well as a grant from Michigan’s Revitalization and Placemaking Program. Our design supported the requirements of all three programs.

See before-and-after photos here.