I've visited cities all over America. I love walking around and exploring unique neighborhoods. But what I've noticed more and more is that individual cities are slowly losing their character -- every city is starting to look the same. From the same Starbucks on every corner to the same clothing stores.

My project, called ATTIC, is meant to help reverse this trend. It's designed to help local, independent retailers compete in a marketplace that is now as dependent upon their digital presence as their physical one. So what ATTIC does, as a start, is pull together the latest inventory from vintage furniture stores all over the DC area into a single website. It makes shopping from local, independent businesses a bit easier and a more likely alternative to shopping at big-box chains.

The goal isn't to have people shop online from these stores, but to motivate them to get out and visit the stores. To that end, ATTIC doesn't sell products from the businesses -- it just markets them and introduces local options to the community.