Destany Bing had put on her best pink dress and begun sweeping her bedroom floor by the time the makeover team arrived at her Gilpin Court home. The room transformation was the culmination of a 22-week program that paired the 10-year-old Carver Elementary School student and 12 other girls in the low-income housing development with adult mentors for a journey through art projects, life-skills lessons, meals, games and girl talk.

Dates: Sept. 30, Oct. 29, Nov. 18
  Location: Friends Association for Children Family Center, 1004 Saint John St., Richmond
  Information: To register and get directions, visit http://www.friendsassn.org or call (804) 644-2357.

Date: Sept. 17, 6 to 7 p.m., Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1812 W. Main St., Richmond.
  Directors: Partnership between the Visual Arts Center, ART 180, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Friends Association for Children in Gilpin Court
  Funding: Requires $3,000 per girl
  Information: Sally Kemp, director of community outreach, Visual Arts Center of Richmond; (804) 353-0094, ext. 223 or .

A 42-year-old public housing building in the heart of Richmond’s Gilpin Court was condemned yesterday after its ceiling partially collapsed. No one was injured. Emergency personnel responded about 2:15 p.m. Nine occupants of a building in the 1100 block of North First Street, which has two apartments, as well as a nearby unit, were told not to enter the units.

Richmond police have arrested a man who was wanted in the shooting of two teenagers in Gilpin Court on Monday. Shawn Jeahvon Singleton, 32, of the 6900 block of Merriewood Ridge Drive is charged with malicious wounding, using a firearm in a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon. Police said Singleton surrendered yesterday evening without incident.

Richmond police last night were investigating a shooting of two teenagers at Gilpin Court, the second shooting incident in two days at the public-housing complex. Investigators said they were looking into the possibility that the two incidents were connected. Yesterday, a 13-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man each were shot in the leg shortly before 4 p.m. in the 1200 block of St. John Street.

Richmond police arrested a teenager yesterday in the fatal shooting of a man in the Gilpin Court public-housing complex last month. Lowell Jackson, 18, was charged with first-degree murder and using a firearm in a felony after city and Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority officers found him at his mother’s home. On Feb. 20, police found Randy W. Crawford, 44, shot in front of a home in the 100 block of West Federal Street just before 7 p.m. Crawford, who lived in the 2900 block of Peabody Lane, died at the scene.

Richmond police say a man was shot to death yesterday in the 100 block of West Federal Street in the Gilpin Court public-housing development. Police received a call reporting shots fired in the area about 6:45 p.m. Officers arriving on the scene found an adult male shot on the front porch of a home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Richmond officials last night showed off their plans to transform one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods into a vibrant mixed-used community.

“Let the police and the courts do their ministry,“ Pastor Harold Wilson pleaded. He looked down on scores of Keiona Cecilia Tiree Braxton’s family members and hundreds more well-wishers.