Last night, a newly-minted class of citizen planners celebrated their graduation from the Philadelphia Citizens Planning Institute. Each grad received a copy of the Collaborative’s book, Leverage: Strengthening Neighborhoods Through Design, thanks to the generosity of the Dale Corporation and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

The Citizens Planning Institute is a program created by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission to take a more effective and active role in shaping the future of their neighborhoods and of Philadelphia, through a greater understanding of city planning and the steps involved in development projects. Donna Carney, director of the Citizens Planning Institute, said, “We’re excited to be graduating our third CPI class! Including tonight’s graduates, there are now 90 Citizen Planners representing 49 different neighborhoods across the city.”

Leverage will provide the citizen planners with a “look book” of real community-based projects, models that will be helpful as they become involved in the day-to-day and long-range development issues in their communities.

In the thick of things, 2012 Board Co-Chairs Paul Sehnert and Mami Hara both provided board leadership on the Infill Philadelphia initiative.

All aboard for 2012! The Community Design Collaborative welcomes five new leaders to its Board of Directors:

• Cheryl Conley, Health and Safety Manager of Asset Management Specialists
• Patrycja Doniewski, AIA, Partner, Qb3
• Daryn Edwards, AIA, Principal, Interface Studio Architects, LLC
• Jeff Goldstein, AIA, Principal, DIGSAU
• Kira Strong, Vice President of Community and Economic Development, People’s Emergency Center

New Co-Chair Paul Sehnert, Director of Real Estate Development for the University of Pennsylvania,  joins current Co-Chair Mami Hara, Chief of Staff for the Philadelphia Water Department Division of Watersheds, to lead the Collaborative board this year.

Through his leadership of Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Reuse and exposure to the Collaborative’s service grant program for nonprofits, Paul says he appreciates “seeing good design applied to real world situations.” He adds, “In 2011, the Collaborative’s 20^th anniversary gave us the opportunity to reflect on how we’ve made design matter in Philadelphia’s communities and to put the finishing touches on a new strategic plan. In 2012, I’m looking forward to guiding us forward.”

Paul Sehnert, Mami Hara, and our five new board members  join the rest of Collaborative’s 2012 Board of Directors: Alice K. Berman, AIA, Hellyer Berman Lewis, Inc.; John Claypool, AIA, AICP, AIA Philadelphia; Brian Cohen, Liberty Property Trust; S. Michael Cohen, RP Management, Inc.; Tavis Dockwiller, ASLA, Viridian Landscape Studio; Eva Gladstein, Philadelphia Zoning Code Commission; Eric Larsen, PE, Larsen & Landis; Paul Marcus, Marcus Reinvestment Strategies, LLC; Joe Matje, PE, Bruce E. Brooks and Associates; Darrick Mix, Esq., Duane Morris LLP; Michael J. Paul, PE, Duffield Associates Inc.; Paul Vernon, KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc.; Richard Winston, AIA, BWA architecture + planning; and Pam Zimmerman, AIA, Zimmerman Studio, LLC.

The Collaborative thanks outgoing board members Mary Conway, Lutheran Social Ministries; Cecelia Denegre, AIA,CDA & I Architecture and Interiors, Ltd.; Brian Phillips, AIA, Interface Studio Architects, LLC; Laura Raymond, Hazel House; and Roy Yaffe, Esq., Gould Yaffe and Golden for their dedication, and contributions.

Bache Martin Elementary School/Fairmount CDC
Conceptual Master Plan for Exterior Improvements
A community task force of parents, teachers, students, neighbors, and government agencies collaborated on a master plan to connect two buildings, create green school yards, and improve surrounding streets and sidewalks. A key element of the plan is a crosswalk that calms traffic and collects stormwater.
Value of Services: $35,000

Nicetown CDC
Gateways and Bridges: Conceptual Design for a Neighborhood Center
This corridor improvement plan offers design strategies for bringing vibrancy to several blocks of Germantown Avenue by connecting key landmarks and community assets including the Roosevelt Expressway Bridge underpass, Nicetown Park, Edward T. Steele Public School, and the Wayne Junction train station.
Value of Services: $26,500

Friends of Marconi Plaza/Lower Moyamensing Civic Association
Conceptual Master Plan for Park Improvements
Traffic calming is a key aspect of this conceptual plan for a large neighborhood park in South Philadelphia. Landscape improvements recommended for the park would allow park users to safely cross busy South Broad Street, which bisects the park.
Value of Services: $34,500

Park(ing) Day Philadelphia
Pallet Park
Temporary projects can be a great way to try out new ideas for walkability. This mini-park was designed by Collaborative volunteers and built from recycled pallets for Park(ing) Day, a multi-city event that encourages people to re-imagine meter parking spots as green public space.
Value of Services: $27,000

Roxborough Development Corporation
Conceptual Design for 6170 Ridge Avenue Park
A driveway between shops was redesigned as an inviting link between a public parking lot and the Ridge Avenue Commercial Corridor in Roxborough. The new connection is enlivened by a curving pedestrian path, planting beds, a sitting area, and a mural.
Value of Services: $40,000

Walkability is a measure of how friendly a community is to walking. Walkability’s impact is not limited to the built environment—it affects to well-being, safety, environmental quality, and economic vitality of communities.

Walkability is something that Philadelphia does well. We rank fifth in the nation in walkability, according to Walk Score. Joe Minott, executive director of the Clean Air Council, noting our good standing at last night’s Urban Sustainability Forum, posed the question, “What do we have to do to become #1?”

Dom Nozzi, executive director of Walkable Streets, says the next wave of transportation planning and design will focus on “fixing the mistakes we’ve made.” “It’s not about providing new facilities for pedestrians, but about taking some of the space now allotted to cars and putting it into the realm of pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Taking the space from cars and using it for bicyclists and pedestrians results in a very different design philosophy for the public right of way. After decades of designing “forgiving streets,” transportation planners are embracing “street chaos”, which is a lot less risky than it sounds.

Forgiving streets are engineered with wide lanes, easy turns, and plenty of stoplights to reduce the attention and decision-making demanded of drivers. Instead of making streets safer, though, forgiving streets has engendered inattentive drivers… and more traffic accidents.

Street chaos—right of ways designed to force drivers to slow down and pay attention—has a toolbox that includes chicanes, surface patterns and textures, and mid-block pedestrian crossings. Last October’s Better Blocks Philly demonstrated these design elements of walkability convincingly.

“It’s not so much about training professionals to design walkable streets,” says Nozzi, “but more about giving them permission to apply what they already know.” He recounted a story about a city official who put out a call for a safe intersection design for parents with children. He was flooded with ideas and options.

Philadelphia is ahead of the game, according to city planner Debby Schaaf, who is leading Philadelphia’s soon-to-be-completed pedestrian and bicycle plan. Our city’s mix of land uses puts lots of useful destinations (stores, restaurants, the gym—and work, if you’re lucky) within walking distance. Our narrow easy-to-cross streets, a continuous network of sidewalks, and (oddly enough)short signal cycles that minimize waits at intersections encourage walking.

For all that, Philly rates a silver level designation from the Walk Friendly Communities Program , a nationwide program with the goal of encouraging towns and cities throughout the United States to establish (or recommit to) a high priority for encouraging and supporting more safe walking. What do we have to do to go for the gold?

Walk Friendly says Philadelphia needs to pay more attention to our network of sidewalks—keeping them in good repair and retrofitting many of them. A full time pedestrian coordinator on the city’s staff and training to help city officials support walkability in their day-to-day decision making would also earn us points.

Walkability is a fascinating corner (intersection?) of transportation planning where lots of innovative, interdisciplinary thinking is happening. It promises to have a growing influence.

Bradley Flamm of Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities tells us to watch out for these emerging trends: a new focus on walkability in suburban places (where half of all Americans now live), universal design principles applied to entire neighborhoods, and a more critical inquiry into the relationship between the built environment and community health.

20th anniversary highlights: a celebration, exhibition, conference, two design charrettes, a book, and design concepts and construction for nonprofit clients.

Last year the William Penn Foundation gave the Community Design Collaborative a $150,000 matching grant to encourage more individuals and groups to donate to the Collaborative. I am pleased to report that we made the match!

Many thanks to our staff, board, advisory council, volunteers, friends and families, who donated (often more than once) during our 20^th Anniversary fundraising campaign.

Watching your donations flow in during the final weeks of 2011 was a great way to cap off our 20^th anniversary year. Of course, if you’d like to put a cherry on top, you can do so here.  This is a wonderful validation of our work together to strengthen neighborhoods through design!

Here’s a toast to another 20 years of the Collaborative and – most of all – to YOU! Thank you very much for all of your support. Best wishes for a merry and bright new year !

Beth Miller, Executive Director
Community Design Collaborative

"We want to create momentum for revitalization by engaging members of the community in the design process," says Robin Kohles, Project Associate at the Collaborative.

The Community Design Collaborative will be part of the 17th Annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on Monday, January 16 at the Girard College Armory, 2101 South College Avenue. The Day of Service event offers Philadelphians a central place to volunteer or access services on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The Collaborative is hosting a design advice booth where businesses and residents of Fairmount, Brewerytown, and Francisville will receive one-on-one design consultations. Architects and landscape architects will on hand from 9 AM until noon on January 16 to advise neighborhood business and home owners on how to improve their storefront facades, home exteriors, or front yards. The advice booth is a partnership between the Community Design Collaborative, Fairmount CDC, Brewerytown CDC, and Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The architects and landscape architects staffing the advice booth on MLK Day are offering their design services pro bono as volunteers of the Collaborative.  “The Collaborative wants to celebrate the contributions of the design professionals to a national volunteer effort… and create momentum for revitalization by engaging members of the community in the design process,” says Robin Kohles, architect and coordinator of the MLK Design Day of Service, “We’ll be fielding questions about maintenance and renovation strategies, building and plant materials, historic preservation, waterproofing, energy efficiency, and more.”

Business and home owners located within the service areas of the three community development corporations are eligible for a consultation. Participants must bring one or more photographs of their property to the consultation. No pre-registration is required.  Each consultation will provide an action plan, sketch, and list of resources to help businesses and residents carry out improvements to their stores and homes.

A warm reception and a growing need: Conceptual design will help Interim House improve its residential and outpatient programs.

The Community Design Collaborative rounded out a year of service grants with three awards to community-based nonprofits.

Collaborative volunteers will provide Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation with facade improvement consultations for the Ridge Avenue Commercial Corridor. The mission of Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation is to improve the quality of life in the Francisville community through commercial and residential equitable development and to implement programs designed to develop youth, aid senior citizens, and generally invest in the people of Francisville.

Interim House, Inc., located in Northwest Philadelphia, empowers women to recover from drug and alcohol addiction, pursue healthy lifestyles and find purpose and meaning in their lives. A conceptual design will help Interim House develop a strategy for improving  its residential and outpatient programs– and respond to a growing need.

Finally, a service grant to Masterman Home & School Association/Masterman Foundation will result in a conceptual design for improving the library at Julia R. Masterman Middle and High School. Masterman Home & School Association/Masterman Foundation is a non-profit, non-sectarian and non-partisan organization for the promotion of cooperation between the home, school and community that coordinates efforts of staff and parents for the growth, education and development of children and raises funds to further the goals of the school.

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Bouyant: The Collaborative began its 20th anniversary year by celebrating with the hundreds of nonprofits and designers we've brought together. Help us complete 2011 on a high note.

Your donation through the Collaborative’s 2011 Annual Appeal can have twice the impact. If you give by December 31, your gift will be doubled!

Here’s how: The William Penn Foundation made a challenge grant to encourage people and organizations to give during our 20th anniversary year. We’re close to meeting our $150,000 match goal. Help us make the match! Even a modest gift will help.

Since 1991, we’ve been bringing nonprofit leaders together with volunteer design professionals to strengthen neighborhoods through design and make Philadelphia and the region a better place to live, work, study, and enjoy.Your donation will help the Collaborative continue to make a real difference in our communities.

Thank you and best wishes for the holidays and the new year!

Warmly,

Beth Miller
Executive Director

Dickinson Square in November as construction began. Photo courtesy of Plan Philly.

Construction for Dickinson Square has begun! With hulking, dying sycamore trees and buildings, pathways, and other infrastructure last renovated in the ’70s, Dickinson Square was due for a remake. The Friends of Dickinson Square received a service grant from the Collaborative in 2007 to envision the sustainable redesign of this popular Pennsport park.

Since then, Phase 1 of the park’s improvements have been funded by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation and placed into the able hands of LRSLA Studio.  Ashley Hahn of Plan Philly’s Eyes on the Street shares her walk-through of the just-begun renovation project as the construction fence rose and the diseased old trees fell.

Camille Cazon spent 2011 at the Collaborative thanks to AmeriCorps Vista. Check out her parting thoughts on the Collaborative, Philly, community design, and where she’s going next–plus her animated holiday greeting from Cali.

At the Collaborative, Camille helped Robin Kohles with rStore design services, advising business owners on façade improvements and participating on the committee that reviews applications for the city’s Storefront Improvement Program grants.

She also coordinated several of our 20th anniversary events. You may have met Camille as she organized our exhibition and Park(ing) Day installation this fall. On top of all that, Camille had an important behind-the-scenes role in putting together the Design in Action 2011 conference. We quickly came to value her hands-on design chops, great ear for what’s current in community design, and ability to make things happen.

Camille arrived in Philly via Berkeley, Dallas, and New York City. Knowing that her time here was limited, she created an “East Coast Bucket List” and made road trips to Montreal, Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh. When we reluctantly bid her farewell in November, we knew her travels ISO public-interest architecture opportunities are far from over.

I touched base with Camille last week.

What would be your theme song for the past year?
Silver Lining by Rilo Kiley. I like swaying back and forth to the rhythm.

What was the best part about working at the Collaborative/living in Philly?
The best part about working at the Collaborative was working with awesome people who are doing awesome things that matter. And of course its proximity to the Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown (I miss my Thai tea runs).

The best part about living in Philly is the fact that I can now say I lived in Will Smith’s ‘hood. The worst part was when SEPTA and I would get into fights;  I always ended up holding back tears.

What was one of the first things you did when you got back to California?
Cliche and Californian, I went straight to In-N-Out and got a Double-Double with Fries and a Vanilla Shake. Yum.

I know you’ve had a taste of several parts of the country. Where’d you like to head next?
I’m targeting the Midwest this time around. I would love to work in Detroit or Cleveland. I tend to romanticize gritty cities.

Who should we be following next year in the world of community design?
Hester Street Collaborative of NYC; they just secured funding for their work in Pier 42. And Detroit Collaborative Design Center.

You gave each of us a parting note—and sketch. Now draw us a holiday note.
My drawing’s above. And here’s a holiday video:

Happy Holidays! from Camille Cazon on Vimeo.