Roll out with the Community Design Collaborative for our Sweet Sixteen Bowling Ball on Saturday, June 9 at Erie Lanes. Join us for an evening of bowling, fun, food, and prizes. Bring your A-game and most creative (and perhaps delightfully retro?) costumes and be a winner!

Proceeds from the Bowling Ball support the Collaborative and its volunteer efforts to strengthen neighborhoods through design.  Sponsor a lane for your team of five and opportunities for logo recognition and commemorative tees. Learn more about sponsor levels and benefits here.

You’ll be in great company! Join the fabulous firms and folks who have already signed on as Bowling Ball sponsors:

TEN PIN
Voith and Mactavish Architects

TOP SPIN
AIA Philadelphia
Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
Alice Berman
Bruce E. Brooks & Associates
CDA & I Architecture and Interiors, Ltd.
Michael and Amy Cohen
DIGSAU Architecture/Urbanism
Interface Studio Architects, LLC
KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc.
Liberty Property Trust
Mainstay Engineering
O’Donnell & Naccarato, Inc.
OLIN
Pennoni Associates, Inc.
The Reinvestment Fund
Viridian Landscape Studio
Wallace Roberts & Todd
Zimmerman Studio LLC

COMMUNITY BOWLERS’ CLUB
Dale Corporation
Michael J. Paul
Darrick Mix
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations

16^th Annual Bowling Ball
Saturday, June 9
Registration and Mixer 6-7 PM
Bowling 7-10 PM

ERIE LANES
1310 Erie Avenue
Just one block from the Erie-Torresdale Subway Station and minutes from Center City

Register!

Thursday, May 10, 2012
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street

Join us for a presentation of great ideas for greening schoolyards, the result of an all-day design charrette exploring how we can create greener, more sustainable schoolyards in Philadelphia.

Transforming Urban Schoolyards will present design concepts for greening two Philadelphia public schools—Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia and Kelly Elementary School in Germantown—and offer inspiring models for greening schoolyards throughout the city.

Green schoolyards are a key strategy in Green City, Clean Waters, Philadelphia’s innovative 25-year stormwater management plan. See how Greenfield Elementary School is contributing…

Get engaged and ready to green your neighborhood school—and be part of a public conversation about the impact of greening schoolyards throughout the city. Reception to follow.

Free and open to the public. RSVP

Co-hosted by the Community Design Collaborative,  AIA Philadelphia,  Philadelphia Water Department, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

A playground, a park, and a schoolyard are getting greener, thanks to the efforts of their nonprofit champions— and a little help from the Community Design Collaborative. Here’s the dirt on the hundreds of thousands of dollars to be invested in Weccacoe Playground, Schuylkill River Park, and Nebinger Elementary School.

Read Full Story

Complex inside and out: Matt Braun in the exhibition space at the heart of a campus that includes several rowhomes, a parking lot, a 19th century church sanctuary, a former funeral home, and a even an old orphanage.

How do you take an eclectic collection of old, historic buildings and adapt them to meet the needs of emerging artists in the 21^st century?  That’s a question Matt Braun, executive director of the Fleisher Art Memorial, asks every day.

We caught up with Matt Braun last month to talk about the Collaborative’s latest pro bono design project with Fleisher—a Request for Proposals for a master plan. View our video interview below the jump. Read Full Story

Rendering by Studio Gaea

Join us for Transforming Urban Schoolyards on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at the Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street. Co-hosted by the Community Design Collaborative, AIA Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Water Department, this design charrette will explore how we can create greener, more sustainable schoolyards in Philadelphia.

Transforming Urban Schoolyards will focus on two Philadelphia public schools: Lea Elementary School in West Philadelphia and Kelly Elementary School in Germantown. In the process of brainstorming ideas for Lea and Kelly Schools, the charrette will generate design models for greening schoolyards throughout the city.

There are two ways to participate!

Design Charrette
8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
$50/$40 for AIA Members and Collaborative volunteers who have previously donated design services. Register.
Design professionals are invited to collaborate with students, parents, and teachers from Lea and Kelly Schools and representatives from public agencies. Charrette participants will present their design concepts for greening schoolyards to the public and a panel of experts in education, community development, and sustainability.

The Transforming Urban Schoolyards Design Charrette provides breakfast, lunch, an evening reception, and 8 CEH (Continuing Education Hours) to participating design professionals.

Public Presentation
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public. RSVP.
Working to green your schoolyard or neighborhood? Join us for a public presentation of the ideas generated through the Transforming Urban Schoolyards Design Charrette.

A panel of experts in education, community development, and sustainability will respond to the ideas generated by charrette participants. The presentation will wrap up with a lively audience Q & A session. Reception to follow.

Craig Ablin is a member of Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association and passionate champion for Wissahickon Neighbors Park. Craig met up with us recently at the park, which hugs the hillside of this Northwest Philly neighborhood.

“I moved here six years ago.’ Craig said, “My wife’s from Scotland originally and I’m from Chicago. We were living in New Orleans. We were actually Hurricane Katrina evacuees… the nice thing about New Orleans is it’s a pretty tight community.” Craig saw the potential for Wissahickon Neighbors Park to create a stronger sense of community in his newly-adopted neighborhood.

The park had fallen into neglect and “there were only two user groups,” Craig recalled, “the basketball courts drew kids in their teens and twenties and the play equipment drew families with young children. There was no reason why other people would come in… part of changing the park was to broaden its users.”

Craig began advocating for the park, pushing for renovations and getting everyone to pitch in with the park’s upkeep. Today, the park looks clean and cared-for. But, Craig tells us, it wasn’t until the Collaborative created a pro bono “big-picture” plan for the park that major renovations became a reality.

Now the park is poised to involve everyone: The entrance will be reinvented as the neighborhood’s communal porch—a pleasant place to for some fresh-air sitting, reading, texting, etc. And the already-active basketball and play areas will become even more versatile!

Taking the first step towards a master plan to renovate: Collaborative volunteers will assess the current condition of homes in the Friends Housing Cooperative.

The Community Design Collaborative is pleased to announce its latest grants of preliminary design services. The Collaborative’s spring crop of service grants will build stronger neighborhoods through design—and lead to high-quality affordable housing, engaged youth, vibrant commercial corridors, and healthy families.

The Friends Housing Cooperative, in partnership with WCRP, will receive design services to guide renovations of its historic and affordable cooperative housing in East Poplar and Northern Liberties.

The Landsowne Boys and Girls Club was awarded a grant to investigate the replacement of a deteriorated park pavilion that is instrumental to operating its recreational and sports programs.

Manayunk Development Corporation will work with a volunteer design team to explore design strategies for the canal-side facades of several Main Street Manayunk businesses.

Puentes Salud (Bridges of Health) will receive design assistance to transform a vacant commercial space into an innovative community health and wellness center serving South Philadelphia’s Latino immigrant population.

Revelation Outreach Community Center, Inc. will work with a volunteer team on a conceptual design to envision a sustainable, mixed-use development in the Mantua neighorhood.

Know a nonprofit that needs us? The Collaborative’s service grants can answer important questions: What’s our vision? What do we need? What will it look like? What will it cost? With a Collaborative report in hand, nonprofits are well positioned to answer these questions, establish partnerships, obtain funding, and gain community support for their projects. Apply!