Angelo's internship with the Collaborative is part of MetEast's Big Picture Learning curriculum. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Our interns are always wonderful, but it’s rare for one to get national coverage!  Angelo Drummond, a 17-year-old junior at MetEast High School in Camden, N.J. and a current Community Design Collaborative intern, was featured in an Associated Press story on Saturday, June 27: No dropouts from this Camden, NJ, high school that has been picked up locally and by newspapers and websites in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami, San Franscisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle.  Read Full Story

Thanks to everybody who came out and made our 13th annual Bowling Ball a fantastic success!

This year we hosted around 300 bowlers on 55 lanes, and raised almost $33,000!

Some lucky bowlers who won prizes include: Alesa Rubendall of WRT won two tickets to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Chris Christakis of CVM won a Continuing Education Course at University of the Arts, and Ben of Olin Studio won a Stark 6′x9′ carpet, valued at $1,700.

We’ll see you at the lanes next year!

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A sunny outlook on North Seventh Street.

Affordable housing doesn’t have to be boring! Mt. Tabor Cyber Village Senior Housing in East Poplar has a colorful contemporary design that looks a lot like neighboring NoLibs. This affordable apartment complex offers its senior residents multiple ways to stay connected: a cyber café, garden, green roof, and fitness center.  Join us on Thursday, July 16 at 6 p.m. for a tour of Mt. Tabor Cyber Village, followed by drinks at The Swift Half, Piazza at Schmidts.  Read Full Story

KlingStubbins brought their costume A-game to the 2008 Bowling Ball. Can you do better?

Tips for the Big Event!

• Arrive early to register your team, pick up lane packets, select balls and pick up shoes.

• Attend our annual Day to Night Mixer at the Lounge, 7-8pm

• Awards will be given for Team Spirit, Team Name, Best Dressed Team, Hi-Score Team, Lo-Score Team, Best Male Bowler, Best Female Bowler, Best Youth Bowler, and Worst Bowler

• Bring a few bucks to take a chance on the raffle with some fabulous prizes: tickets are $5 for one or $10 for three, you must be present to win. Prizes include Stark 6′x9′ wool area rug, an AUTOGRAPHED CARLOS RUIZ BASEBALL, season tickets to InterAct Theatre and many more!

• Food and beverages – hoagies, chips, 2 pitchers of beer/soda per lane – included, cash bar thereafter

• Dress to impress, team photos will be taken

Directions to AMF Boulevard Lanes: 8011 Roosevelt Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 215.332.9200.

From 76-Schuylkill Expressway exit to Roosevelt Boulevard. Approximately 9 miles to Rhawn Street.

• Cross streets along the way are: Rising Sun, Oxford, Harbison, Cottman/73 and then Rhawn
• Cross over to get into the far right, “local lane” before reaching Cottman
• Once in the right lane, look for Rhawn Street, turn right immediately after Rhawn into the parking lot of AMF Boulevard Lanes. Just past the Checkers.

Be there or be square!

Image courtesy of SMP Architect, Viridian Landscape Studio, and Meliora Environmental Design.

Greenfield Elementary School picked an instructive day to celebrate the groundbreaking of Greening Greenfield, its innovative project to “unpave” and plant its playground.  The week began with a commuter-hour cloudburst, and the all-day forecast called for thunderstorms mixed with “isolated storms”.  Luckily, this project’s all about managing stormwater. Inga Saffron explains the connection between Greening Greenfield and Philly’s new resolve to capture stormwater runoff in today’s Changing Skyline column. Hopefully, Greening Greenfield will be the first of many projects that exchange concrete and asphalt for permeable surfaces. Read Full Story

Thanks again to a couple more generous sponsors who are making sure that the young bucks of the lighting design world can join in the fun at our Bowling Ball. Ledalite and Lutron have each sponsored a lane for the Illuminating Engineering Society, (IES.) We’re excited to have IES with us, thanks to the generous support of Ledalite and Lutron.

And, once again, a big thank-you to our Big Lebowski Sponsor: Bittenbender Construction. The Bowling Ball would not be possible without your help!

See you at the lanes!

A 2006 rendering of Greenfield presents the potential for a greener, more sustainable campus for this Philadelphia public school.

Lisa Armstrong, Co-Chair of the Greening Greenfield Committee, writes that the ground breaking for the first phase of the Greening Greenfield project will take place on Thursday, June 11 followed by a community picnic, “a sort of farewell party for the school yard as it it is… Hooray!”

You are invited to celebrate along with Greenfield. The ground breaking ceremony and community picnic is on Thursday, June 11th from 5:30-7:30  at Greenfield School, 2200 Chestnut Street, on the Sansom Street South Play Yard,.

Greening Greenfield is a unique public/private partnership focusing on the transformation of Greenfield School’s urban site into an outdoor laboratory that teaches children about micro-climates, indigenous plants, rain water absorption, energy conservation and harvesting, and their symbiotic relationship to the environment.

The Community Design Collaborative is proud to have had a part at the start of this project. We’ll be on hand to hold a shovel.