The Collaborative’s recent design charrette, Planning for the Next Century of Service, brought over 50 people together to brainstorm about ideas for the Camden campus of The Neighborhood Center. The Collaborative hosted the charrette as part of AIA Philadelphia’s Design on the Delaware conference on November 9.

Room to Grow: The Neighborhood Center wants to expand its South Camden campus onto vacant buildings and land nearby.

Join the Collaborative on Wednesday, November 9 for the URBAN ENERGY II Design Charrette: Planning for the Next Century of Service.  

The Neighborhood Center, an urban outreach mission of the Greater New Jersey Conference United Methodist Churches, has been serving the needs of low-income children, families, and seniors for nearly 100 years from its small campus in South Camden. The Center has room to grow—but needs a strategy for retooling its existing five-building campus and  bringing nearby vacant buildings and land into play.

To celebrate its centennial year, the Center recently convened a community visioning workshop to consider the changing needs of Camden residents and kick off an era of new leadership. The design charrette will translate ideas from the Center’s visioning workshop into conceptual master plans for an expanded campus.

Contribute your design concepts for new spaces and landscapes that support the next generation of social services, create a strong neighborhood anchor, and act as a catalyst for community revitalization. All design disciplines are invited to participate!

Planning for the Next Century of Service is being offered as part of AIA Philadelphia’s Design on the Delaware 2011 conference and provides 8 continuing education credits to members of AIA. Cost:  $50/$25 for AIA Members/$15 for AIA Associates. Register.

SHARE Possibilities: Charrette participants Greg Hart, Bill Shick, Paul Vernon, and Naomi Geschwind brainstorm on design strategies to foster a sense of community.

Can a former ball bearing factory in North Philly become the nexus for a new, sustainable business community?  Over forty design and sustainability professionals got together in April to sketch out ideas for making that happen on a five-acre site in Hunting Park West.

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What is visitability, why is it relevant to all of us, and how can it influence the design and development of new housing in Philadelphia? An October 22 charrette organized by the Community Design Collaborative in partnership with the Philadelphia Visitability Committee and the City of Philadelphia Office of Housing and Community Development posed these questions.

Visitability calls for several basic elements to be incorporated into the first floors of new homes that make them accessible to everyone —at least one no-step entrance, an accessible first-floor half-bath, and doorways and pathways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. These low-cost measures vastly increase our ability to host family and friends, remain in our homes under a wide range of circumstances, and create stronger, more inclusive communities.

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