Last Friday was the culmination of a home-building project that has taken five years. Three families from West Philadelphia receive the keys to their new LEED-certified houses, built by Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia. The Wright, Wanamaker and Seawright families each dedicated 350 hours of sweat equity to building their homes.

These homes are part of a seven-unit affordable housing development designed to have low energy costs. In 2005 The firm of WRT and the Energy Coordinating Agency donated pro bono design services worth over $21,000 to perform a feasibility study for the project and develop a sustainable design that would be consistent with the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood. The Collaborative is proud to have contributed to the design of this groundbreaking project.

Take a look at a slideshow

The June 2009 issue of grid features Jerome Shabazz

Check out the latest issue of grid magazine for a feature story on the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, a 2005 Community Design Collaborative project. The  Collaborative’s early design assistance helped founder Jerome Shabazz plan and fund eco-friendly improvements to turn this former granite quarry into an urban environmental learning center.

Also, Collaborative volunteer Allison Kelsey shares her recipe for Smashed Potatoes and Broccoli in the In Season section.

grid can be found in the AIA Bookstore.

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

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

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.

Frankford Friends School (FFS) reports that it  has hired the architecture firm DIGSAU to design a new middle school facility on its historic property in Frankford. This long-awaited expansion will unite the school’s sixth, seventh, and eight grade classrooms on the main campus, along with adding a music room and multipurpose space.

Frankford Friends School leaders engaged the Community Design Collaborative last year to help its Capital Campaign Committee determine the best course for expansion. Read Full Story

Congratulations to this round of Collaborative service grant recipients!

The Collaborative is pleased to award service grants to eight outstanding nonprofits. They are:  Central Germantown Council; Legal Aid of Southeastern PA; Northwestern Stables; Nueva Esperanza, Inc.; Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance ; Visitation BVM School; Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association, and Wynnefield Overbrook Revitalization Corporation.

Thank you to everyone who has offered to volunteer on this round of projects. We will contact everyone shortly to finalize team placements.