Images courtesy of exhibit participants C&G Partners, Cho Benn Holdback+Associates, Inc., Allen + Killcoyne Architects and Lynch/Eisinger/Design.

The Community Design Collaborative has been busy putting together Retooling Industrial Sites, an exhibit that will showcase the work of over 50 design firms in transforming old industrial sites back to productive use.  Leading examples of industrial reuse in Philadelphia and inspiring projects from cities across the country will be on display at the Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA from February 5 through March 26.

The exhibit will serve as a forum for the growing interest in industrial sites and urban manufacturing. It will also highlight the important role of design in making industry a new and positive part of urban neighborhoods.  The featured projects pay homage to the industrial past and provide a vision for a new industrial and urban renaissance.

Read Full Story

Macro Sea's David Belt sets the bar for the interim use charrette. Photo by Mark Garvin.

Check out Plan Philly’s post on the Collaborative’s  interim use charrette, Infill Philadelphia: Boldness redefines ‘community center’ .

Thomas J. Walsh writes:  “Planners, designers and architects attending a day-long design charrette last Friday did not need to be told to be creative, and adapt, when it comes to the short-term re-use of vacant, urban industrial sites – of which Philadelphia has more than its share.

They probably didn’t need any nudges in the direction of going green with their approaches, or to be bold.

From an inspiring guest speaker and critic, though, they just might have gotten a new take on an old saw for a valuable take-away lesson: ‘It’s a lot easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.’

That was the advice of David Belt, president of the New York-based design firm Macro Sea and one of the guys behind Brooklyn’s celebrated dumpster swimming pools.”

Last Friday’s Industrial Sites: An Interim Use Charrette provided a forum for discussing issues surrounding vacant industrial sites in Philadelphia. Charrette participants produced an exciting and diverse array of concepts for enlivening overlooked and neglected industrial lots, buildings, and infrastructure. The charrette was held as part of the annual Design on the Delaware and was a partnership between the Community Design Collaborative, the AIA Urban Design Committee and the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations.

Four multidisciplinary teams of designers, including architects, landscape architects, planners and public artists, were charged with designing temporary uses for four vacant industrial sites selected with help from the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and The New Kensington Community Development Corporation. Volunteers from KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. provided the base materials, including site photos and precedents, and led the charrette teams.

Read Full Story

Our volunteer recognition event during DesignPhiladelphia was a huge success!  Over 120 people attended and the presentation was standing room only.

The talk by Terry Schwarz raised interesting issues about vacant land and temporary reuse.  Her work with Pop Up City in Cleveland provides some creative ideas for revitalizing urban areas, fostering community engagement and utilizing neglected infrastructure.  Schwarz discussed past Pop Up events including a winter festival called Leap Night, a community celebration on a neglected bridge and an artists’ bazaar in an empty building.

The Collaborative will continue working on these issues with our Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites Interim Use Charrette on October 30.  Design professionals, public artists, and nonprofit and city planners will devise creative temporary projects to enliven vacant small-scale  neighborhood industrial sites in Chinatown and Kensington.

Philadelphia, PA – October 12, 2009 – Former industrial sites are great assets in Philadelphia but the process of purchasing, remediating, and redeveloping a former site can take years. The Community Design Collaborative hopes to accelerate that process and calls on designers and other creative users to participate in a charrette that will consider options to enliven sites in the interim.

The charrette is the first in a series of events that make up Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites, and will take place on Friday, October 30th during the 3-day “7th Annual Design on the Delaware Conference & Trade Show” (Oct 28-30). Read Full Story

A front porch for Palumbo Park? The conceptual landscape master plan for Palumbo Park is our 2009 Community Design Award recipient.

Join the Community Design Collaborative on Tuesday, October 13 at 6 p.m. at the Center for Architecture to celebrate the work of the volunteers who contributed their time and expertise on projects initiated in 2008  and recognize some of our outstanding volunteers, leaders, and projects.  Stay with us for the rest of the evening as the Collaborative presents Ad Hoc Urbanism: Adventures in Temporary Reuse, a talk by Terry Schwarz of the Cleveland Urban Design Center on Pop Up City.

The Collaborative is proud to announce its 2009 award recipients:

Read Full Story

Who could have predicted that in the midst of a recession year, the Collaborative would be recognized at more nonprofit ground-breaking ceremonies than ever before?

Celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of our volunteers, nonprofits and civic associations who have dedicated their time to strengthening neighborhoods through design:

You understand the value of the Community Design Collaborative’s work in Philadelphia neighborhoods.  Here’s a simple way you can impact both. Make a donation before October 13th and you will help save paper and postage!

The Collaborative thanks you!