In The Media

Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City

by Linda Dottor — July 29th, 2009   |   In The Media

philadelphia_architecture_a-guide

The Center for Architecture announces the third edition of Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City, the most comprehensive book on the architectural treasures of Philadelphia. Authored by John Andrew Gallery, the guide provides descriptions and photographs of over four hundred of Philadelphia’s important buildings, seven walking tours, historical timelines, and short biographies of Philadelphia architects like Frank Furness and Louis Kahn.

Available at www.aiabookstore.com or the AIA Bookstore and Design Center, 1218 Arch Street.

Looking for fresh food in all the right places

by Linda Dottor — July 24th, 2009   |   Food Access, In The Media

Grocery bag

Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative is gaining national prominence for funding fresh food retail projects in under-served communities and raising the vitality of the both communities and their residents in the process. Top Obama officials visited the bustling new ShopRite in West Parkside yesterday to see the impact of FFFI firsthand.

ShopRite’s attention to the nuances of customer service and preferences shows that supermarkets are not all the same. Revisit Infill Philadelphia: Food Access for even more ideas on how to break the mold and bring fresh food back to urban communities.

Out and about: grid

by Haley Loram — July 6th, 2009   |   Clients, In The Media

The June 2009 issue of grid features Jerome Shabazz

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.

Collaborative Intern Angelo Drummond

by Linda Dottor — June 29th, 2009   |   In The Media, Partnerships

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

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

A Teaching Moment: Greening Greenfield

by Linda Dottor — June 12th, 2009   |   Clients, In The Media

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

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

Sunshine on a cloudy day

by Linda Dottor — June 5th, 2009   |   Best Practices, In The Media

City in the Rain by artsyexistence

City in the Rain by artsyexistence

Read the response to the last question in PlanPhilly’s exit interview with Mark Alan Hughes for some optimistic words on sustainability and Philadelphia.

Shout out to the 100K House

by Haley Loram — May 11th, 2009   |   In The Media

A rendering of the 100K House, by ISA

A rendering of the 100K House, one of four under construction in East Kensington. Courtesy of ISA

Good news for green, affordable design! The 100 K House is featured in Inga Saffron’s latest Changing Skyline column, “Building a McMini.” Described by Saffron as “the antithesis of the McMansion,” the 100K House is being developed by Chad Ludeman,  founder of Postgreen, and designed by Brian Phillips, principal of Interface Studio Architects and a Collaborative Board Member and volunteer.

In Saffron’s column, Brian notes that the design for the 100K House is the close cousin of ISA’s green affordable housing design for APM on Sheridan Street as part of the Infill Affordable Housing Design Challenge. “Both projects [...] are trying to boil a house down to – not exactly the essence – but to an understandable series of components. Reducing the number of components is the key to affordability.”

ISA received the 2006 AIA Philadelphia Silver Award from AIA Philadelphia in 2006 for the Sheridan Street design.

A rendering of the Sheridan Street green affordable housing design

A rendering of the Sheridan Street design by ISA