Posted by Beth Miller, Executive Director:
Since we’ve been celebrating our 20^thanniversary, 2011 has been an action-packed year at the Collaborative. But even in this extraordinary year, the ribbon cutting for APM’s Sheridan Street Housing stands out as one of the highlights.

Like all good things, these 13 contemporary, sustainable homes took time, perseverance, and partnerships. I feel lucky to have seen this project take shape, gain momentum, and get built.

While Sheridan Street Housing remained true to the original design concept developed at its start with the Collaborative—a minor miracle in itself—it also ended up being much more. It opened up new horizons for an experienced community development corporation and a young design firm. It inspired policy change. And it influenced what private developers offer homebuyers. Read Full Story

“Not a Vacant Lot”, built on a vacant lot in the middle of vibrant Center City, gathered our free-floating anxiety about Philly’s huge stock of vacant land into something more tangible and hopeful. The Broad Street art installation contained 250 PVC pipes that represent the geographic distribution of Philly’s 40,000 vacant lots and an aluminum play house that displays artists’ interventions on vacant lots throughout the city. The installation was the starting point for Nathaniel Popkin’s recent Inquirer column about the city’s vacant land, how it got there, and new directions in which it could go.

Our vast and varied stock of vacant land—residential, commercial, and industrial—distinguishes us from other major East Coast cities, but only if we can unleash its potential.  It’s simultaneously a singular resource for adding things new and necessary to the city and a tough nut to crack. Check out Nathaniel’s conversations with people who are putting vacant land back into play, including the Collaborative’s Beth Miller.

Check out WHYY’s Friday Arts interview today with  Beth Miller, Executive Director of the Community Design Collaborative, on how the Crane Building fits into the American Street neighborhood, and how the revitalization of that building by Crane Arts fits in well with Philadelphia’s history and future.

The Crane Building, located on American Street just north of Girard Avenue, has become a nexus of artistic activities for the Northern Liberties/Fishtown/Kensington area. By turns an industrial plumbing factory and fish processing center, the Crane building has stood for over a hundred years in an oddly-shaped North Philadelphia triangular lot. Now the building houses art shows and arts organizations, artists and craftspeople, architects and designers, and the the number and variety of arts-related professions keeps growing, as it changes the immediately surrounding neighborhood.

If you haven’t read it yet, check out last Friday’s Changing Skyline for Inga Saffron’s take on Philadelphia’s recent successes with infill development. Collaborative board member and volunteer Brian Phillips is featured.

Brian Phillips. Photo by Laurence Kesterton of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Collaborative has released a report presenting the dozens of design concepts developed at its Industrial Sites Interim Reuse Charrette.  The October 2009  charrette challenged four teams to design temporary uses for vacant industrial sites selected by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and the New Kensington Community Development Corporation.Volunteer firm KSK Architects Planners Historians documented project sites, researched design precedents, and facilitated the charrette.

The charrette encouraged a sense of fun and experimentation towards an often intractable problem: long-term vacant industrial lots. The designers created a range of temporary, low cost, and high impact solutions that could help reclaim, repurpose, and raise the profile of vacant industrial sites in neighborhoods in Philadelphia and other older, American cities.

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The Collaborative recently made a trip up to Brooklyn, NY for a tour of  once-abandoned factory buildings redeveloped by Greenpoint Manufacturing & Design Center (GMDC) for use by new, small manufacturing businesses.  Locally, GMDC teamed up with the Women’s Community Revitalization Project to serve as a client for Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites.  GMDC and WCRP wanted to explore possibilities for re-purposing a cluster of industrial buildings on Oxford Street as a mixed-use development that combines affordable housing with space for fabrication.

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An idea from the Collaborative’s Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites Temporary Reuse Design Charrette has got legs and is on the move! The charrette brought together a diverse group, including designers, artists, community groups, and developer and Philadelphia native David Belt, the keynote speaker, to consider ways to enliven vacant sites through temporary installations.

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