PECO presented $10,000 to The Enterprise Center CDC to support the development of the Walnut Hill Community Farm. The grant was awarded yesterday through PECO’s Green Region Open Space Program. Green Region grants, administered by PECO in partnership with the Natural Lands Trust, help municipalities in Southeastern Pennsylvania plan for, protect, and improve open land.

The Community Design Collaborative is working with The Enterprise Center CDC to create a conceptual master plan for the farm, a quarter-acre lot in the shadow of the Market Street El. Read Full Story

Rendering of the conceptual design for new driveway and expanded facilities.

Libertae, Inc. wants to enhance the services it offers to mothers who are recovering from substance abuse and mental health issues, but the Bucks County-based organization needs to expand its facilities to make room for new programs and more clients.

A multi-disciplinary Community Design Collaborative volunteer team worked with Libertae, a nonprofit that seeks to empower women and their families to maintain sobriety though comprehensive treatment, to develop a conceptual design for expanding and updating their Learning Center in Bensalem to keep up with the growing organization.  Libertae’s site on Bensalem Boulevard consists of two buildings that house women and their children in different stages of rehabilitation, the Halfway House and the Family House. Libertae wanted to transform a conference room in the Family House into a multi-purpose space as well as increase parking on the property and reduce energy consumption.

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Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy, North 5th Street in El Centro de Oro, Ridge Avenue in Roxborough, and Lancaster Avenue in Mantua/Powelton Village have gotten facelifts through the city’s Restore Targeted Blocks Facade Program. Corridor Managers on the staffs of Mt. Airy USA, HACE, People’s Emergency Center CDC, Roxborough Development Corporation and Korean Community Development Services. implemented the program, which provided funding for the design and construction of 15 to 20 façade improvement projects ranging from new signage to lighting to window replacement.

Volunteer architects with the Community Design Collaborative provided some of the initial design concepts for two of the participating corridors through the Collaborative’s rStore program. In 2007 Collaborative volunteers provided design consultations to Nickens Agency Inc., The Eye Institute, and Karate Academy in Mt. Airy and with Cambria Pharmacy on North 5th Street.  The business owners then worked with Mt. Airy USA and HACE to secure funding for the improvements through the Targeted Blocks program.

Check out these before, after and preliminary design images of some of the featured storefronts.

Philadelphia has thousands of flat roofs that lay empty soaking up the sun and collecting rain. But imagine if those roofs were transformed into vibrant farms that provided locally grown food to neighborhood residents.

That is the vision a group of neighbors, gardeners, architects, and builders had when they formed Philadelphia Rooftop Farm (PRooF) to explore the possibilities for building organic farms on residential roofs in Philadelphia.

“Rooftop farming is a natural idea once you stand on a roof looking out at all the available space.  The volume of produce you could grow is exciting,” said Jay Sand, one of the founders of PRooF.

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The Community Design Collaborative is pleased to announce our second round of service grants for 2010.  Design professionals volunteering with the Collaborative will be helping LOGAN Hope, Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Refuge for the Perishing Holy Temple, and Friends of Schuylkill River Park design and advance projects that will improve open space in the city and enhance social service and educational facilities.

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Six storeowners along North Frankford Avenue now have a new vision for enhancing their storefronts, thanks to the efforts of Collaborative volunteers who worked with the storeowners to develop conceptual designs for façade improvements.

Intern architects Michelle Shuman, Karena Thurston and Alexander Will and cost estimator Scott Dalinka volunteered with the Collaborative through its rStore program to work with the six business owners recruited by Theresa Hanas, Frankford Community Development Corporation’s Main Street Coordinator.

The improvements are part of Frankford CDC’s larger plans for revitalizing Frankford Avenue. As one of six neighborhood business districts in the Philadelphia area that participates in the Main Street Program, Frankford CDC has developed a multi-pronged approach to economic revitalization. The program encourages a strategic emphasis on Design, Promotion, Organization, and Economic Restructuring.

“Working with designers is awesome.  It puts ideas out there that the business owners and I would not have come up with on our own,” said Hanas.

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Al Spivey, Jr. and WNCA volunteer and park advocate Craig Ablin, flanked by some of Wisshickon Neighbors Park's oldest and youngest fans.

It’s been said that it takes a village to raise a child. In Wissahickon’s case, it takes a neighborhood to raise a park.

Over the past six months, a team of Collaborative volunteers worked with the Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association on a master plan to revitalize Wissahickon Neighbors Park. Now, the Collaborative’s early design assistance has become a catalyst for a big boost in funding for park improvements.  During this weekend’s Love Your Park Day, park advocates learned that the park will receive $200,000 in city funding.

Wissahickon Neighbors Park was already earmarked for $30,000 in City capital funds when Craig Ablin, leader of  a WNCA committee to improve the park, shared the Collaborative’s plans and renderings with Councilman Curtis Jones.  WNCA’s compelling vision– and visuals– convinced Jones to make the case for more funding.  Read Full Story