A warm reception and a growing need: Conceptual design will help Interim House improve its residential and outpatient programs.

The Community Design Collaborative rounded out a year of service grants with three awards to community-based nonprofits.

Collaborative volunteers will provide Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation with facade improvement consultations for the Ridge Avenue Commercial Corridor. The mission of Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation is to improve the quality of life in the Francisville community through commercial and residential equitable development and to implement programs designed to develop youth, aid senior citizens, and generally invest in the people of Francisville.

Interim House, Inc., located in Northwest Philadelphia, empowers women to recover from drug and alcohol addiction, pursue healthy lifestyles and find purpose and meaning in their lives. A conceptual design will help Interim House develop a strategy for improving  its residential and outpatient programs– and respond to a growing need.

Finally, a service grant to Masterman Home & School Association/Masterman Foundation will result in a conceptual design for improving the library at Julia R. Masterman Middle and High School. Masterman Home & School Association/Masterman Foundation is a non-profit, non-sectarian and non-partisan organization for the promotion of cooperation between the home, school and community that coordinates efforts of staff and parents for the growth, education and development of children and raises funds to further the goals of the school.

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Dickinson Square in November as construction began. Photo courtesy of Plan Philly.

Construction for Dickinson Square has begun! With hulking, dying sycamore trees and buildings, pathways, and other infrastructure last renovated in the ’70s, Dickinson Square was due for a remake. The Friends of Dickinson Square received a service grant from the Collaborative in 2007 to envision the sustainable redesign of this popular Pennsport park.

Since then, Phase 1 of the park’s improvements have been funded by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation and placed into the able hands of LRSLA Studio.  Ashley Hahn of Plan Philly’s Eyes on the Street shares her walk-through of the just-begun renovation project as the construction fence rose and the diseased old trees fell.

The Collaborative is organizing a design charrette to help The Neighborhood Center re-envision its campus and the vacant land surrounding it as a new mixed-use destination for Camden's under-served.

The Community Design Collaborative’s latest round of service grants will supply neighborhoods with design strategies for bike and pedestrian safety, community theater, green schoolyard, and new models for offering social services.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia received a grant for its Safe Corridors for Healthy Neighborhoods initiative, for which a team of volunteers will develop conceptual designs for streetscape improvements that promote bike and pedestrian safety.

Hansberry Garden and Nature Center and Kelly Elementary School in Germantown will receive assistance through a conceptual master plan for sustainable school grounds.

The West Philadelphia Coalition for Neighborhood Schools/The Enterprise Center CDC received a similar service grant to promote public school sustainability and quality greening, this one aimed at transforming the Lea Elementary School schoolyard.

The Collaborative has awarded Plays & Players, a professional quality theater devoted to supporting established and emerging local artists in practicing and performing their crafts, a service grant for a conceptual master plan to guide facility improvements and preserve original features of this historic theater.

Finally, the Collaborative is organizing a design charrette on November 9 as part of the Design on the Delaware conference to create a conceptual master plan for The Neighborhood Center, an urban outreach center providing social services to residents of Camden, NJ.  To celebrate its 100th anniversary and kick-off an era of new leadership, the Center will host a community visioning workshop to assess the changing needs of Camden residents and identify priorities for evolving and expanding the Center’s services. The insights gained through the visioning workshop will guide the charrette.

The charrette will provide the Center with design strategies for improving and adding buildings, creating a more sustainable campus, integrating open space into social services programming, and introducing a mix of uses that will make it a new destination for Camden’s underserved.

Two nonprofits that got their projects started with help from the Collaborative reached the final stretch last week. Greening Greenfield received a grant of $50,000 from the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund to complete the final phase of its sustainable school yard—a green roof.  And the Center for Literacy opened the doors to its new headquarters in Old City, welcoming a big crowd of supporters that included Mayor Michael Nutter and former mayor W. Wilson Goode. Through their projects, each nonprofit is actively addressing an issue with broad impact.

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The expanded Mariposa will be open for business soon.

Mariposa Food Co-op celebrated the groundbreaking for its new, expanded location—a former Greek Revival bank building on the 4800 block of Baltimore Avenue on Monday, July 27.  For almost forty years, Mariposa has been providing members with access to healthy, locally-grown, and sustainably produced food. They have grown from a buying club with a few dozen members to a full-service store with over 700 member households.

The Community Design Collaborative completed a conceptual design for the relocation and expansion of Mariposa in spring 2010 with a multi-disciplinary, multi-talented project team : Re:Vision Architecture, Larsen and Landis, Thomas Monari, PE, John Colarelli, PE, Advanced Foodservice Solutions, and Gardner/Fox Associates.

Mariposa immediately got busy raising funds for the project. Fundraising hit the 90% mark recently. With only $25,000 more to go, the co-op is on track to start construction at the end of this month and open the new store this October. Read Full Story

The Lighthouse, Inc. Executive Director, John Lavery, (left) stands outside The Lighthouse, Inc.’s field house, which is in need of a new roof. Mt. Airy’s branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia (right) has under-utilized outdoor space that could become a place for community gatherings.

The Community Design Collaborative has awarded seven service grants to nonprofit organizations and public agencies in greater Philadelphia in its Spring 2011 round.

The Collaborative provided a service grant to The Lighthouse, Inc. to assess the feasibility of replacing the roof on the field house located at their sports fields.  The Lighthouse, Inc. provides local families with educational, recreational, and economic improvement programs as well as teaches individuals to affect positive change and improve the quality of their lives.

Mt. Airy USA received a service grant from the Collaborative to provide a conceptual design for a public gathering space adjacent to the Mt. Airy Free Library. Mt. Airy USA is a community design corporation that preserves, empowers, and advances a vibrant and diverse Mt. Airy.

The Collaborative also awarded the Martin Luther King Older Adult Center Advisory Council/West Oak Lane Senior Center with a service grant for a conceptual design for a new, expanded senior center facility.  Situated in lower North Philadelphia, the Martin Luther King Older Adult Center is a vibrant senior center that strives to make a significant difference in the quality of life of older Philadelphians by helping them maintain a fulfilling and independent life at home and in the community.

The Meredith Home & School Association/Queen Village Neighbors Association was presented with a service grant for the conceptual design for the greening of the Meredith school yard.  Located in South Philadelphia, the Meredith School provides an exceptional public education and educational activities and opportunities to its many students, while simultaneously giving them financial and material support.

The Wallingford Presbyterian Church received a service grant from the Collaborative to prepare a conceptual master plan for improvements to make the church more sustainable, energy-efficient, and accessible.  In today’s ever-changing world, the Wallingford Presbyterian Church, in Wallingford, PA, aspires to be “God’s growing children” who loyally serve Christ.

Two additional service grants were awarded through the Collaborative’s rStore program, which provides pro bono design services in support of commercial corridor revitalization.

The Philadelphia Commerce Department received a service grant to provide preliminary costs for façade improvements for businesses on the 52nd Street Commercial Corridor and the Hispanic Association of Contractors and Enterprises received a service grant for the conceptual design of façade improvements for businesses on the North 5th Street Commercial Corridor.