Collaborative volunteers will develop a conceptual master plan to revitalize Weccaccoe Playground.
The Community Design Collaborative has awarded its first round of service grants for 2010 to The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation, Mantua Community Improvement Committee, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Friends of Weccacoe Playground/Queen Village Neighbors Association, The Friends of Hart Park/Kensington South Neighborhood Advisory Council, Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates and Roxborough Development Corporation. In this round, many of the Collaborative’s clients are working to provide Philadelphia neighborhoods with access to healthy food, and vibrant parks and public spaces.
At 8:30 a.m. bright and early on a Thursday morning, a group of local business owners and intern architects were huddled over photos and diagrams in the Frankford Community Development Corporation’s office sketching and discussing lighting and signage.
The meeting was organized by the Community Design Collaborative as part of the rStore program, which provides preliminary design consultations to groups of small business owners organized by community-based nonprofits. Each rStore project includes a consultation day in which storeowners meet one-on-one with volunteer design professionals.
Collaborative volunteer James Curry, MetEast senior Angelo Drummond and Angelo's adviser Keinan Thompson discuss the Cramer Hill project.
Every Community Design Collaborative service grant begins with a kickoff meeting to present the volunteers with background on the project, the site, the neighborhood and the client and their mission. Last week Angelo Drummond’s vision for a teen lounge in the Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden, NJ moved one step further when the Community Design Collaborative held a kickoff for a project with the Cramer Hill Community Development Corporation to create a conceptual design for a community center based on Angelo’s ideas. At the meeting, the volunteers heard about Angelo’s research while project manager Heidi Levy showed them photos and maps of the site and surrounding area.
Angelo, a senior at MetEast High School, decided to focus his senior thesis on researching and developing a community teen lounge after looking around his neighborhood and seeing that teenagers did not have a safe place to hang out after school. MetEast is a public school established by the nonprofit Big Picture Learning and encourages students to pursue their passions through internships and a senior project that benefits the community. Angelo wanted to help reduce violence in the community by creating a space for teenagers to spend time and participate in events and activities.
Norris Square Civic Association applied for a service grant to redevelop the St. Boniface Church complex.
The Community Design Collaborative has begun work on the final round of service grants for 2009, awarded to the Borough of Millbourne/Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Cedar Park Neighbors Association, Cramer Hill Community Development Corporation, Impact Services Corporation, Logan Community Development Corporation, Norris Square Civic Association and South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S., Inc. Our nonprofit clients are pursuing community development projects ranging from redeveloping a vacant church complex to renovating a golf course and clubhouse.
Drawings of conceptual designs from past rStore projects.
The Collaborative is working with six community development corporations this year to promote storeowner investment in building façade improvements through its new rStore program.
“Façade improvements like new awnings, lighting, security grills or windows may seem like small projects, but they can have a significant influence,” says Emily Stromberg, Community Design Collaborative Project Associate who is managing the rStore program.
rStore is a special type of service grant that provides design consultations targeted directly to storeowners on neighborhood commercial corridors. The Collaborative has partnered with the City of Philadelphia Commerce Department on rStore to help invigorate commercial districts and increase the accessibility of quality design.
According to Steve Culbertson of Impact Services, working with a diverse team helped the "design go outside of the box."
Impact Services Corporation, a social services agency that offers job training and supportive housing, has been headquartered in a former carpet mill in Kensington since the late ‘70’s. Last year, Impact Services approached the Community Design Collaborative for advice on how to refresh the exterior of its two “vintage” factory buildings and make them stand out along busy Allegheny Avenue.
The Collaborative redefined the project scope to address several overarching issues: how to reorganize the facility to function more effectively, how best could it introduce a new element to the site—affordable rental housing for some of Philadelphia’s neediest families reunited after homelessness, and how to add green space without sacrificing off-street parking.
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:
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