Harrison Haas has joined the Community Design Collaborative staff as our new Philly Fellow. Philly Fellows is a year-long post-graduate fellowship program which offers top graduates of Philadelphia-area colleges and universities opportunities to engage in the city’s vibrant neighborhoods and diverse non-profit agencies.

Harrison hails from Ojai, CA about twenty miles south of Santa Barbara. He came to Philly Fellows by way of Haverford College, where he majored in History with a minor in East Asian Studies.

Harrison will serve as the Collaborative’s Communications Associate. You’ll be seeing his byline on many of our blog posts over the coming year and we expect him to put his stamp on our electronic and print communications too.

Harrison has already done plenty of communicating and troubleshooting as Co-President of the Students’ Council and as Lead Help Desk Assistant while at Haverford College. He also manned the phones as an intern with the Office of Representative Allyson Schwartz during the development of the new health care bill. We’ve already come to rely on his unflappable approach to solving problems!

As an LGBT advocate, Harrison served as Co-Head of Sexuality and Gender Alliance, Haverford College’s largest affinity group. He has also volunteered with Equal Advocates Pennsylvania, researching LGBT legislation in other states around the issue of bullying and working with the University of Pennsylvania’s LGBT Center to bring Safe-Zone Training to the campus.

Have you recently seen a storefront turn from eyesore to eye-catching? The Community Design Collaborative and the City of Philadelphia Commerce Department are looking for your nominations to the Citywide Storefront Challenge. The Challenge is a competition to identify those businesses that have recently (January 2008 – September 2010) redesigned their storefronts and now exemplify the principle that: “Good Design is Good Business.” The Awards range from “Most Unique Sign” to the “Nightlife Award” (the improvements that bring a building ‘to life’ at night). You can even suggest your own category.

If you admire a business that has demonstrated care and uniqueness in how it presents itself to its customers and the public, then this could be your opportunity to increase exposure for that business, a design or construction firm, or your own business. The nominated projects will be reviewed by a jury composed of economic development and design professionals. The winning projects will then be on display as part of DesignPhiladelphia, the citywide event that showcases the role design has played in Philadelphia. Submissions are being accepted through September 15, 2010. To get a copy of the application form, click here.

Although it may be too late to redesign a storefront in time for the contest, the Philadelphia Department of Commerce’s Storefront Improvement Program will still reimburse you for up to 50% of the cost of beautifying an eligible storefront. The City wants to encourage storefront improvements to make Philadelphia better for business owners, residents, shoppers and visitors.

For more information about the SIP program or the Storefront Challenge, contact Karen Fegely at 214-683-2025 or .