City Parks Association

An Idea Generating Program to Address Vacancy in Philadelphia

What does a city do to address its vacancy crisis? Philadelphia, with over 40,000 vacant properties counted thus far, has become one of the nation’s foremost examples of urban abandonment and suburban sprawl. Philadelphia’s dilemma is shared by cities across the nation, places where the ‘economy is drifting as it responds incoherently to continued industrial restructuring.’

Philadelphia is currently treating its vacant land, more than 900 acres, with transitional programs. Imaginative long-term solutions that draw upon voices of the community and the city’s ecology can inspire change and shape a new urban form for the 21st century.

City Parks Association and its partners, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), will implement a multi-phase program to generate new thinking about the future of Philadelphia’s vacant lands. The overall program consists of three distinct phases:

1. Community Visioning (Summer 2005)
2. Competitive Design Response (Fall 2005)
3. Focus-In on the Site (First- Round Finalists).

Phase I – Our Voices, Our Future

• Public Community Visioning Session: May 5, 4-8 pm
• River Corridors Visioning Session: May 18, 4-8pm:
• Neighborhoods Session: May 25, 4-8pm

The program starts off this spring. A broad range of Philadelphia’s residents and stakeholders will engage in a community ‘visioning’ process that will look into the neighborhood structure at the neighborhood scale as well as the natural land and water resources at the regional ecological scale. Community participants will learn from experts about the city’s ecological foundation- its hydrology and geology, and study maps of Philadelphia’s extensive vacant lands, natural and built resources. Parallel programs will be administered on the web and through the media to encourage extensive citywide participation. Experienced facilitators will lead ‘Listening Sessions’ during which participants will share their aspirations for the city through works and drawings, which will be gathered and bound, to be distributed with the Design Competition Materials in Phase II.

Phase II – Urban Voids: Grounds for Change

Competitive Design Response (Fall 2005)

Entrants from around the world will be asked to imagine new possibilities for designing a comprehensive view of the urban fabric based upon the relationship of ecology and the built environment. The process will be both generous and generative in scope. The Van Alen Institute will work closely with organizational partners and stakeholders to reach a wide range of entrants: teams of mixed- discipline professionals and community groups will be especially encouraged. Submission of ideas will be in both graphic and in digital form, making visible concepts that re-connect the vacant land to the city’s green infrastructure. A prestigious multi-disciplinary jury will review and evaluate all submissions, making awards on criteria that acknowledge a range of design ideas. The jury will select between 3-5 finalists who will receive monetary prizes and proceed into the third phase of the competition process. An public exhibition of entries will celebrate the proposals submitted.

Phase III – Reconnecting the Lots

Semi-Finalists Focus-In On The Site (January-May 2006)

During the third phase, first- round Finalists will further develop strategies towards implementation of their proposed ideas. Teams will prepare a site- specific design, focusing- in on a designated area (previously determined). An Advisory Committee will work to provide technical support as needed, matching professional partners with the semi-finalist teams. Team members will be encouraged to interact with neighborhood groups, experts in the field, the developer and/or business community, as well as elected officials while developing their final submissions. A prestigious jury will review the final submissions.

A key outcome from this competition will be the development of innovative designs that will directly influence the plans of the decision makers and implementers in Philadelphia. In addition, the process will help formulate principles and emerging best practices for issues of vacancy throughout the country.

Visit LANDvisions.org for more information