City Parks Association

A design competition aims to bring new life to our vacant inner city

By Jesse Smith
Philadelphia Weekly

The real estate craze in and around Center City paints a lopsided picture of land use in Philadelphia. While developers clamor to fill any remaining space downtown-usually with luxury condos-other neighborhoods continue to grapple with the vacant parcels that mar their landscapes.

Those areas are finally attracting attention as part of Urban Voids: Grounds for Change, an international design competition aimed at generating ecologically sound ideas for the redevelopment of vacant inner-city land. The project-led by the City Parks Association of Philadelphia and Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture-received 220 entries from 25 countries. A jury that includes policymakers, architects and academics recently chose five finalists to hone their proposals before a winner is chosen in May.

Read the full article at philadelphiaweekly.com