Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up!

Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! Exhibition Launch Party

Thurs, Oct 4 / 6PM-8PM / Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St

MOVING PARK is selected for the Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! Exhibition hosted by the Community Design Collaborative, Philadelphia Water Department, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The exhibition of over 40 projects designed to soak up stormwater and make cities more attractive, healthy, and engaging places to live is a design initiative exploring how green stormwater infrastructure can play an important role in revitalizing urban neighborhoods. For more information about Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! click here.

MOVING PARK will be on display from Monday, September 17 through Friday, October 19 at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St from 10AM to 6PM Monday through Saturday and 12PM to 5PM on Sunday.

What is MOVING PARK?

A Philadelphia neighborhood-based moving park appears in one residential street, lingers for a day or two before disappearing to another, and leaves you wishing for its return. Was it real?

Can imagination and education encourage the emergence of green stormwater infrastructure in older, ultra-urban environments? Understanding how the surface expression of these technologies impacts and possibly transforms a neighborhood is critical to its acceptance.

As a continuously temporary quarter-acre park, MOVING PARK delights residents and enables them to momentarily inhabit and actually see the potential of urban greening and inspired place-making.

“Its greatest strength is that it physically expresses potential.”

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Women In Architecture

“How to Start Your Own Firm:  I Wish I’d Known Then What I Know Now”

Date:  Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Time:  6:00-8:00pm
Location:  Center for Architecture
Cost:  Free if advance register; $5 at the door
Registration:  Registration Requested
Please join us for an evening with six architects that have started their own firms and are still actively practicing.  In these economic times, it seems like the perfect time to start your own endeavor.  If you’re thinking of starting or have already started, your own firm, you should join us to gain some pearls of wisdom.  Even if you’re not starting your own firm, this will be a fascinating evening with six architects that have had varied and interesting careers.

The format of the evening is an open panel; be prepared to ask questions.  We will start at 6:00pm with a reception with light refreshments.  The program will begin at 6:30pm.
Panelists:
Sonja Bijelic, AIA, ArchSTUDIO2227
Cecelia W. Denegre, AIA, IIDA, CDA&I Architecture and Interiors, Ltd.
Chariss McAfee, AIA, Charles Loomis Chariss McAfee Architects
Rachel S. Schade, AIA, Schade and Bolender Architects
Mimi Converse Winkler, AIA, LEED AP, Converse Winkler Architecture, LLC
 
Sponsored by the Women in Architecture Committee.

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

LEVERAGE Strengthening Neighborhoods Through Design

JUST ADD WATER selected for Center for Architecture exhibition. See PROJECTS post JUST ADD WATER for more information.

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Our work with Drexel University for GI in Point Breeze may see daylight:

PWD and PADEP Sign Historic Agreement to Officially Launch Green City, Clean Waters

PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) are ready to begin an exciting chapter of its Green City, Clean Waters Plan. On June 1, the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and PWD will sign a groundbreaking agreement that will allow the PWD to officially embark on the implementation of its innovative strategy that uses green stormwater infrastructure to substantially reduce Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) to its waterways.

PWD submitted the plan to the US EPA and PADEP in September, 2009, after vetting the plan with an enthusiastic public. Green City, Clean Waters lays the groundwork for the PWD to spend approximately $2 billion over the next 25 years to use primarily green infrastructure, such as – stormwater tree trenches, vegetated bumpouts, porous asphalt, rain gardens, sidewalk planters – as a means to transform manmade surfaces that repel the rain to Greened Acres which capture rainwater runoff, which then infiltrates, stores and manage the rain as a precious resource – just like Mother Nature. The plan also includes wastewater treatment facility enhancements and pipe renewal and replacement. Green City, Clean Waters works in tandem with the Mayor’s Greenworks Philadelphia vision in order to reinvent Philadelphia as a green, sustainable city of the future.

“We are thrilled and grateful that the DEP has recognized the incredible environmental and public value of this plan and has worked with the City to embrace its vision,” said Mayor Michael Nutter. “As a sustainable approach to stormwater issues, Green City, Clean Waters upholds the tenets of GreenWorks Philadelphia and makes significant progress towards Philadelphia becoming the greenest city in the country.”

“Through the Green City, Clean Waters plan, we seek to achieve a host of tangible environmental, social and economic benefits for Philadelphians while improving the health of the City’s creeks, rivers and urban landscape,” added Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug. “That means not only cleaner water for our citizens, but cleaner air, a higher quality of life and meaningful jobs for future generations.”

PWD has softly launched the plan over the last few years to develop green infrastructure designs that work best in the Philadelphia landscape. These early projects serve as public demonstrations for citizens and provide the PWD and its many partners with early opportunities to monitor and improve the efficiencies of these practices.

A list of featured projects – and information on Green City, Clean Waters can be found at PWD’s website: http://www.phillywatersheds.org.

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Community Design Collaborative FIRM AWARD 2009

2009 OUTSTANDING FIRM AWARD for work with the Miquon School in Conshohocken PA.