December 17, 2007
A Civic Vision for the Central Delaware
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WRT has been involved in numerous planning projects involving the Central Delaware Riverfront over the past six years. It could be argued, however, that the most important of these is the most recent project—A Civic Vision for the Central Delaware. The Urban Design Committee of AIA Philadelphia has given the project its 2007 Urban Design Award
"WRT's experience on the riverfront goes back even further than the work that I have been involved with," said Nando Micale, WRT senior associate and project director for the Civic Vision. "Gil Rosenthal and Tom Todd worked with various developers, including with Bill Rouse for mixed-use development around the Great Plaza. In 2001, when Gil and I began work for the 11 river ward neighborhood groups, we reviewed that work from the WRT archives."
This project, headed by PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the Penn School of Design, involves re-imagining the riverfront as it relates to Center City and the other neighborhoods that the seven-mile area reaches. WRT's involvement began with a best practices review in February of this year and a three-day design charrette in early March that involved a brainstorming session. After ten months of intensive work, the result is a framework for development that will guide the area for the next two generations.
The riverfront has remained undeveloped for over 40 years. A variety of reasons have contributed to this, but none so seemingly critical as the lack of a comprehensive plan to help guide this development.
"While city planning may be experiencing a renaissance, Philadelphia lacks a comprehensive framework to guide developers in their decision making," PennPraxis' Harris Steinberg noted with regard to the importance of the plan.
With WRT as lead planning and urban design consultant, the design process was collaborative, including participation from citizens as well as state and city representatives.
While this vision has just been newly rolled out, it has already been honored this month. The Urban Design Committee of AIA Philadelphia has given the project its 2007 Urban Design Award.
"This is the first of what I expect will be many awards for this work," said Richard Bartholomew, the principal in charge of the plan.
"I believe it's the finest planning done in Philadelphia in at least a generation," said Shawn McCaney, the project's funder and program director for the William Penn Foundation.
For more information on this project, please go to www.planphilly.com/vision.