Headline

The 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania selected the Overlook Park Neighborhood in Allentown for one of their 2010 Commonwealth Awards. The awards pay tribute to visionaries—developers, builders, designers, community leaders, local officials, financiers, and others—who have invested in building a better future for Pennsylvania by utilizing smart growth principles in planning and design.

Located on the east bank of the Lehigh River, the new community of 322 homes—completed with neighborhood parks and a community center in an historic 1929 train depot—takes advantage of spectacular views of the Lehigh Valley and Downtown Allentown. Funded through a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOPE VI Program, WRT's design of the neighborhood with single-family, twin, and townhouse-style homes creates a contemporary interpretation of the traditional neighborhoods that Allentonians' cherish. With both rental and homeownership opportunities and planned connections to the Lehigh River Greenway and Water Trail, the plan reconnects the sites of two former, barracks-style public housing projects to the traditional city grid and transforms low-income projects into a choice neighborhood for households of all income levels. The remediation and redevelopment of brownfield sites was critical to this smart growth effort and included the reuse of railroad property, as well as the creation of a neighborhood park on a former city landfill.

The WRT design and planning team included Gil Rosenthal, Tim Korbelak, Alex Morris, Fernando Toledo, Mark Wallace, and Sullka Lima. Support to the team was provided by Charlie Tomlinson, Stephanie Feldman, Jeremiah Appleton, Pat Foanio, Hanna Matteus-Kairys, and Rae Munroe.