Zippers

When a Zipper Breaks
What happens usually when a zipper breaks? Most people don’t fix the zipper, they just stuff the item in the back of the closet. Every so often, they pull it out, but the color or cut has gone out of fashion. Back in the closet. Shut the door. Lights out.

 

Neighborhood Zippers
A new project by Philadelphia’s Community Design Collaborative with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) likens neighborhood commercial corridors to zippers: when they’re working, the lights are on, purchases stay local, neighborhoods knit together, there’s a little buzz in the air.

 

Infill Philadelphia is this project. Launched in January of this year, it’s a five-year initiative that brings together design practitioners, community development experts, and policymakers to help older communities re-envision their neighborhoods, leverage existing assets, rethink the use of older spaces, and address practical concerns of specific sites and the community. The results will help illustrate how well-designed infill development can renew Philadelphia communities and return a better quality of urban life to more Philadelphians. Neighborhood commercial corridors is the first phase. Reinvigorating local shopping and services districts is not a new idea – it has been a neighborhood revitalization strategy for Philadelphia and other older American cities for some time.

 

What is unique is the proposition that good design isn’t the sole province of wealthy communities and corporate headquarters. You don’t need to have read William Whyte to know when a place “feels” right. (Often we don’t realize how much design matters until bad design happens.) Inserting good design into the commercial development process is critical as thoughtful designer can address issues important to urban neighborhoods, including safety and access – as well as aesthetic appeal. Infill created three teams composed of a community-based organization and an architecture/planning firm, each working with a different scale of development and a design challenge characteristic of many corridors. Design concepts were developed to respond to each site’s unique requirements: converting an existing building into a full-service restaurant, reusing a vacant theater, and enhancing a corridor gateway. Every design concept was presented publicly and juried, and you can see them here.

 

Following the Collaborative’s model, the designers provided this extraordinary work pro bono. This project aligns with other commercial corridor-focused initiatives, including the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative’s “ReStore Philadelphia” project created to support commercial corridor revitalization by providing Corridor Equipment Grants, Commercial Fit-Out Rebates, Corridor Beautification Project Grants, and Targeted Redevelopment Grants. One of the three project sites is made up of three separate buildings located on a triangular island block at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue, 39th and Spring Garden Streets. The People's Emergency Center CDC and CICADA Architecture/Planning, Inc. were tasked to expand the New Angle Lounge, a neighborhood pub, into a full-service restaurant and jazz club.The design challenges were to make the building more inviting and open to the street, address the feasibility of the proposed reuse, and preserve historic elements while making the business a beacon for the Lancaster Avenue Commercial Corridor.

 

LaTonya Furman, second-generation proprietor of the New Angle Lounge, is inspired by the prospect of the corridor’s renaissance and wants to turn her family’s local taproom into a restaurant and jazz club. The restaurant, Trilogy, would be the Furman family’s third enterprise. Its location at the east gateway to the corridor has potential to draw customers from both the surrounding neighborhood residents and nearby institutions. Besides helping to rediscover the elements of urban life that make city living exciting and convenient, Infill Philadelphia enabled the Collaborative to add staff with young talent and increase its own public profile while spreading the message that every community has a right to good design.

 

-- Allison Kelsey, Director of Communications