INDUSTRIAL SITES (2009-2010)

Industry has a vital role to play in sustaining cities. Philadelphia earned its reputation as "The Workshop of the World" and retained this brand for the best part of the century after the Civil War because of the rich industrial inventory it built. Today, however, abandoned industrial sites are all-too-often the legacy of that era. Yet industry remains Philadelphia's third-largest economic sector, after education and health care, and is a key factor in the city's economic resiliency.

The reuse of industrial sites in older, urban neighborhoods was the focus of the third phase of Infill Philadelphia, an initiative organized by the Community Design Collaborative — with each project addressing a different infill development opportunity. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation partnered with the Collaborative on Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites.

The designs created through Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites explore how cities can restore the competitive edge of older, underused industrial spaces and create new neighborhood-based opportunities for employment and innovation.

  • Design Challenge

    Volunteers developed conceptual plans for three separate sites
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  • Charrette

    Exploring ways to reanimate vacant neighborhood-based industrial sites through temporary installations
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  • Exhibition

    Thirty firms examine the ways in which industrial sites are being addressed and reconsidered
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Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites is presented in partnership with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and is partially underwritten by the William Penn Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Philadelphia Office of Housing and Community Development, the Counselors for Real Estate Foundation, Urban Land Institute Foundation, TRC Companies, Inc., Macro-Sea, and Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC. Other contributing program partners include Drexel University Facilities, the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University.

Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites
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