Public artists, nonprofit and city planning representatives, and design professionals will collaborate on temporary projects for vacant industrial sites in Chinatown and Kensington

Contact: Carryn Golden, Community Design Collaborative 215.587.9290 x 113 carryn@cdesignc.org

Philadelphia, PA – October 12, 2009 –Former industrial sites are great assets in Philadelphia but the process of purchasing, remediating, and redeveloping a former site can take years. The Community Design Collaborative hopes to accelerate that process and calls on designers and other creative users to participate in a charrette that will consider options to enliven a site in the interim.

The charrette, the first in a series of events related to Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites, will take place Friday, October 30th during the 7th annual Design on the Delaware Conference & Trade Show. The Community Design Collaborative is partnering with the AIA Urban Design Committee and Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations to conduct a one-day charrette at the Center for Architecture, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Design professionals are being asked to sign up for the charrette and take part in a unique opportunity that challenges participants to think differently, while keeping designs grounded in reality. Those unable to participate in the charrette are invited to attend the public presentation of the results and reception from 4 to 6 p.m.

The teams participating in this one-day charette will work alongside public artists, nonprofit and city planning representatives and design professionals to devise creative temporary projects for vacant small-scale neighborhood industrial sites in Chinatown and Kensington. The day will begin with a “charge” from architect and Philadelphia native David Belt of Macro-Sea, a New York-based studio involved in a radical plan to transform the American strip mall. The full-day charrette fee is $25 for AIA members; $35 for non-members.

The third phase of Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites, in participation with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and funded by the William Penn Foundation, will focus on design strategies and prototypes for the reuse of neighborhood-based industrial sites.

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Community Design Collaborative is a community design center that provides pro bono predevelopment design services to nonprofit organizations, offers unique volunteer opportunities to design professionals, and raises awareness about the importance of design in community revitalization. Founded in 1991 as a program of AIA Philadelphia, the Collaborative is an independent 501(c)(3) with a network of more than 600 volunteers.