Harris Steinberg of Penn Praxis and Harris Sokoloff of the Penn Graduate School of Education designed a process intended to surface the public's values around waterfront development, which would lead to principles that would inform the design team. The process is described below, and includes news from each step as it happens.
In order to meet the charge of leading a citizen-driven process, Penn Praxis held public forums in three centrally located neighborhoods in the project area. These forums were called Values sessions because they were intended to surface what residents values abuot their neighborhoods and the waterfront. The sessions were highly facilitated by a team of moderators led by Harris Sokoloff through the Penn Project on Civic Engagement. The values which emerged from each of the sessions are linked below.
On Dec. 11, an exercise in civic engagement began in earnest as more than 200 neighbors, businesspeople, developers, professionals, laborers, and public officials came together in cavernous St. Anne’s Social Hall in Kensington to kick off the first of a series of public forums and share what they value most for their neighborhoods and the Central Delaware River waterfront.
The facilitators for this open and transparent process, PennPraxis, of Penn's School of Design; Harris Sokoloff, an expert in civic engagement with the Penn Graduate School of Education; and the Philadelphia Planning Commission, see the public meetings as a way to capture and use the voice of the people to help lay the foundation for creating a lasting vision for that waterfront. full story
We also invite you to submit your own Value Statement.
The second of three public forums took place Wednesday, Dec. 13 at the George Washington Elementary School, 5th and Federal Sts., 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. full story and video1 and video2
The longshoremen's hopes and dreams for the waterfront ... full story
We also invite you to share your own Value Statement
Nearly 350 people take part in the third riverfront value session Dec. 14 at Independence Seaport Museum ... full story, video
How participants from Society Hill worked through their value systems ... full story
Old City residents come to a consensus ... full story
We also invite you to make your own Value Statement
Penn Praxis organized a day-long session of expert presentations intended to show best practices for waterfront development. Over 400 people attended the event that featured three panels, which included local respondents to ensure that the information was tailored to Philadelphia's specific development environment. Issues addressed included traffic and transit, infrastructure, working port, environment, and implementation strategies.
Check out the full story and the Best Practice Briefing for the expert participants, best links and topics. Also read about the specific three panel discussions: the city, the river and the future.
In order to establish principles for development, Penn Praxis is presently working again with citizens at forums in their neighborhoods to combine their values with the best practices expressed in the expert sessions. The product of this work will be a consolidated set of principles intended to guide development. It is also by this set of principles that the public will hold the process accountable, to ensure that development meets their hopes and dreams for their neighborhoods. Please read coverage from the first principle session Feb. 12. Also read about specific values and principles coverage: economics; history; safety; enviroment; and diversity and culture.
Now that principles for development have been established (see attached PDF), a team of designers worked through a marathon design workshop March 1-3 in conjunction with leaders from the City Planning Commission and civic leaders to develop the first concepts for the 7 miles project area. These first drawings and sketches will lay the groundwork for the 6 month design phase of the project. The team of local, national and international designers convened in Philadelphia to develop this preliminary vision in charette style, which is a messy but productive way to combine architects and planners' visions into a cohesive whole. As with any session related to this process, the workshop was open to the public and well attended as 500 citizens turned out.
In the months following the Design Workshop (roughly April to October), Penn Praxis, the Planning Commission and the design team will continue to refine the designs for the project area. This will also be an open process with monthly presentations to neighborhood stakeholders intended to solicit feedback and ensure that the desgn work meets the values and principles established by the citizens who participated in the process. Designs will also be posted online here to gather feedback via the web.
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Two planning visions in Kensington
Heavy dose of planning reality on waterfront
A reflection of waterfront values
The implementation phase of this Central Delaware Riverfront Planning Process will extend beyond the timeline of this project and into the next mayoral administration and likely for years beyond. The intention of the project is to develop realistic implementation goals and effective implementing instruments to ensure that the civic vision is made real. The responsibility for this will lie ultimately with the citizens who shaped the plan with their values and principles. We believe that citizens who ask their civic leaders to implement the plan developed by them will be heard. We will have more about implementation strategies as the project progresses.