PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why is it necessary to re-vision the Central Delaware Riverfront?
With tremendous development pressures bearing down on the central stretch of the waterfront, it is clear that the central Delaware riverfront from Penn Treat Park south to Pennsport lacks a vision to guide physical development and provide amenities for the public realm. Philadelphia’s waterfronts are at a crossroads. While cities around the world from Boston to Vancouver to Barcelona have successfully reclaimed their waterfronts (re-imagining the essence of the 21st century post-industrial city), official Philadelphia has largely chosen to ignore centralized planning as a way to balance private development and the public good along its rapidly changing waterfronts.

What are some of the key questions we must ask ourselves as we move through this project?
The best design practices for the Delaware River re-visioning process will come out of the answers we find for questions that emerge when we examine problems integrated into the site planning structure, such as:
How do we incorporate the working port into a plan?
How do we ensure public access to the river?
What’s the best way to remake of the character of Delaware Avenue as it gets Boulevard status?|
How do we make sure the connections back to the neighborhoods that are adjacent to the river are healthy?
How do we guarantee the quality of development?

Why is PennPraxis the lead consultant on the project?
Seeking a neutral party to convene a city-wide planning process for the central Delaware, Philadelphia Councilman Frank DiCicco’s office, whose First Councilmanic District includes much of the historic Riverwards, approached Penn Praxis in July 2006 about leading a planning process for the central Delaware. Praxis responded with a proposal that builds upon the success of the Penn’s Landing Forums (along with subsequent large-scale planning civic engagement projects such as the 2005 Franklin Conference on School Design with the Philadelphia Inquirer and the 2005-2006 Slots and the City project with the Philadelphia Daily News) as it aims to restore public trust around the design, planning and implementation of a waterfront plan for the central Delaware.

What is PennPraxis?
PennPraxis is the clinical arm of the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania. Praxis creates opportunities for faculty and students to do real world problem solving, working on projects around the world, around the nation, and across the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation and city and regional planning.

What is the role I will play in this planning process?
Through your participation you will become the connective tissue that educates fellow citizens, developers, business people and politicians alike in a discussion about what a world-class 21st century waterfront should be. You will help us discover what has to change, who has to make that change happen and what ideas Philadelphia could borrow from other world class cities to get to that next great level on the riverfront. People involved in this project will come together for discourse and discussions and data from those forums will provide content for the interactive web site, identify folks who could be essayists and help us identify best practices and get at the roots of issues and the possibilities for future solutions.

The site displays many photos and videos. Who produces that work? Most of the photos on PlanPhilly are taken by the Praxis staff. All of the videos are shot and produced by PlanPhilly. One of the regular contributors to the photography on the site is R Bradley Maule. You can see his exhibits at http://phillyskyline.com/photo/index.htm