Course Description: The struggle for revitalization and community change has been a fifty-plus year process in WestPhiladelphia neighborhoods including West Powelton, Mantua and Mill Creek. During that time, the area has experienced various redevelopment interventions ranging from: city-sponsored urban renewal programs first emphasizing slum clearance and later rehabilitation to the grass-roots and community development corporation initiated house-by-house redevelopment and historic preservation efforts. Theseactivities have paralleled high rates of property abandonment as these neighborhoods and the city as a whole have lost population. Often, those left behind have the least mobility, that is, they are low income. Nonetheless, some sections of West Philadelphia, especially areas of University City and Powelton Village that are adjacent to the West Powelton neighborhood have experienced increased investment andpopulation growth due to institutional or private-sector investment. West Powelton residents have organized to plan for quality of life improvements in their area. However, the history of displacement they have witnessed fuels fears that the changes they embrace will result in “pricing themselves out” of their community. These conditions provide an environment for exploring questions of gentrification andequitable development in this area of the city.The Studio will have three parts: First, it will focus on defining and understanding gentrification and itsimpact through the examination of historic and contemporary cases. Second, it will develop a series of indicators which will define the phenomena in terms of the local real estate market. The studio will alsoevaluate existing and potential development sites, their social and economic influence and the likelihoodof their creating a climate for displacement. Third, it will create a strategic plan for equitable developmentto be used within the neighborhood to minimize displacement, foster increases in affordable housing andimprove the quality of amenities. This studio will provide important information for the next stages of the work of the Penn Center forInnovation in Affordable housing. Next year, the Center will co-sponsor with the Department ofArchitecture, a studio whose purpose is to design an innovative housing project that the PeoplesEmergency Center anticipates constructing in 2006.