If anything was confirmed on the weekend of March 27-29, 2015, it is that Historic Preservation students get it done. During a 3-day Block Build event supported by a partnership between The Wharton School and PennDesign, several students from both schools worked in teams on the rehabilitation of about ten rowhouses in the Mantua neighborhood of west Philadelphia. Sponsored by the local nonprofit Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, their mission is to bring volunteers and communities together to improve the homes and lives of low-income homeowners. One of the rowhouse rehab teams was led by PennDesign co-house captains Sarai Williams (CPLN, ’16) and Amy Lambert (HSPV, ’16). The weekend benefitted Ms. Robinson, a recent widow, and her daughter, to make repairs and upgrades to their 140 year old home.
The work scope included new subfloor and finish floor, upper and base cabinets, countertop, sink and faucet in the kitchen; replacement of water-damaged ceiling tiles in all three upper bedrooms (major roof repair took place the week prior by independent contractors); paint in two of the bedrooms; basement clean-out and wall parging; and new lighting in the bathroom and back porch. Despite being more than enough work for the volunteers to take on, all jobs were completed within the three days. More impressively, however, several extra tasks were tackled that never made it to the formal to-do list. These jobs included testing all electrical outlets and labeling the breaker box; making repairs to one of the beds so that the mattress could be properly placed; insulating and securing windows; repairing rotten floorboards; and even replacing carpet in one bedroom with laminate flooring.
PennDesign volunteers included HSPV first year students Sang Bae, Andrew Cushing, Julia Griffith, Preston Hull, Jean Jang, Grace Meloy, Jess Neubelt with Harry Stark, and Maya Thomas; second year HSPV student Mary Feitz; and Sue Burtner from City Planning. Julianne Wiesner-Chianese (HSPV, ’15) was the PennDesign representative to the annual ReBuild weekend.
Amy Lambert is a graduate student studying historic preservation at PennDesign. She is a registered architect from Austin, Texas. The second phase of her career will weave planning & design practices with social history to support the preservation of the built environment.
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