Stuart Weitzman School of Design
102 Meyerson Hall
210 South 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Two second-year students, Xue Fei Lin & Zhen Ni, from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design Graduate Program in Historic Preservation won the second-place prize at Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Awards.
The competition focused on Chelten Avenue, the heart of the Germantown business district in northwest Philadelphia. The most economically diverse neighborhood in the city, Germantown is an African American community which bridges the economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of North Philadelphia to the east with the wealthier Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods to the west.
The central question to the challenge asked: “how might this historic shopping district be designed to better support the local community, improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians (and all modes of transit), and help reveal all the nearby amenities available to shoppers: from public parks and swimming pools to historic homes and urban farms?”
Lin and Ni’s proposal took a three-prong approach—short, medium, and long-term plans—to improve the transportation, wayfinding, public space, and use of vacant land making Chelten Avenue not just economic and travel hub, but tapping into the environs' existing H.U.B qualities, what they term Historic, Urban, and Beyond.
Download their presentation board.