Capstone: de Bellis

Capstone: Carlotta de Bellis

Tanner House: Memory, Possibility, and Community-Led Preservation

This capstone project reimagines the Tanner House—a modest brick row home in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion—as a space where memory and possibility meet. From 1872 to 1889, it was home to the Tanner family, whose legacy as educators, activists, and intellectuals helped shape Philadelphia’s Black cultural life. Today, the Friends of the Tanner House, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the historic family property at 2908 W. Diamond Street, are leading efforts to re-activate this space and institution.

While only a few character-defining elements—such as the stoop, bay window, wallpaper, and staircase assembly—still exist, they serve as powerful touchpoints, anchoring the house in the Tanners’ lived experience. With few original elements remaining—the stoop and stair assembly—this project embraces both the tangible and intangible layers of history. Later additions, like the bay window and interior wallpaper, are honored as additional layers of the building’s evolving life.

Framed physical sectional model of the Tanner House, visualizing how lived experience, memory, and architectural fabric intertwine. This model served as a design tool to explore community-led preservation strategies (Carlotta de Bellis, 2025).
Rather than attempting to “restore” the house to a single past moment, this proposal envisions an adaptive future. Key design moves include a new rear entrance for ADA accessibility, a reinterpreted mesh-clad bay window, and a light well that brings daylight into the second-floor shared kitchen. A small new rooftop addition on the third floor provides a separated live-work space for an artist-in-residence, creating opportunities for both privacy and public engagement. This new volume also makes the roof accessible and allows it to host public programs.

More than an architectural proposal, the physical model presented here is a tool for conversation—inviting the community to imagine how the Tanner House can once again become a hub for gathering, storytelling, and collective creativity. The answer lies not in restoring the Tanner House to what it once was, but in shaping it into what the community needs next: an active, evolving place for new voices, uses, and futures, stewarded by the Friends of the Tanner House.

Special thanks to Chris Rogers, PhD, Ms. Gail Loney and all the Friends of the Tanner House for their invaluable involvement in this capstone studio. To learn more about the Friends of the Tanner House, their mission, and their work, please visit: https://savethetannerhouse.org/
Collage of remaining character-defining elements—bay window, stoop, staircase assembly, and wallpaper—mapping the transition from public to private spaces within the Tanner House (Carlotta de Bellis, 2025).

Site model illustrating the Tanner House reimagined as a vibrant community anchor, integrating historic preservation with new spatial possibilities for Strawberry Mansion (Carlotta de Bellis, 2025).