 |
The Collaborative's 2004 Community Design Award recognized Beatriz Vieira, Executive Director of Lutheran Settlement House, and a team of volunteers led by Brawer & Hauptman, Architects. The honorees included Michael Hauptman, AIA and Scott Larkin of Brawer & Hauptman, Architects; Mitchell Swann, PE of MDC Systems; Chris Wurst III, PE, RCDD of C-Quest Associates, Inc.; and John Frondorf of Becker & Frondorf. Each year, the Community Design Award recognizes a Collaborative client and volunteer team for design excellence, strong collaboration, and community impact. The award was presented at AIA Philadelphia's Awards for Design Excellence Ceremony.
Lutheran Settlement House (LSH) serves over 10,000 Kensington residents each year with a full range of programs-the Bilingual Domestic Violence Project, transitional housing for families, employment training and literacy programs for adults, and social services and activities for elderly and youth. But the agency's programs are spread over three locations.
Leslie Weisser, Development Director for LSH, said that the multiple sites pose a challenge for program participants. "Imagine how difficult it is for a single mother and her children to commute from the West Philadelphia shelter to our Frankford Avenue location, where many of our programs are held!" she explained last year, "If all of our services and programs were co-located, it would be much more effective for our community."
In 2003, Beatriz Vieira, Executive Director of LSH, sought advice from the Community Design Collaborative about consolidating the nonprofit's programs in one place. The Collaborative assembled a multidisciplinary team of volunteers to assess LSH's main facility, a 1922 Georgian Revival community center with an '80's addition located on Frankford Avenue. As a follow up, the project team explored design alternatives for consolidating operations at the Frankford Avenue facility and 1347 North Front Street, a 7,500 square foot vacant lot immediately behind the center. The project scope also included a code analysis and a program of space needs.
The team determined that the most cost-effective option would be to convert the Frankford Avenue facility into LSH's shelter for homeless families and construct a new building to house the other programs on the rear lot. However, neighborhood leaders urged LSH keep its popular community center on Frankford Avenue-to support a neighborhood strategic plan goal to attract more retail and arts-related uses to Frankford Avenue. The project team drew up an alternative plan that keeps LSH's community center on Frankford Avenue and places its emergency housing on Front Street.
Vieira says, "We've become completely energized through this process of working with the Collaborative... I hope we as an organization can now grow with the community and find ways to understand and empower the individuals and families that live in our neighborhood."
|
|
