People call it "the Miracle on Seventh Street." Between a brownstone church, a superblock apartment house, and a scattering of rowhomes, two North Philadelphia pastors built a 56-unit green-roofed, 55,000 square-foot "cyber village" that offers low and moderate-income seniors an affordable and engaging place to live.
Rev. Martha Lang and Rev Mary Lou Moore, pastors of Mt. Tabor AME Church and leaders of Mt. Tabor Community Education and Economic Development Corporation, were the driving force behind the creation of the Cyber Village.
Rev. Lang grew up in her grandmother's home in Mobile, Alabama, and was raised with a commitment to care for the seniors in her community. As the pastor of Mt. Tabor AME Church, she saw that, "Existing senior facilities were depressing. The seniors were lonely, they spent all day waiting by the elevators for visitors who never came to see them. The Lord placed it in my spirit to create a happy place to live." Ten years ago she and Rev. Moore, who has a PhD in community development, began work on creating housing for seniors where community could flourish.
It took the pastors six years to get control of the vacant lots, and that didn't just entail getting a title from the city. Rev. Lang recalls that, "At the start of the project we held rallies and walked the neighborhood. In back of the church, there was prostitution and drug-dealing. We preached them all out by holding Sunday service in the lot and praying at them through megaphones."
In 2004, the church approached the Community Design Collaborative for assistance creating a conceptual design to illustrate their vision: affordable rental housing for seniors that used technology to build a sense of community and connect with the larger neighborhood.The firm of Becker Winston Architects took on the project and came up with a dynamic design that bridges the neighborhood fabric and replicates the rhythm of rowhouses using a mix of materials.
Brian Szymanick, who helped design the building when Becker Winston/DLR Group was later hired to design the facility, noted when talking with PlanPhilly at the January, 2009 ribbon-cutting, "Mt. Tabor Church asked us from the very beginning of the project to really work on developing community - community in the neighborhood, community with the church, community for the residents. The biggest amenities for them were to include a large - and smaller scale- community spaces. There's a lounge on each floor, a game room, a library and a large community room on the first floor where the entire population of the building can gather."
Take a tour of the finished facility:
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
Rev. Moore gave the final design high praise, "It has such a feel! The people just love it." And the pastors added their personal touch to the inside of the building. They chose the warm red and yellow colors of the lobby and filled the facility with artwork. And their work in the community continues: they are expanding the back patio to include a community garden in another vacant lot. Congratulations Rev. Moore and Rev. Lang!