The Community Design Collaborative is proud to announce its newest Design Grants.
The Collaborative will be working with Community Ventures and the Village of Arts and Humanities to assess the feasibility of developing affordable housing on the upper floors of a key building on the Germantown Avenue Commercial Corridor. The study will also include recommendations for sprucing up its buildings’s storefronts.
East Falls Development Corporation and Friends of Mifflin School are seeking a conceptual master plan that shows the full potential of the school’s dramatic site, which includes a traditional schoolyard, a classical terrace, and an unused natural arboretum that runs along Midvale Avenue.
Glen Foerd on the Delaware, a historic riverfront estate that is part of the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation park system, wants to return its garden house back to its early 20th century use as a children’s play house. The Collaborative will develop a conceptual design to show how it can be done—and entice visitors to play with a temporary installation during Glen Foerd’s Jazz Age celebration this summer.
With help from the Collaborative, J.R. Masterman Home and School Association plans to take the school’s rooftop—the only outdoor space available to its students—to its full potential as a green sustainable outdoor space for recreation, study, gardening, and socializing.
Finally, the Collaborative is supporting the efforts of two community development corporations (CDCs) leading the revitalization of their neighborhood commercial corridors. The Collaborative will help Germantown and Chelten Avenue businesses selected by Germantown United prepare conceptual designs for storefront facade improvements with a historic preservation focus.
The Collaborative will also help up to six North 54th Street businesses selected by the Wynnefield Overbrook Revitalization Corporation prepare to apply for Storefront Improvement Program grants and other resources and pursue improvements to create a unified look on this 1920s-era Spanish Revival corridor.
About Design Grants
The Collaborative’s Design Grants offer pro bono preliminary design services to nonprofit organizations serving communities in greater Philadelphia. We put together teams of skilled volunteers (architects, landscape architects, preservationists, interior designers, urban planners, engineers, cost estimators, and other professionals) to respond to the unique needs of the nonprofit. The Collaborative awards over 20 Design Grants each year. Learn more about Design Grants.