Thursday, November 15, 2007
Sustainable Visions: Strategies for Philadelphia

4:00pm - URBAN VOIDS proposal presentations
6:00pm - Reception
6:30-8:30pm - Forum

The Academy of Natural Sciences at 19th St and the Ben Franklin Parkway

What will sustainable Philadelphia look like?

Sustainable Visions: Strategies for Philadelphia will bring special guests- Paul Brophy, principal with Brophy & Reilly, and Raymond Gastil, Director of City Planning, Manhattan, to discuss the opportunities and challenges cities face when bridging the gaps between design and implementation. These two experts will explore the value of design and innovation as well as the policy implications that would enable those design visions to be successfully realized.

In this special two part program, the public is invited to hear the five finalist teams from the international ideas competition URBAN VOIDS: grounds for change present their proposals at 4 pm. Presenting teams include Ecosistema Urbano (Madrid), Front Studio (NY), Jill Desimini (Boston), Mathew Langen (Boston), and grand winner- Waterwork, (pictured above), the Philadelphia team of Charles Loomis, Chariss Mcafee, Gavin Riggall and Juliet Geldi. The teams will also take part in the evening panel. (This work along with the other 215 proposals submitted to the competition can be seen at http://www.landvisions.org).

Raymond Gastil is the Director of City Planning's Manhattan Office, City Planning Director, was the founding director of the Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture, an internationally recognized New York not-for-profit committed to demonstrating the critical role of planning and design in urban regeneration. Gastil is responsible for directing planning, urban design and land use policy, guiding housing and economic development and fostering the orderly growth of the borough's neighborhoods, business districts, major institutions and the waterfront.

Paul C. Brophy has been involved with housing, economic development, and neighborhood improvement in the United States since 1970 as a practitioner, an author, and a professor. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Trustee of Enterprise Community Partners, and a Lecturer at the School of City Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of the Brookings publication, Seizing City Assets: Ten Steps to Urban Land Reform, published in 2002.

URBAN VOIDS: grounds for change is part of the three phased program- Philadelphia LANDVISIONS, launched by City Parks Association with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Claneil Foundation, the Samuel S. Fels Fund and the Office of housing and Community Development (OHCD). City Parks Association worked closely with a Core Team of organizational partners, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and The Reinvestment Fund.