PlaceMatters worked with several partners on the Philadelphia LANDvisions project to help citizens envision a future for the city's vacant lands. With over 40, 000 vacant properties, Philadelphia had become one of the nation's foremost examples of urban abandonment and sprawl. The lands were fertile ground for imagining solutions that use ecology to shape urban form and inspire change.
The City Parks Association of
Philadelphia (CPA) and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), in
partnership with numerous other public and private organizations, including
PlaceMatters, organized an international competition to generate new thinking
about the future of Philadelphia's vacant lands. This competition sought out ideas
that draw specifically upon the city's green infrastructure and the natural
assets of its land and water resources in ways that help reconnect and
regenerate the fabric of the city and enhance its future. The overall
competition process consisted of three distinct phases: Phase I—Asset Mapping
and Community Visioning, Phase II—Competitive Design Response, and Phase III—Site-Specific
Design Resolution.
PlaceMatters was integrally involved in the four Phase I meetings
to solicit feedback from residents. The meetings were designed as eMeetings to gather
feedback on priority concerns and innovative solutions. Participant opinions were captured with the
help of keypad polling and networked laptops which allowed for electronic collaboration
among smaller working groups. During
these four meetings, using these innovative tools and techniques, PlaceMatters:
- Helped residents understand how vacant lots are integrally connected to the ecological infrastructure of the city,
- Created and facilitated a process for imagining innovative solutions, and
- Linked local input processes to the development of a regional strategy on vacant properties.
- Held a key stakeholder meeting targeting businesses and leaders in the community who were unlikely to participate in the longer public session. The meeting included an overview of the educational component of the project and a roadmap for implementation.
The first visioning gathering brought over 400 people to
30th Street Station to imagine possibilities for vacant land in the city.
PlaceMatters worked with the project team to provide two groups of school
children from different areas with disposable cameras that documented what they
like and dislike about their neighborhood, parks and open space. These images
were used to kick off the conversation at the first visioning session about the
treasures and liabilities in the city and opportunities for change. Participants
were asked to identify what they love about the city and all ideas were
collected via eFlipcharts and then voted upon using Keypad Polling, the results
of which appear on the Philadelphia LANDvisions website. The program continued
with a series of short presentations providing background on the current state
of vacancy in the city as well as an overview of the ecology of the region. The
session continued in smaller groups of ten. Participants both clarified their
ideas and expressed their hopes and aspirations for the future of the city.
Using innovative technology techniques like eBrainstormings, these ideas were captured
and made immediately available on the website for public outreach and ongoing
involvement.
The visioning
process continued with specific meetings focused on the river corridors and how
revitalizing vacant property would help individual neighborhoods. These sessions also used keypad polling and
small group dialogues. In addition, the
final neighborhood session allowed participants to engage in a storytelling
exercise in which they shared memories of their neighborhood's past and
their hopes and wishes for its future, captured via “memory recording” using
recording softward on laptop computers. The keypad polling results, lists of
assets and liabilities, maps, and hopes and wishes can be viewed on the project
website. Additionally, audio recordings of the storytelling exercise are
available online.
Project Website:
PlaceMatters set up a "Communication Information Management Network" for Phase I visioning, consisting of a Content Management System based on Mambo (now Joomla) to solicit new ideas, and get feedback on proposed solutions. This information network remained in use for Phases II and III. The website offered a number of features including: tools for input/feedback including a public opinion survey and an e-brainstorming tool; photo galleries and visuals supporting the project; and web mapping tools for the public to view related maps to better understand the issue.
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Project Website: www.landvisions.org
Project Partners: City Parks Association; Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society
Keywords/Themes: Visualization; Photography; eParticipation; Keypad
Polling; Vacant Property; Community Engagement; Water Resources
