From a field of 40 international interdisciplinary design teams, Ground Reconsidered, has been selected as a finalist for the Community Design Collaborative’s Play Space Design Competition.
…“Play Space is part of Infill Philadelphia, the Community Design Collaborative’s ongoing, community-engaged design initiative to re-envision neighborhoods, leverage existing assets, rethink the use of older buildings and sites, and address the practical concerns of specific sites and the communities around them“…
Join us on March 16th, at the Academy of Natural Sciences for the Play Space Design Awards.
Congratulations go out to all nine finalist teams.
Our congratulations go out to Ground Reconsidered’s Julie Bush for being appointed to the Community Design Collaboratives’s 2016 Board of Directors.
Along with Julie, Kevin Gray of New Kensington CDC, and Carol Horne Penn of Clemens Construction have also been appointed to the Board of Directors. Sally Harrison, AIA of Temple University and Scott Page of Interface Studio LLC will join the 2016 Advisory Council.
Click here to learn about these appointments and the Community Design Collaborative.
After years of planning and research, Mayor Michael Nutter officiated at the formal dedication of the Discovery Center on the edge of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion Neighborhood. The National Audubon Society along with Outward Bound Philadelphia, have joined forces and formed the East Park Leadership and Conservation Center (EPLACC), a Pennsylvania non-profit organization for the purpose of providing the center and preserving the site’s lake, which is a major stop-over for migratory birds, as a wildlife sanctuary. When complete, the Discovery Center will provide leadership and environmental education for the children of Philadelphia, as well as stewarding the preservation of this unique wildlife habitat.
Ground Reconsidered, along with Hillworks are designing the landscape for the site. Look for updates from us in the near future as the project develops.
Click here for more information about the Discovery Center.
Construction of The Liacouras Walk and Wachman Plaza, the first project to be realized under VERDANT TEMPLE, Temple University’s Landscape Master Plan, is now complete.
VERDANT TEMPLE was completed in 2014. The plan establishes a strong vision for the campus landscape environment, increases aesthetic appeal and functionality, integrates new landscape and capital projects within the existing campus fabric, and guides and informs future campus developments.
Congratulations to all those involved!
Ground Reconsidered’s Julie Bush, along with Joe Sikora of Sikora Well Appel and David Fierabend of Groundswell, presented “Public Space Prototypes: Temporary Parks Transform the City”, at the annual ASLA convention in Chicago. Inga Saffron, architectural critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, moderated the event about the pop-up phenomenon and the design of temporary places.
Pop-up parks (which use simple, inexpensive elements to activate public spaces temporarily) have recently become a staple of summer in Philadelphia and are attracting attention nationwide. The three case studies presented by the panel were: Ground Reconsidered’s Evolution of the Oval, Spruce Street Harbor Park by Groundswell, and Roosevelt Plaza Park and the Pop-up Pool Project by Sikora Wells Appel.
We are proud to announce the publication of VERDANT TEMPLE, a transformative landscape master plan.
Congratulations, and thanks to our partners at Temple University and to our creative design team: Wallace Roberts & Todd, Cloud Gehshan Associates, The Lighting Practice, Duffield Associates, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, Jeanne C. Pond, and Becker & Frondorf.
For more information and to view the plan, check out the following link: VERDANT TEMPLE
After nearly eighteen months of research, planning and design, the John Bartram Association broke ground for the historic restoration of Carr Garden, as well as for renovations to the John Bartram house.
The $2.2 million project will recreate the 19th century specimen garden of Ann Bartram Carr, John Bartram’s granddaughter, and restore the roof and the north entry porch on the Bartram House, dating from 1731.
The design of Carr Garden was recreated through Ground Reconsidered’s intensive researching of historic photos, documents and texts.
In April we participated in a competition to re-imagine Coxe Park, a pocket park in Philadelphia’s Logan Square neighborhood designed by modernist architect Norman Rice. This week we are thrilled to announce that WE WON!!!
To celebrate, we gathered with the Park neighbors and stakeholders for pizza, hoagies, beer, and juice boxes at the park. Mark Focht, First Deputy of Parks & Facilities and the Co-Presidents of the Friends of Coxe Park, Drew Murray and Marissa Piccarreto, gave a brief summary of the competition process and the community’s involvement. Our own Julie Bush and Zach Barker described our design intent and the individual elements, which included a slide hill, blanket mounds, and a play fringe!
We are excited to have won but we are also excited to have been competing with some very talented firms: SALT DESIGN STUDIO and TEND Landscape, Inc.
