Susta i n abl e Ph i l a d elp hi a
take one!
s oa k it up ! special 32-page insert Philadelphia’s inspiring stormwater management design contest
Bike Share is back, and this time it’s here to stay • page 14
The energy to save…
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The inevitable bike and stormwater revolutions
his year’s bike issue has arrived, and not a moment too soon. For the past several months, my bike has been parked at the office, dormant, tires getting flatter by the day. While my bike has been stationary, I’ve moved from Old City — a nice walk to work — to West Philly, where I’ve enjoyed commuting by trolley. Sure it can be crowded, but hopping on public transportation to commute makes me feel like a bona fide adult. But when I read this issue — and listen to people like Alex Doty of The Bicycle Coalition, Andrew Stober of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, bike share advocate Russel Meddin and Lance Portnoff of Phat Bikes, all speaking passionately about the joys of bicycling — it gets my wheels turning. Biking to work feels less like adulthood and more like I’m going to Little League practice. If this issue gives you a little déjà vu, there’s good reason. The very first issue of Grid, in September 2008, had a cover story on, that’s right, a bike share in Philadelphia. The bike share plan has overcome a number of obstacles since then, and biking culture in Philadelphia has continued to improve dramatically. Just before press time, there was more good news: bike lanes were painted on Fairmount Avenue from Pennsylvania Road to Ridge Avenue. And as our biking infrastructure grows, ridership is skyrocketing. According to a 2011 report from the Bicycle Coalition, “Center City, University Southwest, and South Philadelphia have bicycle mode shares [the percentage of transportation on bike] between 4 and 5.3 percent, which is in the range of Portland, Oregon’s citywide mode share and higher than Minneapolis.” Not only is Philadelphia emerging as a national bike leader, but we’re also at the vanguard in stormwater management, thanks to the Philadelphia Water Department’s brilliant 25-year plan, Green City, Clean Waters. Rather than building more “gray” infrastructure (underground storage tanks and pipes), the Water Department is implementing ways to keep stormwater from reaching the pipes at all. Like most sustainability issues, there’s no silver bullet that will save the day. It will instead require a series of solutions.
Alex Mulcahy 215.625.9850 ext. 102 alex@gridphilly.com editor-in-chief
Jon McGoran jon@gridphilly.com art director
Jamie Leary jamie@gridphilly.com designer
Danni Sinisi danni@gridphilly.com distribution
Jesse Kerns 215.625.9850 ext. 100 jesse@gridphilly.com community engagement
Morgan Berman morgan@gridphilly.com writers
Shaun Brady Bernard Brown Brian Rademaekers Steven Rea Courtney Sexton Emily Teel April White In an effort to show just how varied, imaginative and beautiful the solutions to this problem can be, the Community Design Collaborative created the Soak It Up! contest, to which we devoted an entire section in this issue. Three very different sites were selected — one industrial, one commercial and one residential, and all with stormwater management issues. Teams of engineers, architects and various urban designers constructed plans for the project of their choosing. You might be surprised to see how often the word “thrilling” is used to describe these designs, but that’s just what they are. Just as surely as bike lanes and bike racks (perhaps from the bike share!) will continue to emerge in our city, so too will we witness the evidence of our stormwater management revolution.
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Sarah Adams Whitney DiTaranto Suzanna Erlich Corey Jameson Devon Jennings Cassandra Kyriazis Valerie Lang Andrew Schlesinger Keysha Taylor Meredith Thomas Rick Way photographers
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Plain Sights
15th and chestnut
Stationery Building Isn’t Going Anywhere This six-story building at 1525 Chestnut is waiting for a new tenant and a new purpose, but thanks to the Philadelphia Historical Commission, it at least has a new designation. The A. Pomerantz & Co. building, designed by the Philadelphia firm Simon & Bassett, is one of 14 new sites on the city’s Register of Historic Places, added by the Commission in June. An early example of a reinforced concrete skeleton, the building was completed in 1917 for Pomerantz, a purveyor of stationery and office supplies. The company still exists and is now owned by former Phillies centerfielder Garry Maddox, its logo a mimic of the iconic sign on the façade of 1525 Chestnut. At present, tentative plans for a boutique hotel in the building are developing. For more on this story, visit Hidden City Daily, hiddencityphila.org.
In partnership with Hidden City, Plain Sights highlights historic buildings with compelling stories hiding in our midst.
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food
for The grower
The W ho le Foo d
Cucumbers Cu cko o for Cu rcu rbi ts story and photos by
emi ly tee l
S
ummer is an amazing time of year for locally grown produce in Philadelphia. Tomatoes are the divas of the farmers market: basket after basket of luminous heirlooms in every shape and shade are fawned over by a similar variety of fans, who pack the tomatoes’ delicate heft home for salads. Next to them, bouquet-sized bunches of basil crowd squeaky eggplants in every possible purple, and zucchini and summer squash have not yet worn out their welcome with eager overabundance. But by the bushel, aloof — perhaps even cool — the cucumbers are the heroes of every summer salad. An alumna of Fair Food, Philabundance and Greener Partners, emily teel is a food freelancer profoundly dedicated to sustainable, delicious food in Philadelphia. See more of her work at emilyteel.com
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Nutrition 101 Though they’re not the first superfood that one might think of, cucumbers are especially nutritious. They’re full of water and (as long as you leave the skins on) high in dietary fiber, vitamin C, B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and silica, which promotes joint health. There is also some research to show that the lignans contained in cucumbers may reduce the risk of estrogen-related cancers, including breast, uterine, ovarian and prostate cancers. What to look for Look for cukes with even coloring and firm texture, especially at the ends. Small cucumbers are often better than especially large ones, as they tend to have a crisper, more solid texture. Larger, more mature cucumbers tend to have larger their seeds and a more botter flavor.
Abundant and inexpensive at farmers markets, cucumbers are also easy to grow at home, whether you’re a Germantowner with a backyard, or a Kensington container gardener. They are available in both bush and climbing varieties, and their lush leaves and yellow blossoms make a cheerful addition to any yard or garden. They can be picked at almost any size, but are at their best for culinary use before they get too large: they grow more bitter as their seeds mature. Though prolific under the right circumstances, like other curcurbits (including melons, squash and gourds), they are susceptible to damage from cucumber beetles. These bright yellow and black spotted or striped insects feed on every part of the plants, including roots, leaves and flowers, but they cause the worst of their damage by transmitting a type of bacterial wilt that can decimate a whole crop. Farmcucumber beetle er Tim Mountz, of Happy Cat Organics, fights the good fight against cucumber beetles with a kind of agricultural vacuum cleaner. “We Ghostbust them,” he says. Home gardeners can minimize damage inflicted by these pests by checking plants for them in the morning, when they are likely at their slowest, and removing beetles (and their eggs) from the undersides of leaves and dropping them into soapy water. This season, keep your eyes open for some of the heirloom varieties that Tim Mountz and his partner, Amy Bloom, are growing at Happy Cat Organics. Boothby’s Blonde cukes have smooth, white skins and pale green flesh. Happy Cat also has Crystal Apple cucumbers from New Zealand. They are round and pale, resembling a Crispin or Granny Smith apple when they are ready to be eaten. Another popular look-alike, available at Philadelphia markets, are round, yellow Lemon Cucumbers. True cuke fans can seek out heirloom seeds for the ruffleedged Suyo Long cucumbers from China, or Brown Russian cucumbers, which yield fruit with dusty brown skin resembling a potato more than a pickle.
der from the kitchen of chef schroe
Gri lle d Po co no Tro ut & Cu cu mb er Perhaps the most unusual heirloom variety, and a recent arrival on the Philly local food scene. is the Mexican Sour Gherkin. At maturity, these cucumbers are about the size of grapes, and their light and dark green stripes make them resemble tiny watermelons. Mountz discovered them at a street festival in Kennett Square. “A Mexican family from Oaxaca had a stand set up, and they were selling fish tacos. I bit into one and this little thing came out — it scared me the first time I bit into it.” Mountz searched for the seeds and fell in love. The next year, he planted 1,000 of the climbing plants. He can’t even pick them all once the crop reaches full production. Look for them this year in green paper half-pints and, if you can manage to get them home without finishing the box, mix up a quick brine. Pickled, the tiny cukes make a perfect garnish for a Bluecoat gin martini (recipe at www.gridphilly.com).
for The cook
At a time of year when even the most gastronomicallyinclined among us are loath to turn on the stove, cucumbers handily serve as the basis for refreshing meals. The fruit—which hails originally from India—is extremely adaptable. They provide juicy crunch alongside the sweetness of tomatoes, briny olives and feta in a Greek salad. Pureed with avocado and chilled, they yield a refreshing soup or green smoothie. They’re a natural sliced and served with hummus, or mixed into yogurt with herbs for a quick raita or tzatziki. Their juice, paired with melon and mint, makes a refreshing agua fresca (recipe at www. gridphilly.com). With little more effort than a splash of vinegar, a bit of salt and a pinch of sugar, cucumbers go from a whole ingredient to a crunchy, satisfying lunch. Scott Schroeder, Chef of the South Philly Taproom and American Sardine Bar, developed the following recipe (a Grid exclusive!), which plays a simple Greek yogurt and lemon dressing off of the nubbly, satisfying crunch of cucumbers with red onion, cherry tomato, mint, and watercress. Add simply grilled trout—from the Poconos if you can find or catch it—and you have a seasonal, satisfying meal that comes together in moments. American Sardine Bar, 1800 Federal St americansardinebar.com South Philly Taproom, 1509 Mifflin St southphillytaproom.com
Sa lad
(Serves 2)
to high heat. Preheat a gas or charcoal grill bowl of ll sma a in soak and n onio Slice le the cold water to mellow the flavor. Whi r, halve mbe cucu slice and wash s, onion soak s (or rcres wate tear or quarter tomatoes, and l. bow large a into mint and ) purslane l with the Drain onion and add to the bow s with table vege the on Seas nts. edie other ingr g. salt and black pepper to your likin juice to the Add Greek yogurt and lemon drizzle of rous vegetables, along with a gene . bine com to Toss oil. olive n extra virgi the skin When the grill is hot, season both salt with t trou the of side flesh the side and the trout and pepper. In one motion, place w the skin-side-down on the hot grill. Allo out moving julienned trout to grill skin-side-down, with Just before whole trout, filleted 2 it, until the fish turns 95% opaque. the flesh n onto t lemo trou one juice of it cooks through, flip the nds. black pepper seco few a just side for with salad salt Remove the trout to a plate, top virgin extra with lemon wedges plate le who the le and drizz olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges.
slicing cucumber, 9-10,” sliced thin 20 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water 2-3 handfuls watercress or purslane, washed and with tough stems removed 1/4 cup Greek-style yogurt 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 20 mint leaves, torn or
1
for The pantry cucumbers are a staple of summer gardens and farmers markets. They are best used within a day or two of purchase or picking, and hold better on your countertop than in the fridge. To make a quick pickle, submerge sliced cucumbers in rice wine vinegar seasoned with garlic, green onions and mint. For longer-term preservation, Kirby cucumbers can be cut into spears and packed in jars with a brine of one part vinegar and one part water, with one tablespoon salt for each cup of vinegar. Add garlic and dill to taste. If pickles aren’t your thing, try gazpacho or chilled cucumber soup. —Marisa McClellan
What to look for Though almost any vegetable can be pickled, cukes are kings, whether you’re pressure-canning pickles for winter storage or just mixing a quick batch to enjoy in the next few days. These varieties have been bred for dense flesh, small seeds and thin skins, which stand up much better to a vinegar and salt bath than slicing cucumbers, which can become leathery or mushy.
Learn more about food preservation at foodinjars.com
AUGUST 20 13
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Agriculture
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Transforming a vacant lot into an urban farm transforms a neighborhood as well story by april white • photos by emily wren
W
hen Dylan Baird first saw the abandoned lot near 53rd and Wyalusing in the Haddington neighborhood of West Philly, it was all weed trees and trash. “You couldn’t even walk across it,” he recalls. Today, the ¾-acre property, ringed by rowhomes, is an urban farm, bursting with tomatoes and peppers, string beans and okra, collard and kale. Baird is the business manager of Neighborhood Foods, an experiment in urban farming as both community improvement tool and self-sustaining business model. Three years into the project, the Haddington farm and a second 1 ½-acre parcel near the stadiums grow 10,000 pounds of food a year. Produce sales — to restaurants, at farmers markets and through a CSA — now finance about 50 percent of Neighborhood Farms’ operations, Baird says.
At 53rd and Wyalusing, the farm’s neighbors gather for Neighborhood Foods’ weekly Saturday market. Members of the organization’s neighborhood advisory group staff the market, selling produce at affordable prices, $1 or $2 a pound. At the Rittenhouse Farmers Market, the same heirloom tomatoes go for $4 a pound. (Restaurants will pay $7 a pound for the farm’s green garlic.) Some neighbors work in the garden, in exchange for fresh produce. Others visit for biweekly cooking classes. Haddington teens learn garden design, farming techniques and construction skills through a program Neighborhood Foods runs in partnership with the nonprofit Urban Tree Connection. “It’s not just about produce,” Baird says, “There’s a certain amount of pride, too: ‘This was grown in Haddington.’”
dylan baird Urban Farmer
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Happening Now! Neighborhood Foods is preparing for its annual block party, a celebration of the abundance of August produce and the neighborhood’s support of the project. For more information, visit neighborhoodfoods.org .
AUGUST 20 13
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13
Re: Cycling Philadelphia says it’s ready to have a world class bike share program. (Again.) story by shaun brady
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hEn grid launchEd in 2008, the prototype issue’s cover story about Philadelphia’s newlyproposed bike share system cautiously declared that “momentum for a bike sharing program in Philly was looking good.” ¶ Five years and more than 50 issues later, Grid can report that, well, momentum for a bike-sharing program in Philly is looking good. Again. ¶ In April, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities (MOTU) hosted a public forum on bike sharing in Philadelphia featuring officials from Boston, Denver and Washington, D.C. Mayor Michael Nutter took to the streets on a bright yellow bike alongside vendors who’ve built other p hoto by M itchell Leff
BEhind ThE CurvE
cities’ systems to promote the plan. Andrew Stober, chief of staff for the MOTU, says, “We plan to bring a world-class bike share system to Philadelphia by the fall of 2014.” In that 2008 Grid article, Alex Doty, the executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, optimistically predicted that bike share would arrive in Philadelphia within two years. With the city’s newfound commitment, Doty says, “While we might have wished to see bike share come sooner, I think that the city seems to be dedicated to it now. We might not be the first one to get the system, but the advantage of being later is that you get to learn from what other systems have been doing.”
In the years since those initial rumblings, bike share programs have been implemented in several other East Coast cities, most notably Washington, D.C. and Boston. New York City launched its Citi Bike system earlier this year, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. “Philadelphia isn’t always comfortable being the first at anything,” Doty admits. “But Washington, D.C. in particular has shown that this system can work in a big East Coast city. I think now we’re getting to the point where, if you want to consider yourself to be a top-tier city in the United States, bike-sharing is one of the things that you need to have.” Russell Meddin, the founder of Bike Share Philadelphia, is frustrated that the city has taken its time catching up with these neighbors. “I just don’t know why it has taken so long for the city to understand how important this is for the vitality of the city,” Meddin says, “for the mitigation of traffic congestion, as a way to mitigate obesity, and just to make life much easier for everyone.” Meddin has been a self-described “super-advocate” for bike-sharing in Philadelphia since he encountered his first bike share program in Lyon, France in 2005. He became passionate about the subject because “it gives people another alternative for personal mobility. We know that the overuse of automobiles has not turned out to be the blessing that people thought it would be, because people have trouble parking, people have trouble with traffic, and we have a definite pollution problem from automobile exhaust. An easy way to use a nonmotorized vehicle is a bicycle, and it becomes
much easier if there’s a bike that’s there ondemand. That type of advantageous way of doing things has been extremely successful in over 500 cities throughout the world.”
S L O W RID E So why has it taken so long to bring bike share to Philadelphia? Stober cites two reasons the city wasn’t quite ready in 2008: the cycling infrastructure, which at the time wasn’t seen as ready to support a bike share system, and the economic recession. “At a time when we’re going through the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression and we’re talking about closing libraries,” Stober says, “it hardly seemed appropriate to talk about initiating a bike share system.” Today, Stober says, those circumstances have changed for the better. “We’ve invested a lot in our cycling infrastructure in the last few years, and we feel like we have a network on the ground that is really ready to support a bike share program. Another important factor is that we’ve seen the success of bike share systems in other cities, particularly the financial success, where once the capital investment is made, the system can be operationally self-supporting. We expect that to be true in Philadelphia as well.” Nutter has asked City Council for $3 million in capital spending and is seeking up to $6 million in additional federal, state and private sector funding. The program would initially feature approximately 185 stations with 1,0002,000 bikes in an area between the northern part of South Philly and Temple University and between the Delaware River and 45th Street.
The advantage of being later is that you get to learn from what other systems have been doing.” —Alex Dot y
executive director, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia
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in thE zonE The system will be separated into two zones. Zone One includes Center City and University City, where housing and businesses are denser and the placement of stations would be more concentrated. Zone Two includes North and South Philly as well as portions of West Philly, with a lower concentration of stations serving these less densley populated areas. New York’s newly-minted Citi Bike system immediately ran into controversy, from the extreme — Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz railing against the “totalitarians” behind the “dreadful program” — to the more practical: disputes over the location or aesthetics of stations and bike racks, and concerns that some neighborhoods are being underserved. Philadelphia is watching those debates closely, but according to Aaron Ritz, bicycle/pedestrian program planner for the MOTU, the city’s plan has gotten almost universal support from all concerned. “We’ve been talking about this with our internal stakeholders and with business and civic groups in the city,” Ritz says, “and we’ve received unqualified support from almost every corner. That’s been really reassuring. We know we’re on the right track because everybody sees the utility of this and folks are really excited. We’ve already had requests from people and businesses asking to get stations near them.” Bike Share Philadelphia has taken the initiative on that front, creating a crowd-sourcing map on its website (bikesharephiladelphia.org) for station placement suggestions. By early June it already had more than 700 sites located. A major challenge, as Ritz sees it, is “the double-edged sword of Philadelphia’s compact street network. The same scale that makes it a great place to walk and bike make it a challenge to fit in new infrastructure. We’ve been following the clamor in New York City as they’ve rolled out their system, and they have much bigger spaces than we do, with bigger streets and bigger sidewalks. We’re looking to partner with private landowners and agencies throughout the city to find the right places to put these stations.”
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Finding the money and building a system — that’s not the hard part. The hard part is figuring out how to create a system that can sustain itself for decades.” — A l e x D o t y billing cyclEs
Funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, the MOTU, the Bicycle Coalition and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council worked together to devise a business plan for the city, and a request for proposals (RFP) for the system will be issued in late summer or early fall, at which time the logistics of the program will be decided. Other U.S. cities have used a variety of methods to fund their programs. In New York, Citi Bike is run entirely from sponsorship money, with Citi Bank contributing $41 million for five years as title sponsor. Washington D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare is paid for by transportation funding and public contributions. “Finding the money and building a system — that’s not the hard part,” Doty says. “The hard part is figuring out how to create a system that can sustain itself for decades. There are a lot of different ways to structure this, so the city has a lot of decisions to make. One of the things that the bikele ague.org
% of all driving trips are 3 miles or less.
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city has been clear about is that once the system is built, it should be able to stand on its own, to support itself from sponsorships and user fees.” Stober says that Philadelphia “recognizes today a unique opportunity to significantly leverage the city’s investment with other public and private dollars to create a system that will support itself in the long run.” MOTU has created a business plan advisory group comprising leaders from the corporate sector, including executives from Comcast, Liberty Property Trust, Independence Blue Cross and GlaxoSmithKline. They’ve also begun meeting with the city’s large universities and some of the smaller colleges in the program’s market area. “We want to make sure we’re building the most socially inclusive and equitable bike share system in America,” Stober says. “We have an incredible opportunity to do that in Philadelphia that other cities haven’t had. In our core market area, we have neighborhoods with low-income families, middlep hoto by Kev in Kova leski
Helmet Headache How do you promote spontaneous bike use without promoting head injuries?
nE challEngE that arisEs with thE implEmEntation
income families and significant populations of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. When you look at other cities, bike share is decidedly [used by people who are] white and wealthy, and that’s an insufficient transportation option as far as we’re concerned.”
P E DAL P U S H E R S Creating a more inclusive constituency for cycling has long been a stated goal for the Bicycle Coalition, which shares Stober’s hopes for the new program. “There are some interesting things to think about when it comes to how bike share is marketed, priced and used as a tool for getting people with lower-income better access to jobs and as a way to increase their transportation choices,” Doty says, adding that other bike share programs have been relatively ineffective at helping those with the least transportation resources. Stober expects that bike sharing will create an important alternative to the city’s overall transportation landscape, in which cycling has already taken on a more prominent role. “We’re seeing continuing increases in people choosing to travel by bike around the city,” he says. “And people...make that choice for the same reason that people make most of their transportation choices: It’s the least expensive and easiest way to get around. Our city
of bike share systems is how to encourage helmet use among riders. “It’s a challenge that has not been fully answered in current bike sharing systems,” says Alex Doty, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. Bike Share Philadelphia founder Russell Meddin says that helmet laws have a detrimental effect on bike share programs. He compares bike sharing in Melbourne, Australia, which has a mandatory helmet law, with the similarly-sized system in Dublin, Ireland. “The bikes in Dublin are used from 10 to 14 times a day. In Melbourne, they’re lucky if they get .5 usages per bike per day. So, helmets definitely have an extremely calming effect on the usage of bike share.” The reason, Meddin continues, is obvious: “A big part of bike-sharing is spontaneity. So, the simpler it is to use, the better it is. If all that needs to be done is to walk up to the station and flash your card to take the bike and go, you’re going to do it. If you have to flash the card, go get a helmet, pull out some sort of bar to make the bike release, that’s just too many steps.” It’s also a solution, Doty says, largely in search of a problem. “There have been no fatalities in bike share systems so far in the United States. So I think this is an important issue for us to try to address, but it’s not a game-stopper. People are certainly safer with the helmets on, but bike sharing is just not a very dangerous activity for folks to be engaged in.” “The more cyclists you have on the road, the safer cycling becomes,” says Andrew Stober, chief of staff for the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, citing studies suggesting that the more cyclists there are on the road, the safer all cyclists become. It’s simply a matter of awareness, which increases as cyclists become a more common aspect of the urban landscape. “Paradoxically,” he says, “if you require people to wear helmets, fewer people cycle, making cycling less safe for all cyclists.” Still, both the City and the Bicycle Coalition are looking into ways to encourage helmet use and to make helmets more accessible, including vending machines that automatically wash returned helmets. “Safe cycling is going to be a really important part of this program,” Stober insists. “One piece of that is helmet use. The other really important pieces of it are the equipment itself — making sure that the equipment has front and rear lights that work all the time, making sure the equipment is designed in a way that puts riders in the safest possible posture for riding, and making sure the equipment is designed in a way that is putting responsible riders on the road rather than speed demons. And also having the system work in a way that encourages safe riding and reminds folks about safe riding all the time.” —Shaun Brady
i llustratio n by me l issa mcf e ete rs
august 20 13
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chief of staff, mayor’s office of transportation and utitlities
System Comparison How Philly’s proposed bike share system stacks up against other peer systems. Adapted from “Planning For Bike Share in Philadelphia,” published by the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, April 2013.
21
12.5
SQUARE MI.
SQUARE MI.
530 BIKES
1,050 Boston
42.3 SQUARE MI.
■ 105 stations = 533,755 total annual trips
22.25
Philadelphia
SQUARE MI.
1,500 – 2,000 BIKES
■ 150 – 200 stations = 1.6 – 1.9M total annual trips
% of all trips are 1 mile or less, and only 2.25 percent of those trips are biked.
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1,600 BIKES
bik e le agu e. org
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■ 53 stations = 206,974 total annual trips
BIKES
■ 191 stations = 1,888,207 total annual trips
Washington, DC
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—andrew stober
Denver
has a physical environment that’s really supportive of cycling. We’re flat, we have lots of housing within a three-mile distance of lots of jobs and lots of commerce, and bike trips are really perfect for trips that are three miles or less.” Though much of the support for bike share is coming from the cycling community, that’s not who Doty believes are the program’s primary beneficiaries. Instead, he says, “What we see in other cities is that bike sharing is not about giving current bicyclists another option. The demand for bike-sharing comes from people who are not currently riding a bike. In many ways, it’s about creating trips that are not being taken today, to places that are a little too far to walk, that are too congested to get to by car, and where transit isn’t much faster or doesn’t go point-to-point from where you are to where you want to be.” And it’s not just the potential bike rider who benefits from the new convenience of these small trips, Doty says. Those short jaunts would also pour more money into the local economy. “A great bike-sharing trip would be to go and have a coffee or lunch someplace because the possibility of the trip is there. It’s a trip that you’re not making today to a place or a neighborhood where you’re not spending money. So what you’re saving on transportation you end up putting into the economy in other ways; instead of sending money off to Exxon, you’re spending it in a restaurant here in town.” A cyclist himself who uses a bike for most of his daily trips to work, Stober foresees any number of potential uses for Philly’s bike share program. “Say you have to catch the first train in the morning and instead of having a twenty-five minute walk, you now have an eightminute bike ride. In that case you’re getting ten minutes back in perhaps the most valuable part of your day. If you’re a tourist, you’re able to get between the Independence Mall area and all of our museums and experience our beautiful Schuylkill River Trail, all in the same day in a really convenient way. So whether you’re a resident or someone who comes to the city to work or visit, you now have a choice to get around the city in a new way that’s affordable, convenient, and healthy.”
Say you have to catch the first train in the morning and instead of having a 25-minute walk, you now have an eightminute bike ride. In that case, you’re getting 10 minutes back in perhaps the most valuable part of your day.”
WORKING FOR THE BICYCLE COMMUNITY SINCE THE 80s
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The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County (TLC) Presents, Free Time Adventures in Nature Too scheduled? Looking for a fun and interactive outdoor activity for your child this summer? Come explore the lost arts of skipping stones, salamander searches, wildlife tracking, building woodland forts, and letterboxing on TLC’s nature preserves. Plus a secret Gnome adventure!
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Lunch Provided 10AM-2PM. Register for a day or the entire program– we’re flexible! TLC Members-Free; $5 Non-members. Babysitters/ Caretakers welcome free of charge. Visit www.tlcforscc.org or call 610-347-0347 ext. 104 for more info & to register. Sponsored by Trail Creek Outfitters (Glen Mills, PA)
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Design competition generates fresh ideas for managing stormwater, revitalizing communities, and keeping our drinking water clean
2 | SOAK IT UP!
Construction Managers General Contractors Philadelphia, PA • 215.271.1449
torcon.com
building vision
SOAK IT UP! | 3
A WORD FROM THE WATER COMMISSIONER
Great Expectations
contents
And even greater results
Charrette page 6
Dear GRID Reader,
Acknowledgements & Participants page 7
Introduction page 10
Site 1: Industrial Winner
page 12
|
FINALISTS page 14
Site 2: Commercial Winner
page 18
|
FINALISTS page 20
Site 3: Residential Winner
page 22
|
FINALISTS
To learn more about Green City, Clean Waters and how the Philadelphia Water Department is managing stormwater, visit phillywatersheds.org.
page 24
Cool Ideas page 28
When the Philadelphia Water Department, the Community Design Collaborative and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! — a design initiative that explores how green stormwater infrastructure can revitalize urban neighborhoods — we had the highest of expectations. We are jazzed to report that our hopes for this competition — fueled by our shared vision and enthusiasm to present Philadelphia as a model for how a city can fuse green stormwater infrastructure and community renewal to result in fishable and beautiful waterways — were realized tenfold. As we evolve Philadelphia into America’s greenest and most sustainable city, the opportunities ahead will be limited only by our imaginations and the extent
of our determination. This was proven by the 28 design submissions received, which incorporated stringent design criteria with passion and creativity that thrilled the hearts of audiences — and those of the government persuasion — with a peek into the evolution of sustainable designs that can define a neighborhood by the way its landscapes use rainwater as a resource. The implementation of Green City, Clean Waters will be the largest single investment of environmental dollars in the City over the next 25 years. By forging partnerships within the design community, we are cultivating a green legacy for future generations. And we are looking forward to starting this work through the implementation of components of these inspiring plans. Howard Neukrug Philadelphia Water Department Commissioner
COMMUNI T Y DE SIGN C O L L A B O R AT I V E
1216 Arch Street, First Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.587.9290 cdesignc.org Sta ff
Elizabeth K. Miller Executive Director Heidi Segall Levy AIA Design Services Director Linda Dottor AICP Communications Manager Robin Kohles AIA Project Associate Chris Mohr Resource Development Manager The Collaborative is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization with tax-exempt status, tax ID #23-2835435.
4 | SOAK IT UP!
Board
Paul Sehnert Chair Darrick Mix, Esq. Story K. Bellows Alice K. Berman, AIA John Claypool, AIA, AICP Brian Cohen S. Michael Cohen Cheryl Conley Tavis Dockwiller, ASLA Patrycja Doniewski Daryn Edwards, AIA Eva Gladstein Jeff Goldstein, AIA Eric Larsen, PE Joe Matje, PE Michael Paul, PE Kira Strong Paul Vernon, RA Dick Winston, AIA
Published by
Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 gridphilly.com
Publisher
Designer
Alex Mulcahy
Danni Sinisi
editor in chief
Distribution / Ad Sales
Jon McGoran
Jesse Kerns
copy editor
community engagement
Andrew Bonazelli
Morgan Berman
Art director
writers
Jamie Leary
Brian Rademaekers Courtney Sexton
This insert was created by Grid in partnership with the Community Design Collaborative, the Philadelphia Water Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to highlight Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! a design competition that invited teams of design professionals to explore how green stormwater infrastructure will look, feel, and function in the city. Grid is proud to be a part of this important and exciting project.
Real. Innovative. Collaborative. Design.
SAT. JULY 20th 1-6PM Saunders Park
39th & Powelton *Come early for the uGO Fitness Challenge, starting at 10AM! www.facebook.com/lancasteravephilly
“The Soak It Up competition is all about innovation, collaboration and sustainability— the cornerstones of Philadelphia University’s College of Engineering and Design. Our award-winning MS in Sustainable Design educates the next generation of leaders so this kind of work can continue the pathway toward a sustainable future.” –Rob Fleming, Founding Director
We are currently accepting applications for the Fall 2013 semester and beyond. For more information, please contact us at 215.951.2943 or by email at GradAdm@philau.edu.
Congrats to the winners of Infill Philadelphia’s Soak It Up! competition. It was a pleasure to work with the Community Design Collaborative creating the graphic identity and event materials! —jenny & marcy, wfgd studio
corporate identity + branding information graphics book + publication design invitation packages
wfgd.net
SOAK IT UP! | 5
CharRETTE
Pre-Soak
Design Competition wasn’t the start of Soak It Up! Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! introduced a wider circle of Philadelphians to green stormwater infrastructure. A kickoff exhibition in October 2012 highlighted 40 examples of innovative work already happening in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Earlier, two design “charrettes” served as a prelude to the design competition — “Transforming Urban Schoolyards” (May 10, 2012) and “Urban Remix: Creating a Sustainable Community at 46th and Market” (November 16, 2012). Each consisted of daylong brainstorming sessions in which designers met with students, teachers, parents, government officials and community leaders, giving them an opportunity to collaborate on greening schoolyards and on reimagining the 46th Street Station Area.
These intensive one-day charrettes brought together designers and stakeholders
6 | SOAK IT UP!
Rendering of proposed greening of Henry C. Lea Elementary School play yard replacing much of the blacktop with trees and plantings.
v
Acknowledgements Program Funders Philadelphia Water Department The Surdna Foundation Enterprise Carshare LISC Philadelphia Pennsylvania Environmental Council Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Design Competition Prize Sponsors AIA Philadelphia City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Sustainability City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce Design Awards Event Sponsors Green Roofer
McCormick Taylor Rain Gardener Cloud Gehshan Associates Cozen O’Connor CVM Duffield Associates Land Services USA Liberty Property Trust Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox RP Management Viridian Landscape Studio Tree Planter Asociación de Puertorriqueños en Marcha for Everyone Bruce E. Brooks Associates CH2M HILL Dewberry Greeley and Hansen JFS Engineering Keast & Hood Co. KS Engineers
Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects Metcalfe Architecture and Design Michael Baker Corporation Nason Construction/Alice K. Berman Associates Newell Tereska & McKay Engineering O’Donnell & Naccarato Pennoni Associates Straughan Environmental Torcon Trans-Pacific Engineering Corp. TriState HVAC Equipment Urban Engineers Advisory Committee Michele Adams, PE, Meiora Environmental Design Joanne Dahme, Philadelphia Water Department Tavis Dockwiller, ASLA,
Viridian Landscape Studio Tiffany Ledesma Groll, Philadelphia Water Department Dominique Lueckenhoff, U.S. EPA Region 3 Susan McDowell, U.S. EPA Region 3 Dan Meier, PE, Duffield Associates Beth Miller, Community Design Collaborative Heidi Segall Levy, AIA, Community Design Collaborative Photography Mark Garvin Kacie Comly Liss Dominic Mercier Graphic Design WFGD Studio
Participants Thanks to the firms, organizations, and agencies who shared their ideas and expertise. AGENCY Architecture AIA Philadelphia AKRF Andropogon Associates Applied Ecological Services APScape Austin + Mergold Austin Tao and Associates— A Division of the Lawrence Group BAU Architecture Biohabitats Birdsall Services Group Blades & Goven Brawer & Hauptman Architects Brenton Landscape Architecture Brett Webber Architects Brown & Keener— A Division of RBA Brown Design Corp. Burke Plumbing and Heating Campbell Thomas & Company, Architects carlsonDESIGN Landscape Architecture CEDARVILLE Engineering Group Center for Neighborhood Technology Charles Loomis Chariss McAfee Architects Culturelle3 Designs Detroit Collaborative Design Center Dewberry DIGSAU Architecture/Urbanism
Doris H. Bova, AIA, LEED AP
Down to Earth Design Foundation Duffield Associates eDesign Dynamics Environetics Design Erdy McHenry Architecture Fishtank PHL Flo2Studio Gilmore & Associates Greener Partners Grove Design Group Hatch Mott MacDonald HDI HR&A Advisors Hunt Engineering In Posse – A subsidiary of AKF Inclusive By Design Integrated Land Management Interface Studio International Consultants JASTECH Development Services JD Bravo Co. Construction Management JDT International Real Estate Development JFS Engineering John R. Collins Design John Sloan Design Johnston Stromberg Architecture Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects, Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site KS Engineers KSK Architects Planners Historians Inc.
Lammey & Giorgio Larsen & Landis Lawrence Group Architects LIMN ARCHITECTS Locus Partners LRSLA Studio m2 Architecture Magnusson Klemencic Associates Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects Meliora Environmental Design Michael Baker Corporation Michael Jonn, Architect MM Partners New Kensington Community Development Corporation Newell, Tereska & MacKay Engineering O’Donnell & Naccarato OLIN PaperWorks Industries ParadoXcity Paul R.Morin, Professional Geologist Pennoni Associates PennPraxis Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Philadelphia City Planning Commission Philadelphia Water Department PLACE studio Princeton Hydro Puttman Infrastructure Ramla Benaissa Architects RBA Group
RBF Consulting –Baker Company Re:Vision Architecture Remington, Vernick & Beach Engineers Rogers Marvel Architects Roofmeadow Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey SALT Design Studio Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis SED Design Sere Ltd. Shepherd Studio Simone Collins Landscape Architecture SMP Architects SOSNA Spiezle Architectural Group Stantec Stormwater Strategies Strada Studio Bryan Hanes STV ThinkGreen Trinkaus Engineering TRN-Architecture UJMN Architects + Designers Urban Ecoforms Urban Engineers URS Corporation Viridian Landscape Studio Wallace Roberts & Todd Weston Solutions Wholly H2O WorleyParsons Zimmerman Studio
DESIGNING
INNOVATION Lawrence Group designed LEED Gold Certied University of Texas Belo Center for New Media, winner of AIA Austin 2013 Merit Design Award.
HIGHER EDUCATION | BROADCAST/MEDIA HOSPITALITY | RESIDENTIAL | WORKPLACE
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1617 Frankford Avenue Second Floor Philadelphia, PA 19125 www.thelawrencegroup.com/ny
SOAK IT UP! | 7
stormwater is a problem –
rainwater is an opportunity
transforming communities one drop at a time
leading innovation through design Soak It Up! competition winners
8 | SOAK IT UP!
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phillymetroliving@gmail.com Designed by local, eco-minded firms: Johnston Stromberg Architecture Elise Geyelin, Landscape Architect KS Engineers
• ENERGY STAR Appliances • No VOC Paints • Low Flow Plumbing Fixtures • Tankless Water Heaters • Stormwater Planters
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PHFA’s LEED gold-certified green headquarters in Harrisburg
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Tom Corbett, Governor •
Brian A. Hudson, Sr., Executive Director & CEO
SOAK IT UP! | 9
INTRODUCTION
The Calm Before the Stormwater Once state-of-the-art, Philadelphia’s aging stormwater infrastructure may beCOME SO once again by courtney sexton Since its founding, Philadelphia’s physical and cultural development have been shaped by the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. The city’s location on the rivers quickly made Philadelphia a major port of trade with active fishing and shipbuilding industries. The rivers also provided recreation — boating, rowing, vistas captured in great master paintings — that remain a significant part of life here. Perhaps the most important, and lasting, aspects of Philly’s proximity to the two great rivers (and the Delaware Bay) are the civic advancements that have come from it. As far back as the late 1700s, city planners understood the importance of supplying clean water for the city and taking wastewater away. The most iconic representation of the work of Philadelphia’s early civil engineers is the Fairmount Waterworks. Constructed and continually modernized between 1812 and 1872, the Waterworks was a proud symbol of the city’s advancement into a new era, and brought with it an efficient, state-of-the-art mode of dispersing clean water to citizens.
With the issue of supplying water under control, and as time passed and the city grew, sewage disposal became more of a concern. With the installation of toilets and sewer pipes inside of most homes — and one city block full of rowhomes can hold a lot of toilets — the next big challenge was figuring out how to adequately rid neighborhoods of wastewater. Engineers developed a system whereby wastewater from showers, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers is combined with water collected from rooftops and gutters, into storm drains, which could then efficiently bring the combined water to a treatment site. In the rare event the system was inundated, the overflow would be released
How combined sewer systems work, and sometimes don’t WET WEATHER
DRY WEATHER
Down spout
Storm drain
Down spout
Dam
Storm drain
Dam
Outfall pipe to river
Sewage to treatment facility
10 | SOAK IT UP!
Sewage from domestic, commercial and industrial sources
Outfall pipe to river
Sewage to treatment facility
Sewage from domestic, commercial and industrial sources
through culverts into the rivers rather than onto the streets. Known as a combined sewer system, this archaic system, which is now considered unhealthy for people and the environment, still serves about 60% of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, including some of the oldest and most dense. Due to increases in population and the amount of land covered with impervious surfaces like concrete and asphalt, as well as more severe and frequent rainstorms, instances when the systems capacity is exceeded have become commonplace, and the basins that hold the combined water before it reaches treatment plants are more regularly at risk of overflowing, releasing large amounts of waste water along with the stormwater into our rivers. Thus, Philadelphia now faces its newest challenge — how do we maintain the integrity of our historic city while simultaneously managing stormwater in such a way that we are once again known as a clean and innovative leader in urban design?
Competitive By Design The Community Design Collaborative teamed up with the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) and the Environmental Protection Agency to explore solutions to our stormwater management problem that would kick-start an urban revitalization revolution not only in our city, but in cities across the nation. Through its innovative Green City, Clean Waters initiative, PWD proposed to invest $800 million of its $1.2 billion capital improvement budget on green systems to deal with stormwater where it falls, instead of focusing solely on the pipes that move it beneath the city. This bold plan will hopefully become America’s model for urban water utilities in the 21st century. The question was how to turn that idea into a tangible reality. The answer was to involve experts from a variety of disciplines and let them loose. The partnering organizations invited teams of engineers, architects, landscape architects, urban planners and artists to submit their ideas. The incentive was strong — three $10,000 prizes and the chance to be on the leading edge of urban design — but the challenges were considerable. 28 teams, 101 firms, and 315 professionals from the Philadelphia region and other U.S. cities including New York City, St. Louis, Chicago, Oakland, and Portland responded to the design competition. While the winners proved to be those who best combined cost effectiveness and ease of implementation with engaging design, not a single loser came out of the competition. “We were thrilled that we received 28 entries,” says Joanne Dahme of PWD, “We want to emphasize that we are looking at all of them.”
il lust rat ion by M E LI SSA MC FEETERS
Philadelphia’s
Watershed
Moment Soak It Up! generates innovative designs to change the future of stormwater management — and America’s cities by courtney sexton
Philadelphia’s historic elements are among the city’s greatest assets. But these elements can present major challenges to a city seeking innovative paths to a vibrant urban future. Philadelphia’s decades-old combined sewer system — a vast system of underground pipes built to prevent flooding — allows overflow of both sewer and stormwater runoff to contaminate the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, the source of our drinking water. As part of the Green City, Clean Waters initiative, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pledging that over the next 25 years, one third of the city’s impervious areas (roofs, sidewalks, streets, parking lots and other areas that cannot absorb rainwater) served by the combined sewer
system will be managed by green infrastructure. To help everyone envision ways this could happen, PWD teamed up with the Community Design Collaborative to launch the Infill Philadelphia: Soak it Up! design competition. Subject to strict guidelines regarding innovation of design, community engagement and cost-effectiveness, entrants could choose from three site plans commonly found in Philadelphia — “Warehouse Watershed” (an industrial site), “Retail Retrofit” (an outdated commercial zone) or “Greening the Grid” (an historic neighborhood represented by Queen Village). After six months of planning and juries that evaluated the designs of 28 teams of architects, engineers and designers from all over the country, one winner and two finalists selected from each category.
SITE 1: INDUSTRIAL
SITE 2: COMMERCIAL
SITE 3: RESIDENTIAL
Warehouse Watershed Winner pg. 12 Finalists pg. 14
Retail Retrofit Winner pg. 18 Finalists pg. 20
Greening the Grid Winner pg. 22 Finalists pg. 24
SOAK IT UP! | 11
Site 1 INDUSTRIAL: warehouse watershed
Existing site conditions
Edward Darby & Son, Inc. SITE Family-owned metal mesh fabricator and distributor SCALE 120,000 sq ft building on a site composed of multiple adjoining structures occupying an entire city block
ESTABLISHED 1854 ADDRESS 2200 N. 8th Street, in the Hartranft neighborhood of North Philadelphia NUMBER OF ENTRIES 8
Vacant lot across from warehouse transformed into Rainworks Park
Site 1 Winner! Team members inClude: Roofmeadow, In Posse, m2 Architecture, Meliora Environmental Design LLC, SED Design, Sere Ltd.
12 | SOAK IT UP!
Leveraging Water + Plants in Zero Lot Sites Located in North Philadelphia’s Hartranft neighborhood, Edward Darby & Son, Inc., is a family-owned metal mesh fabricating and distributing company that has been a fixture in the area since 1854. The warehouse encompasses a full city block and sits across from a large vacant lot that includes city-owned land, a vestige of this once vibrant industrial district. After assembling their team, Roofmeadow landscape architect Laura Hansplant says they chose the warehouse site because it was so challenging. “We made an appointment with the owner of Darby & Sons, and he graciously allowed us to take a tour. We came out of that thinking, ‘Wow, this is going to be a challenge. What on earth are we going to do?’” It didn’t take long, however, for the wheels to start turning. “A couple of days go by and we all started thinking… ‘Water on the roof? How can we make a green roof lighter?’ Asking
questions was key to solving the challenge.” One idea that did not make it into the team’s final design was a roof-top water turbine that would generate electricity. “That didn’t pan out,” said Muscoe Martin, another of the team’s architects, “but it was an amazing example of what could be done.” The team’s winning design incorporated rainwater courtyards, engaging public spaces, and, most innovatively, a building that “wears its water like a skin,” with facades of directed stormwater collection. “I was very excited about the way art and technical expertise were interwoven to make stormwater function better, and also make the building more marketable,” said Hansplant. “Half the opportunity here... is encouraging involvement from property owners. These kinds of stormwater investments can energize reinvestment in the neighborhood, and help re-brand businesses.”
Blue / Green Roof combines shallow ponds with a lightweight green roof
Horizontal manifold
Entrance to courtyard with rainwater harvesting cisterns
Overflow pipe
Wire Mesh
Curbside stormwater trench
Overflow at trench drain
SOAK IT UP! | 13
Site 1 INDUSTRIAL: warehouse watershed FINALISTS
SOAK CITY– 10 Acre Ecodistrict Team members include: Rogers Marvel Architects, HR&A
Advisors, Inc., Magnusson Klemencic Associates, WRT.
SOAK CITY’s design caused some buzz in the competition in part for the striking aesthetics. One element of the plan involved breaking up the looming façade of the Darby & Sons building with glass reservoirs that hold rainwater, but look like windows. “The big warehouse building isn’t exactly a great neighbor, because it can feel kind of oppressive,” says Drew Gangnes of Magnusson Klemencic Associates. “Those reservoirs help put it on a more human scale.” They also found a creative way of building a green roof on an aging roof, erecting a grid that rests on the stillsturdy columns of the warehouse. But it’s the adjacent 10acre “Ecodistrict,” complete with a “living machine” that breaks down sewage, that is truly impressive. Ganges says
Disconnect + Redirect Team members include: Blades + Goven,
Environetics Design, JD Bravo Co. Construction Management, Integrated Land Management, Trinkaus Engineering.
14 | SOAK IT UP!
the search to make the project replicable led them to discover that the area was similar to many places in the city in that it can be isolated from the main sewer system by keeping all the storm water and sewage off the grid and treating it on site. “We feel that was a pretty big breakthrough,” says Gangnes.
This team created a design where they collect water from an eight or nine-block area, essentially removing that portion of the neighborhood from the water system’s grid. The design also incorporates products manufactured by Darby & Sons. “We incorporated a sort of live wall into the planters we designed for the site, as well as raised beds for a community orchard, made from Darby’s welded wire mesh,” says Earl Goven of Blades + Goven Landscape Architects. “We were really trying to be practical. We wanted this to be something where if people really looked at it, they’d say ‘I could build that.’”
The team even went beyond the Darby site, helping to divert water from an additional three acres in the surrounding neighborhood. “We took advantage of the topography, and we tried to redirect the water into the catch basin,” says Goven. “It was basically a retrofit.” All that work added up to a plan they estimate takes 98.4 percent of annual runoff out of the combined sewer system. “Being able to create a viable community asset … really meant a lot to me,” says Goven. “We sunk a lot of time into it, and it was an excellent project. Ours was truly built in such a way that it could be done anywhere in the city.”
2013 Soak It Up! Finalist
Celebrating a 10 year partnership with PWD, making our city healthier through Green Stormwater Infrastructure. PHSonline.org #PHSgreening
Congratulations to the
COMMUNITY DESIGN COLLABORATIVE For
TWENTY YEARS OF EXCELLENT WORK
SOAK IT UP! | 15
www.keasthood.com Philadelphia | Washington
Proud supporters of the Community Design Collaborative and sustainable architecture
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16 | SOAK IT UP!
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Infill Philadelphia: Soak It Up! Competition Michael Baker Jr., Inc. & NTM Engineering, Inc. Team
Stormwater ReStore, Infill Philadelphia: Soak it Up! Design Competition, Winner, Retail Retrofit Category, as part of the Urban Engineers Team
www.ntmeng.com NTM is a registered Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware and a certified Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB).
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120 Broadway, Suite 1040 New York, NY 10271 T 212 431 3609 • F 212 941 1513 www.mnlandscape.com
SOAK IT UP! | 17
Site 2 COMMERCIAL: RETAIL RETROFIT
Existing site conditions
SOUTH PHILADELPHIA’S Grays Ferry SHOPPING CENTER SITE Urban retail strip center anchored by a supermarket
ESTABLISHED 1989
SCALE A total of 426,433 square feet, 349,332 impervious surface and 83,300 square feet of available retail space
ADDRESS 29th Street and Grays Ferry Ave. in the Grays Ferry neighborhood in South Philadelphia NUMBER OF ENTRIES 13
Hidden River Plaza, an outdoor café space built around stylized dry river bed that collects and directs rainwater
Site 2 Winner! Team members inClude: Urban Engineers, Inc., Matthew Nielson Landscape Architects, Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc.
18 | SOAK IT UP!
Stormwater ReStore South Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry Shopping Center borders a residential neighborhood and is located on a former industrial site along the Schuylkill River. The shopping center is a prime example of an underutilized commercial land covered in impermeable asphalt. Presenters Chris Gubeno and Johanna Phelps of the winning team saw this site challenge as an obvious choice. “The very technical component of the site was attractive because it required solutions to real problems of pedestrian use and community orientation,” said Phelps. The team’s strategy was to make many small improvements that together would have a big effect. “Trying to manage a very large site with almost no green space was a big challenge, especially considering the constraints,” said Gubeno.
The team focused on reallocating space while managing stormwater and engaging the surrounding community with the site. “One of the first things we looked at was the layout of the parking lot,” said Phelps. “The site is very vehicle-oriented, so we were really trying to bring people in and make it more human-scaled. Keeping it cost-effective was actually the toughest, so we had to imagine what could be done without regrading the parking lot, and instead using small-scale interventions.” Among the team’s most successful design improvements were a roof-drain garden created from vacant land and a new gathering space, Hidden River Plaza, created from a section of the parking lot. “By finding small opportunities,” Phelps said, “we were able to meet the demands of the project, re-direct runoff through the rain garden, and incorporate a strong public aspect.”
Plan shows how green design elements make this parking lot more walkable and inviting
Roof Drain Garden is fed by rainwater collected from the roof of the shopping center
SOAK IT UP! | 19
Site 2 COMMERCIAL: RETAIL RETROFIT FINALISTS
From Gray to Green Team members include: Michael Baker Corporation,
RBF Consulting, and Newell, Tereska & MacKay Engineering
One of the aspects that brought this plan to the finalists circle was an impressive menu of interventions that would collect the first three inches of rain in a storm. This plan also offers strategies for paying for everything like renting outdoor space to a farmers market and harvesting rainwater to reduce utility bills. Paul DeBarry of Newell, Tereska & MacKay says, “We developed the plan in three stages so the owner can start out cheaply and generate the revenue to fund the next stage.” The farmers market is “a very easy concept to get started that doesn’t cost that much,” says Laura Frein of the Michael Baker Corporation. “...We thought it was important to find ways that the improvements could help offset some of the initial costs. Not everybody has the money to do all the improvements we suggested up front.” Frein liked how open the team was to taking on the variety of issues at the site. “I really liked the opportunity to think outside the box,” she says. The team transformed infrastructure into something more, like constructed wet-
XPHIL Team members include: AGENCY Architecture, Center for
Neighborhood Technology, KS Engineers, Philadelphia, Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis
Where other teams worked to reconfigure parking spaces by changing up the layout, the XPHIL group did away with painted lines, opting instead for a grid of grass strips that delineate spaces. “Basically, the whole parking lot becomes part of the water system instead of shooting into the ground,” says Kees Lokman of the Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis. Ersela Kripa, of AGENCY Architecture, says the plan came from having to deal with the need for spaces while addressing the negatives of asphalt. “We really had to balance water mitigation and all the requirements for spaces,” she says. “It just didn’t make sense to revert back to painted lines.” They also worked hard to make the strip mall site far friendlier for those without cars, breaking up the sea of asphalt with dune-like areas of green and making it easier to get to the stores on foot. “Now, bikes and pedestrians never really come across motor traffic,” says Stephen Mueller of AGENCY Architecture.
20 | SOAK IT UP!
lands that clean stormwater and educate children about the environment, a rainwater harvesting tank that becomes public art, and green parking that stores water and feeds plants. From the air, says DeBarry, “the site will look green, not gray.”
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SOAK IT UP! | 21
Site 3 RESIDENTIAL: GREENING THE GRID
Existing site conditions
Queens village SITE One of Philadelphia’s oldest historic neighborhoods SCALE Cohesive community of single family rowhomes complemented by corner stores, small parks and playgrounds, and former factory and school buildings converted to multifamily housing
ESTABLISHED 1700s LOCATION Defined by Queen Street to the north, Carpenter Street to the south, 3rd Street to the west and the Front Street to the east NUMBER OF ENTRIES 7
Natural splash park complements existing playing fields at Shot Tower Playground
Site 3 Meeting Green Winner! With tree-lined streets,
Belgian blocks, clusters of small rowhomes and a neighborhood square, Queen Village is the quintessential Philadelphia historic neighborhood. Preserving such neighborhoods while implementing greener stormwater management systems presents a different kind of Team members challenge — one that involves civic engagement, multiple pri|inClude: OLIN, Gilmore vate property owners and tight, difficult-to-navigate spaces. & Associates, International For Stephen Benz and Richard Roark of OLIN, along with Consultants, MM Partners the rest of their winning team, those aspects were what made LLC, PennPraxis, SMP the challenge most appealing. “Implementing green infraArchitects structure can be very complicated where you have a lot of small parcels and existing conditions,” says Roark. “All the utilities of city, multiple property owners — how do you make it durable where they live? And how do you create something that is civic and impactful?” The team approached the challenge with communitybuilding as a primary objective. “Put money into reinforcing 22 | SOAK IT UP!
community spaces,” says Benz, “like the triangle at 2nd and Christian. That is a unique space and is a pivotal, integral part of making green infrastructures work here. We can’t utilize an ‘add-on’ approach — the strategy must be built around the connections and integrations of those tree-lined streets, form and function together.” OLIN’s project offered up equal opportunity for private and public involvement, giving incentives to property owners to participate. “Ours was a test template,” says Benz. “We used Queen Village as model, but want to transcend the place itself to encourage the Philadelphia Water Department to think about solutions in a broader sense of replicability.” Added Roarke, “This is the most amazing opportunity for city-building that you can have — going where it’s going to matter, where people are going to see it and see how [green infrastructure] makes a better, more humane place by revealing the resources that we depend on.”
Above & Below: Network of green stormwater infrastructure builds community and a greener city
Gas main Water main
Permeable paving
Overflow outlet pipe Combined water sewer main
Examples of green infrastructure street furnishings
SOAK IT UP! | 23
Site 3 RESIDENTIAL: GREENING THE GRID FINALISTS
Un/Plug & Flow Team members include: Flo2Studio, Inclusive By Design,
JFS Engineering, Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site, PaperWorks Industries, Locus Partners, Zimmerman Studio.
The Un/Plug & Flow plan was distinct in that it offered a wide variety of solutions for Queen Village, each fix a part of a kit designed to work on levels ranging from homes to streets and public parks. “It really reflects the team that was cobbled together, and it’s an honest representation of the interests of the people who came together to work on this,” says Sylvia Palms, a landscape architect with Locus Partners from University City. “We really are just a group of individuals.” The group drew on experts from a variety of fields, living in places ranging from New Jersey to Germany. “We had a broad perspective, so rather than try to just come up with one cohesive design, we had brainstorming sessions to come up with certain elements.” She says her background in community engagement and providing nature access in cities meshed well with the group and acted as a “guiding force.” “We wanted there to be ownership of the stormwater system at all levels,” says Palms, “The other projects almost always relied on public monies or commercial partnerships … we wanted people to be able to put their own mark on this.” She says people were even asking where they could buy elements of the plan, especially the Deluge Deck and the Storm Stack. “Those are basically modular cisterns that
can be put down on the ground or stacked up on a wall,” says Palms. “They can be used in your garden to hold water there and then sent out into the neighborhood network.” “People can build a garden around these stormwater elements,” says Palms. “They could be literally bought as a kit, attached to a rainspout, and you’re off. It would hold more water than a traditional rain barrel and help people develop garden space.” Beyond the backyard, they included plans for spaces like streets and bus stops, including concepts like the miniature green space known as a parklet. “Our bus stop was basically a parklet, but it’s at a bus stop,” says Palms. “It’s not only collecting stormwater, it’s also an informational kiosk and a traffic calming element because it would be in the bus lane and the bus would have to stay in the traffic lane. It’s a powerful way to expand the parklet with a strong emphasis on stormwater.”
GREEN city CLEAN waters QUEEN village Team members include Pennsylvania Horticultural Society,
JDT International Real Estate Development/Urban Roots, m2 Architecture, Meliora Environmental Design, PLACE Studio, Puttman Infrastructure Inc., and Wholly H20
These finalists drew the attention of the jurors with an holistic approach that incorporated solutions for major streets like Christian down to the smallest alleyways, incorporating an especially elegant design that blended the concept of a rain barrel and planter. “It takes the runoff from the roof to a planter box that was sized for the typical rowhome roof in the neighborhood and feeds it into a reservoir below the planter,” explains Linda Walczak, a landscape architect with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. “Then there is wicking material that brings the water to the soil. So, essentially, the top part is a planter and the bottom is a reservoir.” “The idea was to make this something that was part of everyday life, something that people just sort of take for granted,” says Kate Evasic with Meliora Environmental Design. To them, the planter solution was a fashionable way to spruce up the streets and fight stormwater. “It seemed to us like a no-brainer because several of the houses that we looked at had planters that were right next to downspouts, so it just made sense to combine the two,” says Walczak. 24 | SOAK IT UP!
McCormick Taylor
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SOAK IT UP! | 25
COOL IDEAS Harnessing stormwater to create an aquaponic fishery, greenhouse and rooftop recreation
Easy-to-install rooftop water retention mats
Brain Storms
Soak It Up! participants generate a torrent of ideas worth absorbing by Brian Rademaekers
As in any competition, Soak It Up! designates winners and finalists among the entries. But the main point of the competition is to generate new, compelling and innovative ideas in the effort to deal with the issue of stormwater management. In that sense, all of the entries were successful. With that in mind, here’s a look at other striking ideas from the design competition. Jules Dingle’s Soak It Up! peers can’t call him a sore loser, even if his team’s pitch was among a number of “losing ideas,” as he puts it. A principal with Philly’s DIGSAU design firm, Dingle’s team submitted a plan and concept that, like others that didn’t make it to the final round, was essentially too big in scope to succeed within the constraints of what Soak It Up! was looking for. They started at a very literal beginning: Philadelphia was founded here because of the abundance of water in the form of rivers and streams. “We wanted to think about stormwater as a bigger concept, one part of a multifaceted problem,” says Dingle, who worked with Scott Page of Interface Studio and Shandor Szalay of AKRF on a plan that tackled issues at the Darby & Sons industrial site. Their design would transform rainwater from a pricy nuisance to a valuable commodity fueling a 25,000–square-foot aquaponic fish farm that doubles as a tourist attraction, complete with a public fishing hole and cafe. Instead of floodwater laced with antifreeze and engine oil, they envision a source for tilapia and Swiss chard. “We came up with this idea of
26 | SOAK IT UP!
the aquaponics facility, and it seemed far-fetched until we did the research,” says Dingle. “People are doing this all over the world. It’s a billion-dollar segment of the fishing and seafood industry.” If a fish farm and tourism center seems like big thinking, just consider that was only Plan A. Plan B centers on an aquaponic education center. The “Food From Water” plan offered by Peter Myers (Hunt Engineering), Peter Simone (Simone Collins Landscape Architecture) and David Brawer (Brawer & Hauptman Architects) similarly looked to create a food source and cut down on the costs of stormwater fees at Darby & Sons by turning the runoff into irrigation for an urban farm. In their vision, the water running from the roof is diverted into a trellis of plant-supporting pipes that feed into vegetable beds and cisterns that can be used for watering crops. Like Dingle and his team’s plan, they envision rainwater as a driver for local jobs that help meet the demand for local, sustainable food. On the residential front, one team sought to tackle the issue of turning a ubiquitous Philly structure — the row home — into a better tool for slowing the flow of storm-
water. With an estimated 62 percent of city buildings being rowhomes, the inventors behind the “BLUE OVER YOU Stormwater Retention Mat,” including partners from Charles Loomis Chariss McAfee Architects, eDesign Dynamics, Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects, Inc., and Rutgers University, aimed for big improvements without expensive retrofits. Recognizing that many rowhomes can’t support something like a green roof, they went with a similar concept: a type of “blue roof,” which holds the water without the soil and vegetation of a green roof. “Green roofs are expensive and difficult to put on a row house,” says Chariss McAffee of Charles Loomis Chariss McAfee Architects. “Structurally, you can have a lot of issues with a green roof. We wanted something with a quick layout that we would be able to deploy quickly. It’s a bridge technology. It’s lighter — much lighter — and it’s much less expensive. “ Blue roofs can be expensive, too, but in this case, they used kits that homeowners can install on their own. Stormwater retention mats are designed to hold 165 gallons of water during a one-inch rainstorm event per roof. “The homeowner could actually go out and buy a kit and do this. They don’t have to pay for the installation.” On a block with 175 homes, they estimate this simple step would keep over 28,875 gallons from the sewer system. It might be seen as a temporary fix, but the team
Water collection structures also provide shade and shelter for community activities.
Pipe trellises transfer water from warehouse roof to feed community garden
pitches the mats as a “bridge technology” that can help fill the gap until cheaper or more comprehensive solutions come along. While something like a rooftop mat would go virtually unnoticed, other teams proposed plans that would drastically alter the landscape. The Retail Retrofit plan, from RamlaBenaissa Architects and Birdsall Services Group, was one of those plans. Rather than go for streetlevel fixes like permeable pavement, they went skyward, creating dramatic funnel-like structures that form a sort of canopy over the parking lot of a Grays Ferry strip mall. The devices, made from piping and treated glass, direct the water to underground cisterns. But they had other intended purposes as well. “We also wanted to provide an outlet for the community,” says design architect James Kerestes, of Ramla Benaissa. “The [devices] act as covered areas that people can use spontaneously or for community events. We looked at the site and asked, ‘How can we use a parking lot that is often dead space?’” Rather than just keep water from the sewers, they wanted to give people another reason to come to the site — a desire expressed by a number of groups dissatisfied with the strip mall dynamic. “We wanted to offer an intervention that the community would be interested in,” says Kerestes. “For us, to
be innovative and provocative and create something that could be used anywhere, that was the driving perspective.” Another benefit of the funnels: The water never has a chance to mix with surface pollutants, but flows cleanly into the cisterns and infiltration beds. That plan wasn’t the only striking effort to take stormwater treatment from below the pavement. “H2OII” from BAU Architecture, Cedarville Engineering Group, and SALT Design Studio proposed what they dubbed “Martini Towers.” Shaped, naturally, like giant martini glasses, the towers act as purifying devices where water is pumped (via wind power made onsite), stored and cleaned. Lawrence Group Architects, Grove Design Group, and Austin Tao and Associates also came up with an unusual strategy for the Grays Ferry site. “It’s your typical strip mall, which made it interesting,” says Micah Hanson, a landscape architect from Lawrence Group. “You have this suburban structure dropped right into a Philadelphia neighborhood.” While they used “tried and true” methods to eliminate the mall’s impact on the sewer system, what caught the attention of the Soak It Up! folks was their plan to help pay for the improvements, and then some. The goal was to make it “totally self-financing,” says Hanson. They did that via a stormwater credit program being implemented by the Philadelphia Water Depart-
ment, where property owners can reduce their bill by cutting back on rainwater going into the city system. “If we are treating all of our water on site, the Water Department can basically bring the bill down to zero,” says Hanson. “But we can also treat stormwater from surrounding areas and drop it into our retaining system.” It’s that extra water treatment that Hanson and his teammates envisioned as a source of revenue that would help pay for the stormwater improvements, going well beyond just eliminating the shopping center’s PWD stormwater bill. If neighbors will help pay for stormwater improvements and lower their bills, the mall owner can use the funds to pay off loans for the initial improvements, they reasoned. “If you want to see things get created, you have to think about how to pay for things,” says Hanson. Innovative thinking like that is part of what made Soak It Up! so satisfying; teams that didn’t get into the finalists circle still came out of the effort knowing they had achieved something important. “At some point, you’re just dealing with solving the problem of stormwater, and that can be seen as being one-dimensional,” says DIGSAU’s Dingle. “Working on something like this, the point for us is to expand the thinking in our office. We put winning out of our head from the start, and we had a lot of fun with it.
SOAK IT UP! | 27
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It’s a Bike World After All
Philadelphia joins more than 500 cities around the world with bike share programs story by shaun brady hE first bikE sharE program in thE world was the White Bicycle Plan, the brainchild of the Dutch anarchist group Provo. White-painted bicycles were placed at locations around Amsterdam in 1965, intended to be used for a single trip and left behind for others to use. Within a month, the bikes were gone, either stolen or chucked into the city’s canals. Other free bike systems were tried in France and the U.K. over the next few decades, with varying degrees of success. The first important “second-generation” bike system was implemented in 1995 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The city’s ByCyklen program, which continues today, required a refundable deposit to unlock its bikes from their stations. Three years later, the first “third-generation” system was introduced in Rennes, France in 1998. Sponsored by Clear Channel, the program utilized a smart card to access the bikes electronically. Bike share systems are in use in more than 500 cities worldwide, with Africa the only continent without one. Western Europe and China boast
the most successful and widespread programs in the world. Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia executive director Alex Doty points out that the most robust bike sharing systems in Europe are not in the cities that immediately spring to mind when one thinks of cycling-friendly locales. “There’s no big bike-sharing system in Amsterdam or Copenhagen,” Doty says. “Those cities have already got one-third to one-half of all trips being taken by bikes. The places where bike-sharing has had a really big impact have been Paris or London or Barcelona, cities that have not traditionally been bike-friendly. In those cities, bike-sharing in and of itself has made a huge difference in the bike culture of the city.” As for the United States, a number of cities have implemented bike share programs in recent years. The University of California, Irvine implemented a campus-based system in 2009, while Denver became the first city to utilize a third-generation smart-card system in 2010. Programs in the States have largely been concentrated in major urban centers, the most recent being New York City’s controversial Citi Bike, inaugurated in May 2013.
The average American commutes to work 16 miles each way. The average car gets under 23 miles per gallon. That’s seven gallons of gas per week to commute. At today’s prices — $3.68 per gallon on average — that’s roughly $25.75 a week, or nearly $1,300 a year! t h e da ilygr e e n. com
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p hoto courtesy B icin g CANA L OFICIA L
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Big Wheels Design Logic’s workhorse Phat Bikes are for more than just work
story by shaun brady // photos by chris sembrot or lancE portnoff, rEsEarch and dEvElopmEnt doesn’t happen in a laboratory or a tech facility. The Fairmount-based bike designer prefers to do his research on two wheels, pushing himself against his closest competitors. In 2010, he entered the Motor Assisted Bike Death Race in Tucson, Arizona on a cargo bike he had designed himself. He placed ninth out of 50 contestants in the race, and further developed that prototype using what he’d learned during the race. ¶ Soon after, Portnoff earned a patent for the design of his retooled bike, which was shortened, stiffened, braced and tuned from the racing prototype. He christened the bike “Da-Bomb,” and it served as the foundation of his new company, Design Logic. ¶ “Racing, you learn what works and what doesn’t, what breaks and what holds up,” Portnoff says. “It’s a starting point to figure out what’s going to eventually work in the real world.” august 20 13
g r i d p h i l ly.co m 25
Da-Bomb was followed by Da-Trail, a shorter wheelbase model, and earlier this year, Portnoff unveiled Da-Phat, which boasts 4.8inch thick tires. “The ‘fat’ style of bicycle has been out for a couple of years now,” Portnoff says. “There are one or two manufacturers that make them, but there isn’t one that’s specifically a cargo version. The value behind these bikes is basically being able to ride on snow or sand. A regular bike doesn’t have a big enough tire with enough flotation to get over those types of really soft obstacles.” Design Logic’s bikes are equipped with a built-in rack on the rear of the frame capable of carrying up to 150 pounds. It is available with a removable Da-Hitch attachment that allows the rider to tow a small utility trailer. Portnoff has used the trailer to pull loads of
up to 200 pounds. The company now offers a trailer specifically for the bikes dubbed, naturally, Da-Trailer. “I’ve always ridden bikes, and I have a background of working in the industry,” Portnoff says. A lifelong cyclist, he began working in bike shops and racing during high school. After graduating, he attended welding school and worked with frame-builders and mechanics to learn the basics of bike manufacturing. The company is currently a two-man operation, with Portnoff supplying the designs for a builder who crafts the bikes’ frames. “I’m basically in the process of building a brand from an idea,” he says. He describes Design Logic’s bikes as “a utilitarian design. It’s heavy-duty; it basically serves a purpose. Most bikes just don’t have
the capacity to tow a trailer or carry a heavy load on the frame itself. So, we basically want to make a product that’s usable, that’s not just like any other bike.” Portnoff sees the company’s future in supplying bikes to the shipping industry. “It’s a usable viable product that industry can use,” he says. “FedEx can use it, UPS could potentially use it. That’s where we’re going: down the avenue of a commercial end-user.” That’s not to say that Portnoff discourages private consumers from using the bikes. The company’s website proclaims, “our bikes give you all the comfort and health benefits of a regular bicycle, while allowing you to tow things like groceries or packages.” As for the new Da-Phat model, its symmetrical rear triangle allows the fat 4.8-inch tires to be swapped out for 29-inch mountain bike wheels, for more day-to-day riding when terrain isn’t quite so challenging. All of Design Logic’s bikes feature a range of available colors and a 20-inch frame capable of carrying a rider measuring 5’5” to 6’4”. The Da-Bomb model’s longer wheelbase makes it roughly the size of a tandem bike, and is less of a focus for the company these days than its two siblings. That shift has to do both with Da-Bomb’s more cumbersome size — which essentially requires garage space for storage — and the fact that it is built with the installation of a gas-powered engine in mind. The company’s later models reflect its move to the use of electric motors. Design Logic builds the bikes in both motorized and non-motorized versions. The built-in electric motors, which add about 30 pounds to the frame with batteries included, can handle speeds up to 50 miles per hour, at least 10 miles per hour faster than the legal speed limit in any U.S. state. But Portnoff envisions a future for Design Logic bikes beyond utilitarian consumers and street-legal consumer transportation. He’s itching to get back into racing, and is organizing an electric bike racing team. “I’d like to see Red Bull-sponsored events,” he says, “to see it be considered an extreme sport.”
Adolescents who participate in bicycling, in-line skating, or skateboarding more than 4 times a week are 48% less likely to be overweight as adults. bik e s be long. com : M e nsc hik , D. , e t a l. , 20 0 8
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David Byrne’s “The Ladies Mile,” on 5th Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets, in front of Bergdorf Goodman
Off the Rack
Bike rack competition seeks designs that blend art and functionality story by shaun brady s thE Mayor’s OfficE of Transportation and UtilitiEs gears up to introduce its new bike share program to Philadelphia, their colleagues in the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy are coming up with artistic solutions to deal with the resultant increase of bicycles. In conjunction with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the city recently launched a competition for artists and designers to create bike racks that will double as public sculptures. “We’re really trying to succeed on both fronts,” says Gary Steuer, Philly’s chief cultural officer. “We want these to be functional as bike racks, but also to be beautiful and engaging and interesting as art.” The program was inspired by nine bike racks designed by musician and artist David Byrne in New York City, which were created in partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation and the Pace Wildenstein art gallery. Steuer initially contacted Byrne about undertaking a similar project in Philadelphia, but the former Talking Heads singer was unwilling to negotiate with the city in terms of his designs. “He wasn’t interested in going through an approval process with the arts commission,” Steuer says. “He wanted to just come up with designs and say ‘Here they are,’ but we couldn’t avoid the regulatory process.” 28
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When those talks fell through, however, Steuer saw an opportunity to engage with more local artists. While the city’s competition casts a wide net, special consideration will be given to Philadelphia artists. The city worked with the Bicycle Coalition to apply to the Knight Arts Challenge, which awarded the project a $50,000 challenge grant, requiring the raising of matching funds. “We’re looking at structuring things through partnerships with property owners for certain sites,” Steuer says, citing the large plaza across from City Hall in front of Center Square, the site of Temple University’s Center City campus. “Assuming they become a partner, that particular rack might be limited to students or alumni from Temple’s Tyler School of Art. And we may do something similar with the University of the Arts, which obviously has a significant need for bike racks along Broad Street.”
The deadline for proposals is early September 2013, and the bike racks are slated for installation in the spring or summer of 2014. The plans include the possibility of small two-bike racks as well as larger, corral-sized racks that could hold up to 10 bikes, with budgets from $5,000 to $15,000. “We’re concentrating on Center City because we want the bike racks to be visible to the largest number of people,” Steuer says, “and to really be a part of the city’s public art collection... We believe that we have the largest collection of outdoor public sculpture of any city in the U.S. So, the bike racks become an opportunity to add to that and to use the need for the utilitarian bike rack as a way of adding to the beauty that people encounter in our streets.” Steuer hopes that some of the designs may become prototypes, to be replicated in neighborhoods throughout the city by neighborhood organizations, businesses or institutions. The competition fits in with the Bicycle Coalition’s advocacy mission. “[It] really celebrates bike culture,” says executive director Alex Doty. “If you look at Portland, which is a leader in bicycling in the United States, their infrastructure isn’t that much greater than what we have. The difference is that bikes are seen as an integral part of how that city operates... This kind of competition nurtures the kind of bike culture we’re building here in Philadelphia.” Steuer’s office will be in charge of the aesthetic end of the process, while the Bicycle Coalition will ensure that the bike racks are functional as well as beautiful. “This is really exciting for us,” says Doty. “These racks are going to be something that you can lock up your bikes to, but this is more about celebrating the culture and art of Philadelphia.” Steuer stresses that both parts of the selection process are equally important. “We don’t want them to be art first and bike racks second, so it’s impossible to actually secure a bike to them.” From an artistic standpoint, however, Steuer sees the competition benefitting the city in a number of ways. “First of all, this is a great bicycling city and there’s a significant demand for bike racks. So, adding additional bike rack capacity is very much needed. But beyond that, it’s a way of rethinking what’s known as street furniture — bike racks, benches, bus shelters — which can be pedestrian or even ugly, in which case they’re taking away from the beauty of the built environment. “Philadelphia is a great city in terms of its heritage, its design, its historic sites, and also its world-renowned collection of public art,” Steuer continues. “One of the great things about that collection is that it’s art that is accessible and free and that people encounter in the course of their daily life. They walk down a street and all of a sudden there’s a sculpture or a mural... These bike racks will have that same effect.” p hoto by michael surtees
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Bike Guide
The Philadelphia area has a great assortment of bike-related businesses and institutions, and we have put together a list of some of our favorites. Did we miss anyone? Let us know at getinvolved@gridphilly.com.
Bike Shop and Service center city
Bell’s Bike Shop
bellsbikeshop.com 888-901-9990 1320 E. Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia Specializes in custom hand-built wheels, custom assemblies of bikes and bicycle upgrades. The knowledgeable staff are familiar with the varied needs of all types of biking.
Bicycle Therapy
bicycletherapy.com 215-735-7849 2211 South St., Philadelphia A full service bicycle shop that offers new bikes, parts and accessories. They sponsor road and mountain bike teams and promote local races.
Breakaway Bikes
breakawaybikes.com 215-568-6002 1923 Chestnut St., Philadelphia A full-service bike shop offering new bikes, service and fittings, as well as a second-floor training center with RPM indoor cycling sessions, performance training and biometric testing.
Fairmount Bicycles
fairmountbicycles.com 267- 507-9370 2015 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia Offers new and used bicycles for commuting, touring, road riding or recreational use, with a full-service shop and year-round bike rentals.
Firth & Wilson
tinyurl.com/firth-wilson 267-318-7285 933 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia With a combined 35 years of bike experience, Firth & 30
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Wilson have opened Philly’s newest full-service bicycle shop, specializing in city bikes, transport bikes, Brooks Saddle repair and quality service.
Frankinstien Bike Worx
frankinstienbikeworx.com 215-893-0415 1529 Spruce St., Philadelphia A great option for commuters, Avid biking staff specializing in fixed gear, single-speed hybrids and flat bar road bikes.
Trophy Bikes
trophybikes.com 215-222-2020; 215-592-1234 712 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia Provides a variety of bicycles, parts and accessories and offers classes and training sessions. Experts in preventing theft in the city, they offer free anti-theft classes and sell Kryptonite and Abus products.
Via Bicycle
bikeville.com 215-627-3370 606 S. 9th St., Philadelphia Specializes in used bicycles, with a limited selection of rare and new bicycles. Via also offers service and parts, and buys used bicycles. north philadelphia
Kayuh Bicycles
kayuhbicycles.com 215-235-1838 1900 W. Girard Ave., Philadelphia Offers refurbished and custom built bikes along with accessories and parts. They are currently assisting Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia with a new program called Safe Routes to School.
northeast philadelphia
Bicycle Stable
bicyclestable.com 215-634-0633 1420 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia Offers bikes from trusted brands as well as extensive repair services. The shop was once a police stable, giving birth to its unique name.
Bustleton Bikes
cyclefitonline.com 215-671-1910 9261 Roosevelt Blvd., Philadelphia Offers a wide selection of bicycles, accessories and full bike-servicing options, as well as expert assistance in selecting the proper bike type and model.
Jay’s Pedal Power Bikes jayspedalpower.com
215-425-5111 512 E. Girard Ave., Philadelphia Offers a vast selection of bikes, parts, accessories and clothing for every type of rider. Jay’s also has a service shop and offers free estimates.
Liberty Bell Bicycles
libertybellbicycles.com 215-334-9100 7741 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia Philadelphia’s largest Schwinn and GT dealer for over 50 years. The shop offers new and used bikes, accessories and repairs for all brands. northwest philadelphia
Barr’s Bikes and Boards barrsbikesandboards.com 267-297-3266 5548 Ridge Ave., Philadelphia Offers a number of trusted
bike brands and custom-built fixed-gear bikes as well as parts, accessories and repair services.
Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center cadencecycling.com
215.508.4300 4323 Main St., Philadelphia Offers bike classes, coaching, frame fittings and repair services. Also sells bike parts and accessories and coordinates group rides.
Human Zoom Bikes and Boards humanzoom.com
215 487-7433 4159 Main St., Philadelphia Offers a variety of bicycles, boards, parts and accessories for your biking or skating needs. Located in Manayunk and Ardmore, you can stop in for repairs, rentals and some bike education.
Philly Electric Wheels phillyew.com
215-821-9266 7153 Sprague St., Philadelphia Offers electric bikes for purchase or rental so you can sail over those Philly hills while still reducing your carbon footprint. Strives to be a zero waste company.
Wissahickon Cyclery wiss-cycles.com
215-248-2829 7837 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia Carries a range of bicycles to meet the needs of all riders and offers professional repairs from brake pads to full frame repair. south philadelphia
Bicycle Revolutions
bicyclerevolutions.com 215-629-2453
756 S. 4th St., Philadelphia Bicycle Revolutions offers bicycle sales, service, parts and accessories. The shop doubles as a gallery for local artists to share bicycle art and culture.
Community Bikes and Boards communitybikes andboards.com
267-861-0544 712 S. 4th St., Philadelphia Sells an array of bikes, skateboards, snowboards, apparel, parts and accessories. The shop also provides extensive services including tune-ups.
Kater Street Bicycle Company
katerstreetbicycle.com 215-545-1711 609 S. 16th St., Philadelphia Specializes in bicycle repair, providing quick turnaround, great service and affordability. No appointments needed for any repairs or services.
Performance Bicycle performancebike.com
215-336-4500 1300 S. Columbus Blvd. Suite 11, Philadelphia Carries bikes, clothing, tools and accessories, works with advocacy groups that promote the sport of cycling and is committed to environmental stewardship. west philadelphia
Firehouse Bikes
firehousebicycles.com 215-727-9692 701 S. 50th St., Philadelphia Carries used bicycles as well as new and used parts and accessories, including racks, baskets, bells and whistles. The shop offers tune-ups and repairs to vintage and contemporary bikes.
Bike Shop and Service (continued) Keswick Cycle
keswickcycle.com 215-397-4191 4040 Locust St., Philadelphia Caters to all riders, offering new bikes, accessories and service, and is actively involved with Neighborhood Bike Works, a Philly-based organization dedicated to teaching urban youth bicycle repair skills.
Swaray’s Bike Shop
swaraysbikeshop.com 215-476-0903 612 S. 52nd St., Philadelphia Offers hundreds of used bicycles for children and adults, and also repairs bicycles right on the premises.
Wolf Cycles
firehousebicycles.com 215-222-2171 4311 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia Newly acquired by Firehouse Bikes, offering new and used bikes and parts, full service shop, community room, surfboard workshop, small metal shop and an aspiring bicycle rack making venture. bucks county
Bucks County Bicycle Company
buckscountybikes.com 215-946-7090 8545 New Falls Rd., Levittown, PA Carries a large line of bikes, clothing and accessories and offers bicycle servicing, fitting appointments, riding classes and clinics.
Cycle Sports of Doylestown
cyclesports.com 215-340-2526 641 N. Main St., Doylestown, PA Cycle Sports in Doylestown works to satisfy all customers by meeting each rider's individual needs. The store's staff includes active bicycle riders, group ride leaders, and bicycle teachers.
Guy’s Bicycles
guysbicycles.com 215-355-1166 326 E. Street Rd., Feasterville, PA
Carries a large variety of bicycles, from triathlon bikes to BMX bikes. Each new bike purchased from the shop comes with a free tune-up.
Firehouse Cycles
firehousecycles.com 215-321-7171 15 S. Main St., Yardley, PA A Specialized Elite bike shop, carries a wide selection of bikes, clothing and accessories. The friendly and educated staff is always looking to help customers realize the rewards of cycling.
New Hope Cyclery
newhopecyclery.com 215-862-6888 404 York Rd., New Hope, PA Carries bicycles suited for each biker’s needs, available for rent and purchase. The shop also carries a selection of biking accessories and clothing. chester county
Bean’s Bicycles beansbikes.com
610-719-4977 319 W. Gay St., West Chester, PA Offering bikes, bike service, gear and fittings, Bean’s Bicycles prides itself on getting to know the customer and meeting their specific needs. Moving to Berwyn in the fall.
Downingtown Bicycle Shop
downingtownbike.com 610-269-5626 833 W. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA A locally owned store featuring a large selection of bikes for the entire family, as well as a complete line of bicycle clothing and accessories.
Exton Bicycles extonbikes.com
610-363-2747 337 E. Lincoln Hwy., Exton, PA Specializes in Giant, Fuji, Haro and Specialized bikes, and offers a free one-year checkup on new bike purchases. The store also operates the West Chester Bicycle Center.
Hybrid Cycles
hybrid-cycles.com 484-753-3581 126 East Gay Street, West Chester, PA Specializes in light electrical vehicles, with the largest selection of electric bikes in Chester County.
Schuylkill River Trail, Valley Forge and Philadelphia and traces its roots back nearly 50 years as the original bike shop of Wayne, Pennsylvania. MontGomery County
Phoenix Cycles
Abington Wheel Wright Bike Shop
610-933-2210 165 Bridge St., Phoenixville, PA A large selection of bikes and an experienced and educated staff, welcomes walk-ins or appointments for any bicycle problem and offers free estimates.
215-884-6331 1120 Old York Rd., Abington, PA Has a full fabrication shop in the basement for custom modifications and a “10-Point Measuring and Fitting System,” so any bike they sell will ride true from day one.
phoenix-cycles.com
delaware county
Cycle Fit of Delaware County cyclefitonline.com
610-876-9450 320 S. Chester Rd., Wallingford, PA Offers a variety of bike brands and an experienced staff that provides expert assistance in choosing the best bike type and model for each customer. New bike purchases include a free tune-up.
Cycle Sport Media
cyclesportmedia.com 610-565-9535 801 N. Providence Rd., Media, PA Offers a wide selection of bikes and accessories and a highly skilled staff with a combined 85 years in the bike business.
Drexel Hill Cyclery
drexelhillcyclery.com 610-626-4477 703 Burmont Rd., Drexel Hill, PA Educated staff selling bikes and bike accessories for all ages and offering four free tune-ups during the first two years after a bike’s purchase.
High Road Cycles
highroadcycles.com 215-348-8015; 610-687-1110 165 W Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA Offers easy access to the
awwbs.com
Erdenheim Cycle & Fitness Center
erdenheimbicycle.com 821 Bethlehem Pike. Erdenheim, PA Offers a wide selection of affordable bikes, expert advice, and friendly service. The shop carries Vision Fitness Equipment which they assemble, deliver, and service for customers.
Scooter’s Bike Shop
scootersbikeshop.com 215-723-5909 130 N. Main St., Souderton, PA Has hundreds of bikes in stock to suit every level of rider, as well as a wide assortment of parts, accessories, apparel and car racks.
Tailwind Bicycles
tailwindbicycles.com 610-287-7870 160 Main St., Schwenksville, PA Buys, sells, trades and rents bicycles in Schwenksville, PA, and offers a lifetime of free service for brake and gear adjustments. new jersey
Danzeisen & Quigley dandq.com
856-424-5969 1720 E. Route 70, Cherry Hill, NJ Specializes in cycling, skiing, snowboarding and swimming. Has recieved numerous awards since its founding in 1961.
Keswick Cycle
Erlton Bike Shop
215-885-7433 408 Easton Rd. Glenside, PA See description for West Philadelphia location.
856-428-2344 1011 W. Rt.70, Cherry Hill, NJ Carries a large variety of new bikes. In addition to specializing in new bikes, Erlton also carries bike accessories and has a bike repair service shop.
keswickcycle.com
M&M Two Wheelers
mmtwowheelers.com 610-525-2220 606 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA Carries a full line of bicycles and accessories for all kinds of riders. M&M serves the Main Line with courteous, professional service and provides expert bicycle repair.
erltonbike.com
Keswick Cycle
keswickcycle.com 856-795-0079 305 East Rt. 70, Cherry Hill NJ See description for West Philadelphia location.
Main Line Cycles
Wheelies
610-664-1970 717 Montgomery Ave., Narberth, PA Knowledgeable staff offers a broad range of bikes, cycling apparel and bike accessories for all experience levels, as well as professional fitting and expert bike repair.
609-953-9383 176 Route 70, Medford, NJ Offers a complete showroom of quality new bikes, skateboards, parts and accessories, local pick up and delivery and quality repair and service for all bicycle needs.
mainlinecycles.com
wheeliestore.com
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Bike Guide
(Continued) The Philadelphia area has a great assortment of bike-related businesses and institutions, and we have put together a list of some of our favorites. Did we miss anyone? Let us know at getinvolved@gridphilly.com.
Bike Accessories
Bike Makers
Fabric Horse
Bilenky Cycle Works
215-995-1026 1737 E. Passyunk Ave., Philadelphia Aims to connect design with sustainability and sewing. The store sells handmade backpacks, utility belts, accessories and bike-related gear crafted from recycled materials.
215-329-4744 5319 N. Second St., Philadelphia Offers custom bicycles including road bikes, city sport models and more. Services include bike retrofit, frame work and repair, paint jobs, decals and restorations.
215-301-4594 3233 Amber St,. Philadelphia Built for transporting large, heavy or numerous items around town quickly and efficiently for both personal and commercial use.
Design Logic Bicycle
Bike Clinics
fabrichorse.com
bilenky.com
Laplander Bicycle Bags laplanderbags.com
484-606-6128 6139 Germantown Ave. Suite 305, Philadelphia A small boutique store that specializes in handmade classic style bike bags. They craft every part of their bags using locally sourced materials whenever possible.
designlogicbikes.com
215-317-7444 Makes cargo-bicycles that are handcrafted in the United States. They offer three different models, all featuring rear built-in racks that can hold up to 150 pounds.
Mio
Engin
215-925-9359 446 North 12th St., Philadelphia Focuses on creating sustainable design products. Merchandise like their pop-up bicycle baskets help to make nonmotorized transportation easier, practical and stylish.
215-248-2829 7837 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia Bicycle maker in Philadelphia whose mission is to build bicycles that appeal to people both as a work of craft and as a useful mode of transport.
mioculture.com
engincycles.com
Bike Makers (cont'd) Bike Rental/ Sharing Haley Tricycles haleytrikes.com
Coatesville Community Bike Works coatesvillebikeworks.org
610-383-4349 PO BOX 203, Coatesville, PA Is open Thursday night from 6 to 8 p.m. Volunteers meet at Ash Park to learn about basic bicycle repair, maintenance and bike safety tips.
Mt. Airy Bike Collective
mtairybikecollective.com 13 E. Mt. Pleasant Ave., Philadelphia Functions as a volunteer group sharing knowledge, tools and repair space to foster participation in bike riding safety and maintenance.
Non-Profit/ Education
Zagster
Bicycle Coalition
202-999-3924 1500 Locust St., Philadelphia A bike-sharing program. Users are texted a code, which they use to unlock and re-lock the bike they will be using for the day.
215-242-9253 1500 Walnut St. Mailbox #1107, Philadelphia Coalition celebrates 40 years of leading Philadelphia’s bike movement: In 1972 there were no bike lanes in Philadelphia. There was no way to cross the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on a bicycle and SEPTA had banned bikes from all their buses, trains and trolleys. Even the few trails that existed weren’t connected. But while the climate was bleak for cyclists it was also ripe for change.
zagster.com
Legal Services Stuart Leon, Esq. stuartleon.com
215-790-9288 1420 Walnut St. Suite #404, Philadelphia Works strictly with Bicycle Crash Law, is highly experienced with hit-and-run cases and works to achieve maximum financial recovery. Most cases are won before trial and completed in 6-12 months.
bicyclecoalition.org
Simple Cycle
simplecycle.org 267-428-5942 4455 N. 6th St., Philadelphia With a vision that providing youth with opportunities to bike together will make them more active and socially engaged, Simple Cycle teaches children bike safety, riding skills and the value of community.
← Neighborhood Bike Works neighborhood bikeworks.org
215-386-0316 3916 Locust Walk, Philadelphia A nonprofit educational organization that uses bicycling to offer educational, recreational and career-building opportunities to youth in greater Philadelphia’s underserved neighborhoods.
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p hotos courtesy o f n e ig hb o rho o d bi ke works
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urban naturalist
by bernard brown • photos by jen britton
A River Runs Through It Escape onto the water without leaving the city
O
ur rainbow flotilla set off downstream from the Walnut Street dock, each of us in a brightly-colored kayak. I’m not sure four Schuylkill Banks staff were needed to escort photographer Jen Britton and me, but when you get a chance to leave your West Philly office and get on the water for work, you take it. Next time you see someone with a canoe or a kayak on top of their car heading out of town, keep in mind we have a great river right here. This is not to say that you should never launch out on some scenic upstate waterway, but you can also push off into the current and trail your hand in cool water with a much shorter commute. I can’t promise you an entirely “natural” experience. The tidal Schuylkill has a long history as a working river, and it shows: we passed under bridges young and old, cruised past docks in varying states of decay, and had a hard time finding a bank not held up with concrete or old timbers (‘bulkheaded’) or otherwise stabilized with rip rap (a layer of stone or concrete intended to prevent erosion). Not to mention everything we toss in. This includes all sorts of inanimate trash, but also live animals; we saw a lot of turtles, and
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nearly all of them were species not native to the Schuylkill – either released pets or their descendents. I only saw one of the native redbellied turtles that would naturally dominate this habitat. Another day we might have seen a dolphin chasing shad upriver, or maybe otter or beaver, according to Danielle Gray and Josh Nims, the Director of Marketing and Development and Operations Manager, respectively, for the Schuylkill River Development Corporation (SRDC), the entity that operates Schuylkill Banks. Danielle Kreeger, Science Director for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, noted that some rare freshwater mussels were recently found by Bartram’s Garden. Fisherman Clifton Savage pulled in a channel catfish from an SRDC-rehabbed pier as we passed by. “It’s a healthy river,” he proudly stated, “a lot of people don’t know that.”
SEPTA
MAKES FRUITFUL CONNECTIONS Farm-to-SEPTA
A lot of the time, he’s right. Lance Butler, Manager for Environmental Restoration Operation and Maintenance at the Philadelphia Water Department, assured us that, “During dry weather, the Schuylkill is get on the clean and consistently meets water qualRIVER ity standards.” Rain, however, tends to
Want to
overwhelm our storm sewer system and flush raw sewage into the river. (See the Soak It Up! insert included in this issue.) We turned back for Walnut Street at the mouth of Mill Creek, which was capped and turned into a storm sewer in the 19th Century. It now faces the river as a dark, fetid tunnel, big enough to paddle into, though the smell should be enough to warn you away. As for the river’s future, Dr. Kreeger mentioned plans to naturalize more of the banks and restore mussel populations with a hatchery. Global warming will also play a role, as rising seas push salt water up the Delaware Estuary. Kreeger noted that the “salt line” recently pushed up past Wilmington, and is now hovering south of Chester. “The tidal Schuylkill will therefore soon be on the ‘front lines’ of this change.”
?
Gaining Access to the Schuykill
Contact Schuylkill Banks (215-222-6030 or info@schuylkillbanks.org ) to access the Walnut Street Dock or contact Bartram’s Garden (215-729-5281 or info@bartamsgarden. org ) for access to their dock. To take part in one of Schuylkill Banks’ guided tours of the river or for event information, visit schuylkillbanks.org .
Support our local farmers at one of the many farmers markets near SEPTA stations. You’ll find fresh local produce, meats, and dairy on SEPTA’s special Farmers Market Map at www.septa.org/maps
the Philly Rivercast website (phillyrivercast.org ) for water quality info before you head out. Technically the red, yellow, or green water quality ratings refer to waters upstream of the Fairmount Dam, but Butler says it gives a good picture of downstream conditions as well.
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jul 11
What We Sow: Mural Arts Project Try new tastes of seasonal heirloom produce at the Fair Food Farmstand.
→→ Thurs., July 11, 3-5 p.m., and Sat., July 13, 11 a.m.-1
p.m., free, Reading Terminal Market, 51 N 12th St.; Fri., July 19, 5:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m., free, Las Parcelas Garden, 2240 N 2nd St. For more information, visit muralarts.org/whatwesow.
jul
Fundraiser with SBN + Judy Wicks
Connect with local entrepreneurs while learning successful ways of achieving positive social change through business.
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→→ Thurs., July 11, 5:30–7:30 p.m., $60, Lovers and
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Madmen Coffee Lounge, 28 S. 40th St. 19104, will continue at White Dog Café, 3420 Sansom St. after 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit sbnjudytalkeorg.eventbrite.com .
jul 11
The Metropolitan Revolution: Philadelphia Model City
Join the Academy of Natural Sciences for a discussion of how our major cities and metropolitan areas are addressing environmental, political, economic and fiscal problems that our leaders in Washington have yet to solve.
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Watch movies starting at dusk on the Banks. Arrive early for free snacks, and to enter a free raffle for the chance to win a gift card!
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Do-It-Yourself Garden Pond
Learn how to plan and build a pond, stream, or fountain for your garden with minimal expense and effort.
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→→ Sat., July 13, 9:30–10:30 a.m., $10, Fairmount →→ Thurs., July 11, 5:30–7:30 p.m., free, The Academy
of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. For more information, visit ansp.org/ Visit/Events
jul 11
Creating With Curd: Mozzarella and More
Just in time for tomato season, learn how to use authentic cultured cagliata curd in your own kitchen for the freshest, most flavorful mozz you’ve ever tasted. →→ Thurs., July 11, 6:30–8 p.m., $40, Rick Nichols
Room, Reading Terminal Market, 51 N 12th St. For more information, visit bpfair-food.ticketleap. com/creating-with-curd .
jul 11
Nature Uncorked: Butterfly Days, Firefly Nights
Enjoy wine and cheese with an evening walk through our meadow, searching for summer’s enchanting butterflies and fireflies. →→ Thurs., July 11, 7:30–8:30 p.m., $15 for members,
$20 for non-members, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd. For more information, visit schuylkillcenter.org/ events
Schuylkill Banks Movie Series
Park Horticultural Center, 100 N. Horticultural Dr. Walk in or register online at extension.psu.edu/
→→ Thurs., July 11, 8–11 p.m., free, Schuylkill Banks,
Walnut Street Bridge: How to Train Your Dragon (PG); Thurs., July 18, 8-11 p.m., free, Grays Ferry Crescent Esplanade: Men In Black (PG13); Thurs., July 25, 8-11 p.m., free, Schuylkill Banks, Walnut Street Bridge: Midnight in Paris (PG-13). For more information, visit schuylkillbanks.org/events
philadelphia/events/2013-second-saturdayseries-2
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Saturdays @ SCEE
jul 15
Rock, Rollick, & Rummage - Live music, craft vendors, and more!
Study different objects from nature and take a walk in the woods. The second and fourth Saturdays feature read-aloud storytime and old-fashioned games.
Enter into the fabulous outdoor Garden Variety for performances from The Lawsuits, Commonwealth Choir, Midnight Singers, Ben Cady and The Rock to the Future House Band.
→→ Sat., July 13, Aug. 3, Aug. 10, 10:30–11:30 a.m., free
→→ Mon., July 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., $5, Garden Variety,
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for kids, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd. For more information, visit schuylkillcenter.org/events
jul 14
PASA Eastern Region Potluck & Farm Tour at Wyebrook Farm
Northern Liberties, 900 N. 2nd St. For more information, visit rocktothefuturephilly.org/rockrollick-rummage-with-rttf-on-saturday-june-15th
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Delaware Estuary Watershed Teacher Workshop
Join your PASA friends at Wyebrook Farm for a memorable evening of great food and community. Self-guided tour of this innovative livestock business, retail farm store and cafe on a beautifully restored Chester County farm. BYO food and drink.
Educators from all walks of life are invited to attend our Delaware Estuary Watershed Teacher Workshop. This workshop is divided into two parts: Estuary Explorers and Urban Waters. Teachers are not required to attend both sessions.
→→ Sun., July 14, 6–9 p.m., free, 150 Wyebrook Rd., Honey Brook, PA, 19344. RSVP at pasafarming. org/events/pasa-events/pasa-eastern-regionpotluck-farm-tour
→→ Wed., July 10 - Fri., July 12 (Estuary Explorers);
Tues., July 16 - Thurs., July 18, (Urban Waters), 9 a.m.-4 p.m., $50, Greater Philly. For more information and to register, visit delawareestuary. org/wetland-workshop
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Energypath 2013 Conference The region’s largest sustainable energy conference attracting over 600 industry professionals, policymakers and academics from all over the world. Topics will include an overview of different sustainable energy practices.
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→→ Mon., July 29, 9 a.m. – Fri., Aug.
2, 5 p.m., prices vary, Villanova University, 800 E. Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA. For more information and to register, visit energypath. org/energypath2013/Home.aspx
jul
GMO Free PA Monthly Meeting
jul
Master Gardeners of Camden County Plant Clinic
GMO Free PA’s mission is to educate people about genetically engineered foods and advocate for legislation that requires mandatory labeling of such foods. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month.
Master Gardeners of Camden County will be holding a Plant Clinic on the 3rd Saturday of each month from May to September at the Camden County Environmental Center.
→→ Tues., July 16, 7-8:30 p.m. Ludington Library, 5 S.
→→ Sat., July 20, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., free, Camden County
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First Friday, Park After Dark
Visitors can enjoy regional artists’ performances presented by FringeArts, just across from their future home on the waterfront, and then stroll up Race Street to explore Old City.
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→→ Fri., Aug. 2, 7-9 p.m., recommended donation of
Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. For more information, visit facebook.com/GmoFreePa
jul 17
Bug Crawl – Food & Drink Pairings for the 21st Century
Bugs – it’s what’s for dinner at Morris Arboretum as they host an evening of adventurous eating at Bug Crawl – Food & Drink Pairings for the 21st Century. →→ Wed., July 17, 6-8 p.m., $40-50, The Morris
Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, 100 E. Northwestern Ave. For more information, visit morrisarboretum.ticketleap.com/bug-crawl--food--drink-pairings-for-the-21st-century
jul
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The Seed Farm 2013 Farm Ride & 5K Run/Walk
5th Annual Farm Ride and Fun Run/ Walk through some of the area’s scenic, fertile farmland. The event will showcase area farms, as well as the men and women who own and operate them. →→ Sat., July 20, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., $30 (to pre-register),
$40 (to register at the event), The Seed Farm, 5854 Vera Cruz Rd., Emmaus, PA. For more information and to register, visit theseedfarm. org/2013-farm-ride
Environmental Center, 1301 Park Blvd., Cherry Hill, NJ. For more information, visit haddon.patch. com/groups/events/p/ev--master-gardnersplant-clinics
jul
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The Old Rose Workshop Series: Summer Pruning for Form
Wyck’s Old Rose Workshop Series is designed to shepherd you through a year in the life of your old rose, ensuring that you enjoy the flowers of your labor. →→ Sat., July 20, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., $75 (per person
per workshop), $50 (for members of the Wyck and/or the Heritage Rose Foundation). Wyck Historic House, 6026 Germantown Ave. For more information, visit wyck.org/programs or call 215848-1690.
jul
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Teacher Workshop: Engaging Students through Nature
Learn strategies to increase student engagement and enrich learning across subject areas by integrating nature into your curriculum. Choose from concurrent sessions for pre-K and lower grades or middle and upper grades. →→ Wed., July 24, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m., free, The
$10-20, Race Street Pier, Columbus Blvd. & Race St. For more information, visit eventbrite.com/ event/6693302849/es2
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Sharing Nature with Children
Enjoy the wonder of nature by engaging your child in different activities each month to awaken their natural senses!
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→→ Sat., Aug. 3, 10:30-11:30 a.m. $2 (TLC members),
$5 (non-members), Bucktoe Creek Preserve; 432 Sharp Rd., Avondale, PA. To register, visit tlcforscc.org
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Culinary Herbs: Fragrant, Flavorful and Festive Foods
Philadelphia Extension Master Gardener Linda Grimwade will show how to grow herbs from seed and preserve them by drying or freezing. Participants will also have an opportunity to contrast and compare the fragrance and flavor of herbs, and use fresh herbs in recipes. →→ Sat., Aug. 10, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., $10, Fairmount
Park Horticultural Center, 100 N. Horticultural Dr. For more information, visit extension.psu.edu/ philadelphia/events/culinary-herbs-fragrantflavorful-and-festive-foods
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd. For more information and to register, visit schuylkillcenter.org/programs/ forteachers/professional.html
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Vicious Cycles “Share the Road” begins at home by steven rea
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et’s face it: bicyclists are better than everyone else. No carbon emissions — unless you’ve just had a particularly nasty slice of pizza. No gas pumps. We keep the trouser clip industry alive. You can practically hear the crank and chain and hub and wheels going sustainability, sustain-ability as you pedal along. I’ve been riding my bike around Philadelphia for years now, just about every day that it hasn’t been monsooning or snowing (remember snow?). And as the city’s cycling culture continues to grow — more bike lanes, more bike racks, more bike shops, more Share the Road signage, more cab drivers shaking their raging fists — it feels good to be part of a community. There are times when you’re moving along Pine Street in Center City, on Walnut in University City, across Spring Garden, all around town, when you find yourself in a virtual peloton of fellow commuters, café-goers, students, medical residents and nurses still in their scrubs and clogs, moms and dads with kids on bike seats or perched on those wobbly trailers, restaurant workers — everybody doing their bit to help the environment, keep their bodies fit, save money and get to where they’re going quickly, neatly, on a beautiful brainstorm of an invention. Two wheels, a frame, handlebars, a seat — genius! Except… as cycling becomes an increasingly popular mode of transport, egregious behavior
is on the upswing, too. Competitive commuters whooshing by on your left and on your right, no warning. Fixie pixies flying through intersections. Bike messengers. Wrong-way cyclists. Sidewalk cyclists. Smartphone cyclists. I’m not saying I’m Mr. Perfect on my bike (or off ). I go through stoplights. I’ve even been pulled over by a police car, flashers and siren on. (Indignant and in disbelief, I asked the officer why he doesn’t ticket SEPTA drivers when they go through red lights in their 15 ton buses — I’m lucky I wasn’t cuffed.) I’ve made stupid moves in a rush to get from Point A to Point B — inching between lanes of cars and trucks, waiting impatiently in a crosswalk for the light to change, oblivious to the pedestrians I’ve unwittingly blocked. And those wheelies on my mid-century English three-speed, so show-offy! But we need to take a page from the Slow Bicycle Movement, the Slow Food Movement, the slow-your-ass-down movement. If you’re a cyclist who thinks that someone in a car barreling down a city street at 50 m.p.h. is a cretin, or that
guy on the Harley heavy-revving at the corner, waking the squirrels and the birds and the rats, is a fool, shouldn’t you display a little more civility, courtesy, consideration — mindfulness, even — when you’re on your bike? I learned to ride when I was a kid in New York. (My father’s idea: Take me to the top of a hill in Central Park, put me on my bike, give a push and watch as momentum kept me upright all the way down. I don’t recommend this method to parents who want their pipsqueaks to grow up all fuzzy with fond memories, but it works.) I love bicycles. My wife and I have a basement full of vintage machines — a Japanese city bike with a winged front fender ornament, a shiny orange Peugeot mixte with its Antwerp license plate still attached. Hand-built lightweight steel road bikes with Nervex lugs. Don’t get me started on lugs. And I collect photographs of movie stars on their Schwinns and Rollfasts and backlot beaters — hundreds of photographs. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire and Brigitte Bardot and Julie Christie — icons of glamour and style, humanized, brought down to earth by the simple act of climbing astride a bicycle and wheeling around. Stars, they’re just like us. But can you picture Audrey Hepburn rocketing straight for that cute hipster couple pushing their baby stroller and trying to make their way across the avenue? I like to think not. As we continue to champion the idea and the act of cycling — Philadelphia was recently ranked sixth on a list of the best bicycling cities in America — we should champion the idea and the act of real, let’s-all-get-along inclusiveness, too. steven rea is the movie critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Hollywood Rides a Bike, from Angel City Press.
Each month, Dispatch features personal reflections on adventures in sustainability. Have a story you’d like to share? E-mail getinvolved@gridphilly.com
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illustratio n by Steve Streisguth
Create Change.
Pitchayanin “NuNu” Sukholthaman Master of Environmental Studies
photo credit: pitchayanin sukholthaman
Pitchayanin “NuNu” Sukholthaman evaluated the Bangkok Recycling Program, a unique incentive-based recycling program that includes a collaboration among communities, local authorities, and businesses; an environmental reward program; and a performance tracking system to determine how effective such programs will be in the future of Thailand’s fastest-growing city. PeNN’S MaSter of eNviroNMeNtal StudieS PrograM combines classroom work with field experience in a broadly based interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment. As a culminating exercise in the program, students complete an individual project that puts what they’ve learned in the classroom to work in the field. Their choice of final projects often reflects the area of environmental work in which they intend to focus their careers.
Walk-In wednesdays meet with penn’s mes program staff on the second wednesday of each month
Be part of tomorrow’s solutions today. @PENN_EES www.facebook.com/UPennEES
www.upenn.edu/mes or search penn mes