Refining the District Cultural Flows:
Refining the District Cultural Flows:
Identifying Spatial Hubs, Hearts, and HallwayS
Identifying Spatial Hubs, Hearts, and HallwayS
(SUMMER 2023 RECAP)
(SUMMER 2023 RECAP)
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Building on the successes of the two-year process of developing a first draft of the Cultural District Plan, two planning and landscape architecture graduate students worked over the summer of 2023 with the primary partner, New Africa Center, to continue refining the design guidelines, public space focal points, and programmatic potentials. This resulted in visual work and applications to the City. The full report is downloadable below and published as an online summary for immediate viewing.
Building on the successes of the two-year process of developing a first draft of the Cultural District Plan, two planning and landscape architecture graduate students worked over the summer of 2023 with the primary partner, New Africa Center, to continue refining the design guidelines, public space focal points, and programmatic potentials. This resulted in visual work and applications to the City. The full report is downloadable below and published as an online summary for immediate viewing.
2023_10.05 NFD Summer Internship Final Report-part-1.pdfDESIGN GUIDELINES: The Foundation of a New, Organic Place Brand
DESIGN GUIDELINES: The Foundation of a New, Organic Place Brand
In beginning to articulate a coherent brand identity for the cultural district, associated sites need to share a set of spatial themes to emphasize together. Summer associates Marcus Owens and Noa Machover did community engagement and urban design work to begin learning what those could be to inform a future network of linked sites.
FIVE CULTURAL "HALLWAYS": TRACING A SET OF VALUES-BASED HERITAGE TRAILS
FIVE CULTURAL "HALLWAYS": TRACING A SET OF VALUES-BASED HERITAGE TRAILS
The public space corridors were revisited using Mr. Muhammad's initial research in 2020 with a student who calculated potential trails. The 2023 associates did additional surveying to gain current insight. Interns combined the Values-based Preservation framework provided by Dr. Kenyatta to poll community members on which sites illustrated which value. Finally, They integrated these findings to offer a defined and visually compelling set of walkable, clustered routes.
THE HUBS: FIVE SPATIAL REGIONS TO CLUSTER PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCES
THE HUBS: FIVE SPATIAL REGIONS TO CLUSTER PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCES
The "experiential analysis" of the sites along the routes led to a deeper insight about where the hubs of the New Freedom District are. These formulated cross-neighborhood sets of edges and sub-regions: 1) Mantua Greenway, 2) Southeast Lee Cultural Center, 3) New Freedom Heart, 4) Northwest Loop, 5) Southern District Entrance. These sub-regions offer future programmatic and design opportunities to collaborate more deeply within neighborhoods to emphasize the Cultural District.
HEARTS
HEARTS
Altogether, these hallways and hubs act as arteries and aortas for the pulses of the New Freedom Cultural District as it exists now. The current and future ideas developed by community design associates aim to inspire local property owners and residents to preserve this heart of Black cultural heritage within West Philadelphia.
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