Benjamin Monette, RLA, ASLA, LEED AP, Senior Landscape Architect, OLIN will be presenting his lecture, Leveraged Density: The Rebuilding of Civic Space in the Center of Philadelphia on Friday, March 7, 2014 at the 11th Annual Urban Design Conference. The conference is being hosted by the NC State University College of Design in conjunction with the Department of City Planning, Urban Design Center and NC State Foundation and held at the Raleigh Marriott City Center and lasts from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Benjamin's talk will beginning at 10:15 and an abstract of that talk is below:
The City of Philadelphia is a city on the mend. Of the Northeastern Cities that have suffered greatly in the waning of the industrial revolution, it has, on the heels of successes achieved in New York and Washington DC, begun its ascension. Dilworth Plaza is but one of many physical and cultural shifts that is reflective of Philadelphia’s growth and in this reflection, compounds the trend. The plaza holds a prominent position West of City Hall at the center of the city. It is being transformed from an inaccessible, multi-level, unattractive, hard-surface plaza into a sustainable, well-maintained, green public space with no stairs or barriers from the street. This presentation will cover the history of the plaza, the concepts embedded in its re-creation as a vibrant social space in a dense city, as well as many detailed aspects of its current redesign and construction. It will include information on stormwater capture, public art collaboration, fountain design, and the latest in parametric modeling and milling of site furniture. The lessons learned from properly scaled design interventions, public art, and design collaboration–a collective intelligence if you will–are transferable to the issues surrounding the densification of the Mid-South Region.
Approved for 7 contact hours: AIA/CES HSW, NCBOLA #9861 and APA #e.26134. Additionally seeking LEED GBCI credit.
Keynote Speakers:
Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, FASLA, | Green Infrastructure
Principal, WRT Design
Julie Campoli | Neighborhood Design
Author, Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Design
John Kane, | Mixed Income/Mixed Use
Chairman and CEO, Kane Realty
Joseph Kott, PhD, AICP, PTP | Transportation
President, Kott Planning Consultants, LLC
Mike Lydon | Tactical Urbanism
Principal, The Street Plans Collaborative
