Growing community green spaces:

Reimagining a vacant lot

A collage of photos showing community activities such as a classroom presentation on urban gardening, children harvesting vegetables, people working in a garden, a site visit with people walking outside, a group of students in a meeting, and a field trip at Norris Square neighborhood, with text indicating a 14-week class journey and project.
A notice board on a fence announcing a vacant lot event, with a building made of stone bricks in the background, a street, parked cars, electric poles, and trees under a clear blue sky.
A man in a light-colored suit is giving a presentation to a seated audience in a room with stained glass windows. The audience is listening attentively, and there are plants and floral decorations on the tables.
Architectural blueprints and plans for raised garden beds, including detailed measurements and material schedules, with images of assembled garden beds and a farm or garden scene.
A detailed landscape architectural plan for a rain garden, including plant species, proposed fencing, paths, and surrounding streets. Features labels for various trees, shrubs, and design elements.
A plant schedule chart with images of different plants, categorized into Trees, Shrubs, Grasses and Sedges, Herbaceous, and other plant types. Each section includes pictures and names of specific plants like Canadian Serviceberry, Summersweet, Viburnum, Cherokee Sedge, Little Bunny Fountain Grass, Prairie Dropseed, Bergamot, Blue Ice Eastern Bluestar, Golden Groundsel, Hairy Alumroot, Butterfly Milkweed, Beardtongue, Eastern Bee Balm, and Standing Ovation Little Bluestem.
Two women working on planting or maintaining a garden bed behind a chain-link fence on a sunny day in an urban neighborhood with houses and parked cars in the background.
Woman wearing red shirt, red headscarf, orange gloves, and earrings, working in a garden bed surrounded by a wooden border with gardening tools and a water bottle nearby.
Four people standing under a partially constructed wooden pergola in a backyard, with grass, a ladder, and a building in the background.

RE-NATU-RING Principles Applied

Vacant Lot Revitalization

  • The transformation replaces an underused urban lot with trees and planting that help cool the neighborhood, absorb stormwater, and create a more resilient urban landscape.

    Climate resilient design aspects are:

    • Increased tree canopy

    • Reduced urban heat

    • More permeable landscape

    • Stormwater infiltration

    • More resilient neighborhood open space

    • Cooling in a dense urban environment

  • This project begins with people. The community workshops, listening sessions, and neighborhood engagement are what transformed an unused parcel into a shared vision. The design is as much about social infrastructure as physical infrastructure.

Article on the impact of green spaces on crime reduction in Philadelphia:

‘Near this city's new green spaces, a dramatic reduction in crime.’ by Peter Yeung

  • An overlooked parcel is transformed into a distinctive neighborhood place that reflects local identity and invites people to gather, play, and connect.

    Elements that create a sense of space are:

    • Creates a recognizable destination

    • Gives identity to an overlooked parcel

    • Reflects neighborhood aspirations

    • Enhances the character of the surrounding streetscape

Article Link

Project Partners:

Carroll Park Community Members

Hope’s Beacon Church

Overbrook Environmental Education Center

Councilman Jones Office

Saint Joseph’s University - Barnes Horticulture Program

Audubon