Neighborhood Design Challenge

On Saturday, September 22, 2007, 9:30am to 3:00 pm, the American Institute of Architects Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter invites the general public to a free presentation on the Penn Street Corridor, free buffet lunch, and a public design charette or problem, titled, "Neighborhood Design Challenge"

The day’s events will unfold with a greeting by City of Reading Mayor McMahon at 9:30am, 10:00 am Presentation titled "Penn Street Corridor Design Process" by Mark Dawson, Landscape Architect from Sasaki Associates, Inc., 11:00 am Hands on Design your Neighborhood - by the general public and neighbors, assisted by local architects, including a free buffet lunch. At the end of the day, the American Institute of Architects Eastern PA Chapter will present the public’s design solutions to everyone.

During the AIA Eastern PA Chapter’s April 2007 walking tour of the Penn Street Corridor, the architects and participants observed that the 10th through 11th Street block of Penn Street is beautifully restored, but the Ninth to Tenth Street block has many architecturally significant buildings which are falling into disrepair.

Therefore, our AIA chapter is focusing the charette design problem, the "Neighborhood Design Challenge" on the Ninth through Tenth Street blocks of Penn Street, including brainstorming ways to promote the restoration of the Ninth through Tenth Street block buildings and streetscape as well as creating a safer crossing at the end of Penn Street to the park, which is an unfriendly crossing for pedestrians.

A charette is a design session where architects, city planners, landowners, developers, stakeholders, residents, and neighborhood groups all meet together for the purpose of addressing a particular design problem - restoring and improving the Ninth through Tenth Street blocks of Penn Street, and creating a safer crossing to the City Park. We will document ideas belonging to the local residents in order to help to solve our design problem. We will open the floor for general questions and a brainstorming session at the beginning of the charette. Then we will divide our group into tables of 8 to 12 people, each table with an AIA architect. We will introduce the design problem, furnish block plans, aerial photos, streetscape photos, scratch paper, and markers, and graphically sketch ideas to address our design problem. At the end of the day’s event, we will present the design solutions and design ideas to the entire group.

Please visit the AIA Eastern PA chapter website www.aiaeasternpa.org, then click on the text link "Neighborhood Design Challenge" on the homepage, then register online for the event, so we can plan appropriately for the free buffet lunch.

We are all excited about this unique opportunity when the public, architects, city planners, landowners, developers, stakeholders, residents, and neighborhood groups can all sit down together to interact, communicate, brainstorm, and devise solutions to improve the quality of life for everyone in the City of Reading.

Sincerely,
Eugene P. Berg, Jr.
Chapter President