Ambler Campus, Temple University

This project received a first place award from the Southeast Section of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Pennsylvania Planning Association in 2011.

CRP PLANNING STUDIO

Associate Professor (Research) M. Richard Nalbandian,
MRP and MS, AICP

Studio Members: Andrew Dolby, Kathleen Lambert, Chloe Maher, Steve Monheim, Matthew Popek, and Matthew Weiss

The 2011 Temple University graduate studio of Community and Regional Planners have prepared this report to provide recommendations and ideas that further the sustainability efforts already begun by the Philadelphia Prison System (PPS) at its Northeast Philadelphia campus. We researched the history, current programs, site limitations, and future needs at PPS in order to shape our recommendations. Throughout this report, we use the terms “sustainable” and “greening” to describe a plan of action that includes the positive pursuit of the three principles of sustainability: environment, economics, and social equity. These three principles guide our planning decisions and the recommendations that we make.

Our recommendations include aesthetic landscape design improvements to the entrances and parking areas, and the addition of storm water control measures using rain gardens, swales, and green roofs to manage runoff, improve water quality, and reduce storm water management fees. Proposed alternative energy projects include micro-hydro power, wind turbines, and continued expansion of solar energy production. Further recommendations support the expansion of additional greenhouse and growing areas within the campus, including a six-acre nursery area with an adjoining food waste composting facility.

We conclude our report with recommendations on transportation including alternative parking layouts and strategies, alternative transportation strategies, and incentives for changes in transportation modes that include both bicycling and transit.

Professor Bradley Flamm, Center for Sustainable Communities embark on multi-municipal greenhouse gas study

The Center for Sustainable Communities will be taking a close look at ways municipalities and their residents can reduce greenhouse gases with support from a $79,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“Working in partnership with Swarthmore College, we will be conducting a multi-municipal greenhouse gas inventory and strategy analysis. We’ll be conducting carbon footprint analysis and exploring what communities can do to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Dr. Jeffrey Featherstone, Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities. “There are various agencies that are looking at the bigger picture with regard to greenhouse gases, including the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission which just completed a major regional greenhouse gas emissions inventory. We are concentrating on studies of individual townships. In Pennsylvania, that’s where most decisions are being made that influence greenhouse gases.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT FACULTY RESEARCH PROJECTS HERE.

Community and Regional Planning students envision future of the Fort Washington Office Park

Landscape Architecture senior Amy Reese and Community and Regional Planning graduate student Shane Godshall with with GIS specialist Md. Mahbubur R. Meenar and A.S.M. Abdul Bari on a project to re-envision the Fort Washington Office Park.

The Fort Washington Office Park a location that employs 14,000 people is suffering from a crisis of age.

Originally developed in the mid-1950s, the 563 acre office park in Upper Dublin Township was one of the first of its type in suburban Philadelphia. Built within a natural basin, many of the buildings were erected long before there were laws in place to prevent building within floodplains.

The Philadelphia Metro Area Hunger Relief and Community Food Access Study is a joint collaboration of the Center for Sustainable Communities and Philabundance, a non-profit food distribution system fighting hunger while reducing food waste.

The study will assess the spatial relationship between hunger and the distribution of hunger relief services in Philadelphia metro area (Delaware Valley Region - five counties of PA and five counties of NJ).

The purpose of this study is to identify areas of need without access to services and those areas without sufficient service capacity to address the present levels of need for households in low income neighborhoods.