Infill Philadelphia: Promoting the Importance of Quality Design in the Community Development Field

Abstract

Summary

Founded two decades ago, the Community Design Collaborative has primarily focused on linking nonprofits with the services of volunteer architects. In 2005, the Collaborative determined to ratchet up its influence among a broader set of stakeholders in the community development arena through Infill Philadelphia, a multi-year initiative to help older communities rethink their neighborhoods by considering how existing assets might be redesigned to spark community revitalization. Implemented in four phases between 2005 and 2010, with an emphasis on revitalizing existing neighborhood assets, Infill represented a sharp break with the Collaborative’s traditional way of doing business.

In early 2011, the Collaborative engaged the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning to conduct a six-month summative evaluation of Infill Philadelphia, which revealed many successes. The Collaborative was able to implement the initiative on a larger scale, and with more partners, than anything the organization had done to date. It successfully recruited respected and influential organizations to co-lead each phase of the initiative, and developed strong and durable collaborative relationships with a variety of other stakeholders. Selecting timely topics for each phase, involving influential partners, and facilitating high-profile public events helped raise the visibility of the Collaborative in the local community development field and increased its recognition as a thought leader in quality design for low-income neighborhoods. Infill Philadelphia’s Design Challenge generated a set of high-quality, feasible design solutions that have been used by nonprofit clients for fundraising and project planning. Many of Infill’s stakeholders gained a new or expanded understanding of the importance of design, resulting in increased consideration of design in their daily work and, in a few cases, in their implementation of policy and process changes.