Adaptive Reuse of Vacant Schools
Neighbors, community organizations, and design professionals worked together to reimagine the use for vacant school buildings in Philadelphia — looking at both the short and long term use to ensure that these large empty buildings remain community assets for their neighborhoods.
About the Project
In 2011, there were 257 active public schools in Philadelphia, but by 2014, 30 of them were closed. The closed buildings were put up for sale, leaving neighbors with little influence over the future of what were key community places.
We led a design workshop to give the community a voice in the redevelopment of the former University City High School site, and completed building and site assessments for four other buildings to help developers understand their development potential. We also facilitated a design charrette focusing on two unsold schools that revealed the power of temporary reuses to activate them and redefine their places in the community.
This project was done in partnership with community member and organizations local to each building, volunteer design professionals, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia.
Project Recognition
+ Press
Reimagining vacant schools as vibrant community spaces
Ashley Hahn, WHYY | Dec 9, 2014
Danielle's Role
Danielle took on an event planning role for the design charrette event and supported project management for all phases of the project.
Danielle also took the lead on a partnership with local publishing company GRID Magazine. We created a publication about the program to share the results with the public, pages of which you can see above. Read the full publication.
Danielle Parnes worked on this project while employed by the Community Design Collaborative.