Destination Frankford

Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC)

Funding Received: 2013
Philadelphia , PA
$335,150
Funding Period: 1 year and 5 months
Design & Architecture, Visual Arts | Economic Development, Environment & Energy, Workforce Development | Urban
Back
August 1, 2013

Update

The Destination Frankford team is excited to announce that we hired an amazing photographer, Paul Rider (link), to work on our project. Paul’s photography will add another layer of artistic expression to Destination Frankford. Paul has roots in Philadelphia and plenty of experience working in transitioning urban neighborhoods. Paul will document Frankford’s many unique assets so that we can use his powerful images to market Frankford and inspire artists. As each component of Destination Frankford is designed and built, Paul will be on hand to photograph them. In addition, Paul will document each of our public events and our Globe Dye Works (link) pop-up shop.

DestinationFrankford.com will be live this September. Our site, designed by Frankford web design and marketing firm Nimblelight (link), will initially serve as an online portal for artist calls and will evolve over time to become a marketing tool for the Frankford Community Development Corporation (FCDC). Using Wordpress as our CMS will allow the project team and FCDC staff to update the site from any device. Paul’s photographs will play a central role in the clean, modern design we have envisioned for the site.

Recent Wins

One the same day that the Philadelphia City Planning Commission learned of our ArtPlace grant, we also learned that we were the recipients of an Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Grant for Frankford and the adjacent neighborhoods of Juniata Park and Bridesburg. This grant will fund a plan to redevelop brownfields along the lower Frankford Creek and North Delaware River waterfront. Bringing underutilized, potentially contaminated land along the Frankford Creek back to productive use will help us achieve our goal of repopulating Frankford and making it a center for artisanal industry and creative commerce.

After months of meetings with SEPTA, our regional transit authority, the Planning Commission has gotten the green light to proceed with a proposed redesign of Frankford Avenue in front of the Frankford Transportation Center. The goal of this redesign is to humanize the busy transit hub with improved public spaces and wider sidewalks. We will use the signage and planter designs from Destination Frankford in the final design.

Insight/Provocation

In struggling neighborhoods with numerous economic and social issues, placemaking and walkability usually do not rank high on local leaders’ lists of neighborhood revitalization tools. By using Frankford’s industrial past as inspiration and promoting Frankford as a destination for artisanal industry and creative commerce, we have been successful at building wide-ranging support for our project. Every project that the Planning Commission is undertaking in Frankford, whether it be Destination Frankford or the Frankford Creek Greenway, combines placemaking with the promotion of artisanal industry. These common themes have allowed us to pursue a wide range of placemaking projects with support from community and political leaders.