Citywide Conference
A Sense of Place: Preserving Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Philadelphia is a city of great neighborhoods, and preserving their sense of place and distinctive character is key to sustaining a healthy community and achieving successful neighborhood revitalization.
In order to expand our educational and advocacy efforts about preserving and celebrating Philadelphia's neighborhoods to an ever-broadening scope of community leaders, the Preservation Alliance presented A Sense of Place: Preserving Philadelphia Neighborhoods, our third annual citywide neighborhood preservation conference on Friday, October 21, 2011 at the Temple University Student Faculty Center at the university's North Philadelphia campus.
Over 100 people from throughout the city, representing a great mix of neighborhood organizations, civic associations, community development corporations, historical societies, business associations, architects, planners and city agencies, convened to learn about the many resources available to strengthen and build on community success by incorporating historic preservation into their tool kits.
A highlight of the conference was the presentation of keynote speaker John Kromer, University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government, former director of the Office of Housing & Community Development and author of Fixing Broken Cities: The Implementation of Urban Redevelopment Strategies.
Conference participants also took advantage of attending a variety of Education Sessions. View Full Schedule.
In addition, four organizations who were awarded grants to support neighborhood preservation projects during the 2010 conference presented information about their projects:
- The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation produced “Uncover Historic Chinatown,” a short bilingual online video feature of historic Chinatown.
- The Friends of Shot Tower developed interpretive historic signage in the playground of the Shot Tower Recreation Center in Queen Village.
- The Village of Arts and Humanities digitized the archives of the many artistic works created in their community as part of the Digging Deeper project.
The Chestnut Hill Historical Society produced “A Walk Down Germantown Avenue,” a self-guided walking tour of the section of Germantown Avenue that runs through the center of the neighborhood.
If you missed the conference, don't worry---plans are already underway to hold another conference in the fall of 2012. If you are a neighborhood leader who would like to be informed about and/or involved in the 2012 conference, please contact Patrick Hauck, Director of Neighborhood Preservation Programs at 215.546.1146 x4 or patrick@preservationalliance.com.
Special Thank to Conference Sponsor
The William Penn Foundation
The Conference was presented in Collaboration with:
City of Philadelphia, Office of Housing and Community Development
Community Design Collaborative
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations
Philadelphia City Planning Commission
