This summer marked the five-year anniversary of the Philadelphia Water Department’s nationally recognized “Green City, Clean Waters” program devoted to green infrastructure for stormwater management. The program, created in service of the city’s long-term sustainability plan, was branded by students at University of the Arts with the slogan, “Soak it up, Philly!”
Early in the initiative I provided interpretive planning and developed narratives for signage at various construction sites around the city. The goal was to advise residents about the greening efforts PWD was undertaking above ground—and the green engineering below ground. I integrated research from sites throughout northeast Philadelphia to develop content approaches and partnered with Philadelphia design firm Cloud Gehshan Associates. The signs were featured alongside a rain garden demonstration at 2014’s Philadelphia Flower Show.
In 2015 I also helped the Community Design Collaborative create a how-to guide for schools in Philadelphia that want to redo their schoolyards to make use of green design and maximize benefits for students, developmentally and physically.
This was the first in a series of guides for the Collaborative, and I look forward to more collaborations with them. (If you’re interested in all the good work they do, check out pages from the 125-page anniversary publication I created with them in 2011).
ALISON ROONEY Communications 