The building project emerged from a broad participatory neighborhood design process that was funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant to near-by Temple University. Context studies, needs analysis and design of a Neighborhood Plan involved residents, community leaders, and students and faculty in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Hands-on neighborhood design workshops, together with environmental mapping and historical research provided a reference for understanding how to work creatively within the social and physical fabric. As an increment of the larger neighborhood design, Project 1800 addresses issues that are key to revitalizing this post industrial community:

• reckoning with a significant decrease in population and building density;
• understanding the changing patterns of inhabitation at the scale of both neighborhood and home;
• respecting the interdependence of social, natural and architectural heritage of the place; and
• creating affordable housing and a sustainable community through neighborhood participation in planning, construction and long-term maintenance

The community development corporation that undertook the project is an ecumenical faith-based organization that builds with volunteer and professional labor, and provides affordable housing with interest-free loans to first time homeowners. In exchange, future residents make a ten-year commitment to living in the neighborhood and participate in planning and building their own homes or the homes of their neighbors.

Site Design

Our design approach was to both use the structure of the city block, and to reorder it. The marginally intact site was comprised of diverse properties including occupied dwellings, vacant houses, commercial buildings, large open spaces and "gap-tooth" lots. The decision to mix existing homes, rehabilitation and new construction, is fundamental to the concept of community building. For this reason we chose not to interpose suburban-style setbacks and individual driveways that have become the all-too-common response to revitalizing the inner city. Rather, we sought to reinforce the space-defining street wall -- even within a framework of lower housing density -- by reconfiguring the row house type, minimizing curb cuts with a shared drive, rehabilitating viable structures and assigning adjacent empty lots as side yards and defining them with garden walls. A new mid-block courtyard/drive transforms the deep typically under-used and unpleasant interior of the North Philadelphia residential block. It replaces the problematic three-foot alley with a new genre of shared space at the block's core.

Dwelling Design

The new row houses are L-shaped, twenty-two feet wide by thirty-six feet deep. The plan configuration affords generous light, natural ventilation and a comfortable flow of living space that distinguishes it from the traditional long and narrow row house. Spaces are deployed around a circulation/plumbing core, such that the design can be adapted as a three or four bedroom unit, or as in the special case of 1803 Gratz Street, a ground floor accessible unit with first floor bedroom. The typical three and four bedroom homes are 1300 and 1400 square feet respectively, not including basement, and can be modified for use in both open and infill sites. At both the public and private faces of the dwellings, the building massing creates important transition zones between inside and out, encouraging stronger connections with the social and natural environment. The wider building fronts are articulated through setbacks at the entry, which create small but very useable front porches. Together with the size and detailing of openings, the buildings respond to-- but do not replicate -- the scale and rhythm of the existing fabric. Special features of the design were generated through discussion with neighborhood residents, and were carefully considered by the Building Committee.

The units are affordable due to their simplicity and donations of labor, funds and materials from individuals, religious organizations and corporations in the private sector. Major contributors for Project 1800 have included UPS, Orleans Builders, the Philadelphia Flyers, KYW TV, and B.O.M.A.

General Data

Program Requirements: These were developed through a neighborhood research and planning process that included residents, the members of community development corporation, students and faculty in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Project 1800 is an increment of a larger neighborhood plan.

• 7 new – three-bedroom homes @ 1300 SF plus basement, private parking and yard
• 6 new – four-bedroom homes @ 1400 SF plus basement, private parking and yard
• 1 new – four-bedroom home @ 1500 SF plus basement, private parking and yard for intergenerational family with accessible first floor with bedroom and bath
• 4 rehabilitated 900 SF, 1100 SF and 2000 SF row homes with new off-street parking
• New mid-block courtyard/drive for play-space and parking access to all homes

Construction: Panelized wood-frame construction system with brick veneer and aluminum siding is used for new homes, except for accessible unit which was stick-built. Professional building staff was assisted by substantial volunteer labor from local churches, universities and businesses. IN addition, future homeowners contribute 300 hours of sweat equity.

Cost: Contributions of labor and material, and the simplicity of design account for the affordability of the homes at $40,000 to $60,000 depending on the size of the dwelling. Buyers are first-time homeowners who are granted zero-interest loans by the CDC (an ecumenical faith-based organization) in return for sweat equity and a 10-year commitment to living in the neighborhood.

Sally Harrison, AIA designed the project based on her research in urban design.