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philadelphia challenge

2018 Better Philadelphia Challenge | The Next Parkway

Submission: October 27, 2017
Registration: September 28, 2017
Language: English
Location: Philadephia, USA
Prizes: First Prize is $5,000
Type: Open

 

The year 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway! This is the city’s grand, green boulevard linking the center of our city to Fairmount Park – the city’s largest (over 2,000 acres). The Parkway took 70 years to build, undergoing countless design changes due to conflicting visions and economic conditions, and is not considered “completed” compared with most of the plans. Construction of the Parkway required demolition of over 1,300 buildings as well as radical changes to Philadelphia’s street grid.

Even with these challenges and limitations, the Parkway has been wildly successful in providing both a physical and psychological connector for generations of residents to Fairmount Park and the cultural institutions located along the Parkway.

Philadelphia has a wealth of other natural resources and cultural institutions which would similarly benefit from better linkages to their surrounding communities and with each other (perhaps with fewer demolitions than the Parkway required). This year’s challenge seeks creative and open interpretations of what a new ‘Parkway’ could be in a dense and developed 21st century city and invites teams to share your grand vision for how Philadelphia’s existing natural and cultural resources could be better linked with their neighboring communities – both physically and in the minds of residents and visitors.

Three locations are provided for exploration: Broad Street in South Philadelphia, Lehigh A venue in North Philadelphia, or Chester Avenue in West Philadelphia. Entrants may address one or all three locations, though it is most important to address how each connects with its local community, not their connections with each other.