1925

1952

1925

2002IN

COM

E

EDU

AG

E

INCO

ME

EDU

AG

E

INCOM

E

EDU

AG

E

INCO

ME

EDU

AG

EPhilly Average

Philly Average

Philly Average

Philly Average

CAMDEN

KENSINGTON

FISHTOWN

PORTRICHMOND

I-95

I-95

Railroad

FISHTOWNMEDIANINCOME

HIGHSCHOOLOR HIGHER

MEDIAN AGE

POPULATIONDENSITY

$45,000

82%

35

9,200/ ACRE

KENSINGTONMEDIANINCOME

HIGHSCHOOLOR HIGHER

MEDIAN AGE

POPULATIONDENSITY

$37,000

77%

34

15,500/ ACRE

PORT RICHMONDMEDIANINCOME

HIGHSCHOOLOR HIGHER

MEDIAN AGE

POPULATIONDENSITY

$24,000

26%

29

16,800/ ACRE

CAMDENMEDIANINCOME

HIGHSCHOOLOR HIGHER

MEDIAN AGE

POPULATIONDENSITY

$25,000

69%

28

8,700/ ACRE

18

5

2

1

11

12

10

139

8

7

4

6

3

14

1517

22

23

24

21

2526

19 20

27

16

Single Family HousingMulti Family HousingWaterfront Mixed UseRailroad

Light Industrial AreaBuffer

Petty’s Island BridgeCultural PierSports PierLeisure PierFerry TerminalStormwater ParkIncubator Pier

1

15

2

16

3

17

4

18

5

19

6

20

7

21

8

22

9

10

11

23

12

24

13

25

14

26

27

Tidal MudflatsWildlife ParkFerry TerminalPetty’s Island Community CollegeExperimental Plots Phase IVisitor CenterGreen Incubator SpacesPetty’s History ParkPier ParkStormwater Experimental SiteExperimental Plots Phase IITree Farm and NurseryPV FarmExperimental Plots Phase III

LEGEND

Heavy Industri

al Area

New Jerse

y Shoreline

River Ave

Delaware River

36th St

Port Rich

mond

Kensington

E Lehigh Ave

Fishtown

I-95

I-95

N

0 0.125 0.5 MILE0.25

BEACH AND MUDFLATS CONSUMED BY HIGH TIDE.

PIER POSTS

CIRCULATION LIMITED TO HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

HIGH TIDE

MUDFLATS EXPOSED.OVERLOOKS ACCESSIBLE.OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE MUDFLATS IN NON-DESTRUCTIVE MANNER.

MEAN TIDE

MUDFLATS FULLY EXPOSED.

2110 LEVEL

2060 LEVEL

2020 LEVEL

OVERLOOKS PROVIDE NON-DESTRUCTIVE ACCESS TO MUDFLATS.OVERLOOKS MAY BE EXTENDED IN FUTURE AS SEDIMENT AND SEA LEVELS RISE.

LOW TIDE

Open ceremony for Petty Island ferry station

First 1,200 Students Graduate from PICC: Island Branch PICC Celebrates 15,000 Graduates PICC 60th career fair 2019/PICC: Inland Branch Graudates First Class Petty Island Community College(PICC) open ceremony

Petty Island green products are soldt to 120 organic shops at Philadephia and Camden

60 years ceremony for Philladephia watefront development First bus to Petty Island--Petty Island/Camden Bus 15 Visitor’s Center Hosts “2117: 100 Years of an Open Framework” I-95 transform to public space

10,000 Street Trees Planted Across Philadelphia & Camden: Technical Support from PICC PICC students build up the first green infrastructure firm in Philadephia Petty Island Experimental Fields start tree nursery trainning program

Petty Island Industrial History Reading Week “Petty Island piers 24/7 activities App” release Philadephia Waterfront Light Industry development launches

PICCPhiladephia Branch first semester

RADIANT SEEDRegenerate the Phi ladelphia & Camden Empowerment Zone

2060-2100 IMPACTSeed Radiates

2020 OPEN FRAMEWORK 2025 INCUBATOR 2030 PRODUCTIVITY

Public Accessibility & Empowerment PICC Island & Flexible Start-Up Space Launches Green Infrastructure Evolves

2014 PLANNING FLEXIBLE OPPORTUNITIESHISTORIC & CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

ACCESSIBILITY

SOCIAL CAPITAL

INDUSTRIAL LEGACY

ORGANIZING THE EMPOWERMENT ZONE

BUILDING SYMBIOTICALLY: TIDES & MUDFLATS

PLAN 2025: PROGRAMMING FOR CHANGE ON PETTY’S ISLAND

2060 - 2100: PETTY’S ISLAND EMPOWERMENT ZONE GROWS INLAND

MULTI-MODAL TRANSIT

BUILDINGS

GREEN NETWORK

ROAD NETWORK

The initial strategy focuses on defining accessibility, green infrastructure and social capital opportunities beneath I-95 and along the waterfront. From the inland neighborhoods, improved streetscape serves as a guide for stormwater and traffic, through the public concourse beneath the highway, towards new mixed-income housing, Petty Island Community College’s (PICC) Inland Branch, commercial and start-up launching sites, and piers are restructured for flexible, dynamic community activities.

The Public Concourse, beneath I-95, provides shaded, weather-protected space re-designed for flexibility featuring: minimal mobile furniture and structures, edge and column lighting, open performance space and surface-based, multi-modal wayfinding.

The waterfront is vibrant with neighbors and visitors from the newly established education, job and leisure opportunities. PICC opens its island branch while neighboring ecosystem preserves are protected. Access to the island between both cities will be altered from industrial to pedestrian scale mobility, including ferry and bicycle access.

Petty’s Island is subject to potentially large flood events; this will only increase in time with climate change. The fixed program on the island, including PICC, start-up space, and the Visitor’s Center is built above the 500-year floodplain. Flexible programming are sited the above the 100-year floodplain. Even when expected sea-level rise is approximately two to three feet over the next 100 years, the fixed program will be safe from the flood zone and is designed to absorb flood and stormwater.

The Island’s 140-acre mudflats, home to rare plants and animals, are a stop for migratory birds and a buffer against erosion. This habitat is vital to the island’s future. Pier posts, constructed at key points along the island’s edge, build-up sediment to protect and fortify mudflats in the face of sea-level rise; eventually, the structures will support overlooks

The tidal zones rise and fall 5 to 7’ twice daily and change seasonally. The overlooks provide a datum for understanding the natural rhytms of tides and mudflats without disturbing the ecosystem.

By 2025, Petty’s Island Community College will have transferred the primary administration and classrooms from inland to island. Serving predominantly Philadelphia and Camden residents, PICC specializes in environmentally-focused technical training by bridging the Island’s unique nature preserves with neighboring start-up facilities in associated industries, such as renewable energy production, floodplain management, sustainable food production and botanic-based production for green infrastructure.

Thousands of graduates have emerged from PICC over the past 10 years, having specialized in advanced training for innovative green infrastructure, renewable energy and sustainable food production logistics, installation and maintenance. Start-ups have opened collaborative ventures in inland commercial space on the ground floor of mixed-income housing. Petty’s Island prepares to send skilled workers, green infrastructure and renewable energy further into Philadelphia and Camden.

In each leftover depression, replacing the petrochemical tank storage farm, trials and tests advance knowledge and skills that bridge education, business and non-profit initiatives.

At 2060, PICC reaches its peak, the open framework has served its purpose. Replacing PICC with local opportunities to develop larger industrial bases, Petty’s Island maintaining the values of an open framework of flexibility into its future as an ongoing empowerment zone.

While Citgo prepares the Island for clean-up and removal of the fixed industrial structures, additional physical structures will be redeveloped as an effort to re-open the waterfront and Island for the public and, more directly, Philadelphia’s Fishtown, Kensington and Port Richmond, and Camden’s Cramer Hill, Biedeman, Cooper Point, Pyne Point neighborhoods. Existing ferry, road, trail and multi-modal transit networks, vegetated corridors, and open space access are all currently relatively limited, but in proximity to, Petty’s Island and the adjacent neighborhoods. Existing demographic data demonstrates a high need for demands more affordable housing and better job and educational opportunities. By reconnecting inland streets to the piers, and from the piers to Petty’s Island, the Empowerment Zone will create access to new opportunities in environmental education and job training and waterfront-oriented housing, commercial and public space.

On-site improvements to bike, bus and ferry connectivity make economic and educational opportunities accessible.

Residential, commercial, educational and leisure programming revive the industrial legacy of dense activity inland, while the Island’s built forms strategically preserve habitats.

Urban forest, stormwater management and open space systems serve urban hydrological and pedestrian needs.

A denser road network strategically near built up areas improves vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle accessibility.

URBAN & REGIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

GREEN / BLUEWAY

TRANSPORTATION

WATERFRONT & TRAILS

OPEN SPACE ACCESS

Bicycle trails and light rail link inland neighborhoods to the east-west riverfront corridor.

Northern Philadelphia neighborhoods will now be connected to the ferry, building up ridership in support of linking to Petty’s Island in the future.

Multi-modal, non-vehicular trails follow along creek and old rail-based corridors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

As a result, markedly absent open space in close proximity to Petty’s Island and its neighboring riverfront comes connected through the above urban networks.

LIGHTING INSTALLATIONS

DIRECT ACCESS TO PIERS ALONG MULTI-MODAL PATH

MIXED-INCOME HOUSINGFLEXIBLE SMALL MARKET SPACE

PERFORMANCE SPACE

STORMWATER BMPs

BIRDING & OUTDOOR RECREATION

NEW FACILITIES PROVIDE FULL ACCESS

FERRY TRANSITCAMPUS PLANTINGS REFERENCE UNIQUE ECOSYSTEM

NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS

FAMILY SETTINGS AND NEW VIEWS

Since 1994, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s bi-state Empowerment Zone (EZ), linking Philadelphia and Camden, has aimed to reduce unemployment and stimulate local economies in underserved populations. At their boundary, Petty’s Island neighbors a neglected waterfront and residents needing better economic opportunities. The Island’s rich history of long-term, fixed industrial opportunities, notably for slavery and petrochemicals, as well as the city grid’s historic orientation towards the waterfront, serves as a reference for imagining its future. For the first time in 100 years, Petty’s Island will serve the public directly. The proposed flexible framework opens new possibilities for the EZ, emphasizing green infrastructure, accessibility, social capital and its industrial legacy. This time, Petty’s Island seeds opportunity for the people.

While community colleges generally may not last longer than forty years, multiple generations of knowledge, skills and resources resulting from PICC’s legacy inform jobs, industries and infrastructure leading Philadelphia and Camden into the 22nd Century.

STORM WATER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND STREETSCAPEAFFORDABLE HOUSING STRATEGYMixed-use and mixed-income housing anchors the initial open framework. Asserting the existing residential scale, apartments gradually heighten to provide greater economic revenue by the waterfront. Benefiting from the historic street grid, the piers, and a branch of the forthcoming Petty’s Island Community College, become Philadelphia’s new waterfront directly connected back to existing neighborhoods.