Philadelphia’s Department of Parks & Recreation and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability have selected three design firms to participate in an Ideas Workshop to reimagine the Parkway in ways that focus on and prioritize pedestrians.

The RFP was posted to the Mayor’s Fund website in early March 2021. PPR and OTIS hosted a Q&A briefing session on March 22nd and over 100 interested potential applicants attended that online session. The City received 18 thoughtful and compelling responses from an amazing combination of design professionals from across the world, ultimately selecting three teams to participate in the Ideas Workshop.

The three selected teams, led by Design Workshop, DLANDstudio + DIGSAU, and MVRDV, represent some of the most innovative contemporary approaches to climate-resilient, multi-modal urban transportation planning. The City will select one team to move forward with the project following the public presentation of the results of the Ideas Workshop.

The three teams presented their ideas to the public at the Barnes Foundation on July 14th, 2021, which was streamed online and is available for viewing via the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s YouTube Channel.

Design Workshop was founded in 1969 by Joe Porter, Don Ensign, and other faculty at North Carolina State University as a place for faculty and students to gather and collaborate.

The design studio focuses on designing projects that will outlast us and contribute to a healthier world. With designs that are environmentally sensitive, community supported, economically viable, and artfully executed, they assure their projects reflect critical issues in the environment and deliver measurable benefits.

Projects include the Charles Schwab Corporate Campus, the Natural History Museum of Utah, and the Mesa Arts Center.

See more of Design Workshop’s work here.

See Design Workshop’s Ideas Workshop summary presentation here.

DLANDstudio is an interdisciplinary design firm based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2005 by Susannah C. Drake, the firm was born through her vision of making cities more ecologically productive through developing methods to layer environmental, engineering, and political structures to make real change in the built environment.

Projects include QueensWay and Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™ in New York, Argenta Plaza in North Little Rock, AR, and Public Media Commons in St. Louis, MO.

DIGSAU is an award-winning firm practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism and environmental design. Based in Philadelphia, the firm is recognized for expertise in providing unique, high-quality design to a diverse client group. The office operates as an open studio, and consists of a staff of forty-two, including twenty-three Registered Architects.

Projects include the Pavilion & Children’s Discovery Garden at Sister Cities Park, the Fairmount Park Discovery Center, the Study at University City, and numerous other projects outside of Philadelphia.

See more of DLANDstudio’s work here.

See more of DIGSAU’s work here.

See DLANDstudio+DIGSAU’s Ideas Workshop summary presentation here.

MVRDV was founded in 1993 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV provides solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues globally, using a research-based and collaborative design method that engages clients, stakeholders, and experts from all fields in the creative process. With offices in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Paris and Berlin, almost 300 architects, designers and collaborators develop projects in a multi-disciplinary, inclusive design process, which involves rigorous technical and creative investigation. The results are exemplary and outspoken buildings, urban plans, studies, and interventions that enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

MVRDV has earned international acclaim for its urban-scale projects, including Seoullo 7017 Skygarden, a former highway overpass in Seoul, South Korea converted into a green pedestrian park, and Tainan Spring, an outdated shopping mall in Taiwan transformed into an urban lagoon created amongst the mall’s “ruins”.

See more of MVRDV’s work here.

See MVRDV’s Ideas Workshop summary presentation here.