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Shaping the Future of 29th & Girard

  • Writer: Meredith Ellison
    Meredith Ellison
  • 1 day ago
  • 3 min read

Since the start of the year, 500+ Brewerytown and Fairmount neighbors have helped create a new vision for a safer, more accessible, and vibrant community space at 29th and Girard!


Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative
Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative

From January to August 2025, Park to Broad District partnered with the Community Design Collaborative, and a team of locally-based design professionals, to consider improvements to the 29th & Girard intersection in Brewerytown. Below is a summary of the final report, which can be read in its entirety at this link. This report is not an official plan, but a menu of ideas and potential interventions that Park to Broad can leverage in partnership with the city government and other local civic groups to improve the safety and vibrancy of 29th & Girard - an intersection on the city’s High Injury Network, and key public space on the neighborhood’s commercial corridor.


We are grateful to all the partners who helped launch this project, and the hundreds of neighbors who shared their interest in creating a better space for the neighborhood. We’re eager to hear from and involve many more. What can you do to help?


Design Solution & Vision

The design team produced the following 20 recommendations. All of these design interventions can be categorized into short, medium and long-term based on their timeline for implementation. The interventions are also labeled with one or more of the five themes that emerged throughout the community engagement process: Safety, Mobility, Beautification, Identity, Community. 


Short-term interventions (1-2 years)

  1. Painted curb extensions - Safety, Mobility, Beautification, Identity, Community

  2. 29th St bicycle boxes & restriping - Safety

  3. Wall murals - Identity & Community

  4. Speed numps - Safety

  5. Encroachment planters - Beautification

  6. Little Free Library - Community

  7. Sidewalk Murals - Identity & Community


Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative
Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative

Medium-term interventions (2-5 years)

  1. Decorative light poles - Safety & Identity

  2. Facade improvements - Beautification 

  3. Illuminated Brewerytown sign - Identity

  4. Bicycle parking - Mobility & Identity

  5. Encroachment seating - Community

  6. Learning leaners - Community

  7. Illuminated lightpole signage - Identity


Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative
Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative

Long-term interventions (5-10 years) 

  1. Concrete curb extensions - 

  2. Traffic signal pedestrian heads - 

  3. Community Transit Shelter - 

  4. Sculpture wayfinding pole - Identity

  5. History map kiosk - Identity

  6. Mid-block parklet - Community


Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative
Prepared for Park to Broad by volunteers of the Community Design Collaborative

Background & Project Timeline

The Community Design Collaborative is a Philadelphia nonprofit that provides low-cost preliminary design services to community organizations and offers meaningful volunteer opportunities to design professionals. The 29th & Girard Gateway project was unique in that many of the design professionals assigned to the project live in Brewerytown, Fairmount, and Strawberry Mansion and had prior experience with the neighborhood and intersection. 


February 2025: Kickoff meeting with Park to Broad, Community Design Collaborative, and volunteers from Stantec and Clemens Construction Company to establish project goals.


March 2025: First stakeholder engagement meeting at Remedy Spa with business leaders and property owners around 29th & Girard to determine their vision and needs regarding the intersection. 


April 2025: Meeting between the Community Design Collaborative, volunteer design team, SEPTA employees, and city representatives to understand parameters for realistic modifications and intersection design recommendations. 


May 2025: Girard Avenue Street Festival, where the Community Design Collaborative engages more than 200 neighbors about their vision and preferences for the future of 29th & Girard. 


June 2025: Second stakeholder engagement meeting at Lather Hair Studio with Brewerytown residents, business leaders, and property owners to determine their preferred design interventions. 


July 2025: Peer review meeting with the Community Design Collaborative, volunteer design team, and other design professionals in the city who share feedback based on their experience with implementation. 


September 2025: The Community Design Collaborative shares draft final report. Awaiting final cost estimates. 


Contributors


Core Team


Stantec

Tom Foley, Architect

Kristin Shiffert, Architect

Shawn Ryan, Architect

Stefan Lesiuk, Architect

Miles Devine, Traffic Engineer

Jasen Rizak, Civil Designer

Drew Arnold, Landscape Architect

Chesenia Burgos, Interior Designer

Adam Ferrari, Urban Designer


Clemens Construction Company, Inc.

Rebecca Smith, Cost Estimator


Collaborative Staff Team

Tyler Ray, Program Manager

Tazianna Footman, Design Services Coordinator

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