Volunteerism for SHARE Charette – The Community Design Collaborative and the Delaware Valley Green Building Council sponsored a design charette to explore creative and sustainable strategies for the adaptive re-use of an 116,000 s.f.  industrial building and site to become a” food hub.”  The core users will be SHARE (building owner and provider of affordable food to many community pantries and thousands of individuals across four states) and Green Village (an incubator for sustainable enterprises).  They will be inviting other food-related not-for-profit ventures to share the spaces and create a “village” focused on food access, local food production and green practices.

Several staff participated in an all-day design charette, along with staff from M2 Architects, Viridian Landscape Design, Duffield & Associates (civil engineering), and Ballinger (for building systems).   In addition to facilitating the breakout design teams during the charette, BWA and consultants are consolidating the ideas and putting together the final elements of the study. Among the innovative elements of the master plan will be rooftop agriculture including greenhouses to supplement the ground level farming already started by SHARE, a large photo voltaic array, a potential hostel to house volunteers, a “village center” and commissary, and a treetop walkway connecting to the wooded parkland on the hillside opposite the rear of the site.

Involvement of Staff – BWA is proud to announce that Morrie Zimmerman, AIA, has joined the board of SHARE, an organization which promotes people getting a break on their grocery bills by exchanging volunteer time for the opportunity to buy affordable food.   Tom Kirchner, AIA will again be teaching fifth year Design Studio this fall at Philadelphia University.