East Falls Stormwater Design

With funding from the William Penn Foundation, Meliora led a series of design charettes on behalf of the East Falls Development Corporation. Attendees included representatives from Philadelphia’s water, streets, and planning departments; SEPTA; the state’s Department of Environmental Protection; professionals from surrounding municipalities; and representatives from New York City and Seattle.

The workshops, which focused on portions of Midvale Avenue in the city’s East Falls neighborhood, addressed issues related to land use, parcel access and reuse, and redevelopment. The intent was threefold:

1) Develop designs that manage stormwater while also addressing street issues such as traffic calming, pedestrians, bicycles, and economic development

2) Identify issues related to design constraints, codes, conflicting uses, and maintenance that prevent wider application of “complete streets”

3) Foster collaborative discussion between agency representatives to address these issues

The workshops successfully advanced these issues and documentation was completed through the design phase.

We later worked with the East Falls Development Corporation to coordinate a workshop for residential developers along Ridge Avenue with the goal of coordinating design standards and stormwater management to support a sense of place and community identity.