To advance DAG’s goal of promoting good design by encouraging thoughtful public discussion of design matters, DAG is initiating a monthly opinion piece. DAG SPACE articles are the opinions of their authors.  While DAG hopes they will contribute to constructive public dialogue, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors of any DAGSpace article do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, viewpoints or official policies of the Design Advocacy Group.

NOVEMBER 2008 - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VACANT HOUSES?

New high rises in Center City receive a lot of attention, but other areas of the City that are changing radically fall under the radar.  Find out about the amazing recent disappearance of vacant properties in Southwest Center City in an article, titled What Happened to the Vacant Houses, by John Kromer, Senior Consultant at the Fels Institute of Government and Hallie Mittleman, a Masters of Government Administration candidate at Fels.

OCTOBER 2008 - URBAN AGRICULTURE AND COMMUNITY GARDENS

Michael Nairn and Domenic Vitiello co-author this month's DAGSpace article, titled, Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens: Design Challenges and Opportunities. Nairn, a landscape architect and member of the faculty of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and Vitiello, an Assistant Professor at Penn's City and Regional Planning program, discuss community-based, urban agriculture in Philadelphia.

SEPTEMBER 2008 - THE JURY'S BACK

The second in the series by David B. Brownlee, The Jury’s Back, is about design review in Philadelphia during the first half of the 20th century.  This is a particularly relevant topic given Mayor Nutter’s plan to create a Design Review Advisory Board.  Brownlee is a historian of architecture and city planning and author or co-author of books on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Penn campus,Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and Louis Kahn.  He served on the Philadelphia Historical Commission for fifteen years

AUGUST 2008 - Interim Zoning No Small Task

The first in the DAG Space series is Interim Zoning No Small Task by Janice Woodcock, AIA, AICP.  Ms. Woodcock, a member of DAG, is an architect and urban planner in Philadelphia who served as Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission under Mayor John F. Street.