Roofmeadow Fields Forever

Charlie Miller, P.E., has been fomenting a quiet, green roof revolution in this country for years. So quiet that you may not have heard of it, or him.

It’s a steep climb up narrow, carpeted stairs to the modest Roofmeadow office on historic, cobble-stoned Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia–a great metaphor for what Charlie Miller, P.E., internationally regarded green roof pioneer has faced, professionally, the last 15 years in this country…

Photo: Joseph G. Brin © 2012

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120226/roofmeadow-fields-forever

Timeless Landshaper: Richard A. Glaser

Richard A. Glaser is an urban planner and landscape architect. He’s worked on everything from a landscaped backyard swimming pool to entire cities in the Middle East. He worked for large Philadelphia offices like Lou Kahn’s and for Marcel Breuer (planning Sadat City in Egypt). He worked in partnerships and as a sole practitioner.

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120223/timeless-landshaper-richard-a-glaser

Pier To Pier Networking

Photo: DRWC (Field Operations)

From the air, a series of flat, gray, industrial looking waterfront piers jut out into the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “MetroZepp,” our aerial historic tour blimp, hovers as it suddenly detects the distinct emergence of Design. We crowd to a small window as our captain promises to give us a closer look.

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120221/pier-to-pier-network

B. Free Philadelphia

MORNING IN AMERICA

2004. News spread in Philadelphia on February 17, 4:15PM, that Faheem Thomas-Childs, ten years old, was dead.  He was caught in a hail of nearly 100 bullets, crossfire between rival gangs that occurred as children streamed into school to start a new day. Faheem Thomas-Childs held on but the wounds were too devastating and his bright light flickered out.

In his own neighborhood, Faheem Thomas-Childs was known as “A real peacemaker.”

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120216/b-free-philadelphia

 

Applied Intelligence

Pier 53 on the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, was the point of entry for immigrants, primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe, from the 1870’s through the early 1900’s. Demolished in 1915, it took nearly 100 years before some smart people discovered that the remaining pile of rocks, trash and rotting lumber held promise as a foothold for the city’s return to ecological health and a reborn, sustainable waterfront.

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120214/applied-intelligence

Local Hero

David O’Donnell is a local, historic preservationist hero in my book. He was head of a fledgling neighborhood preservation group I joined years ago. It seemed he was running six different committees at the time, a kind of start-up, serial entrepreneur of preservation activism…

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120203/local-hero

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Painter, 1859-1937

“We never speak of Tanner in terms of racial difference…The United States is very different from the French way of considering Tanner,” says Sylvie Patry, “conservateur en chef” of painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, France. She’s in Philadelphia for the opening of “Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit” at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA-Jan. 28-April 15, 2012)…

http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120202/henry-ossawa-tanner-painter-1859-1937