The Collaborative has presented its 2010 Community Design Award to recognize a conceptual design led to the construction of a new facility for Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS).

Carol Penn Horne and Amy Hirsch of CLS and Collaborative volunteers Juliet Whelan, Shashi Goyal, Melissa Andrews, Mario Gentile, and Joseph Bray were recognized at AIA Philadelphia’s Excellence in Design Awards Ceremony on October 13, 2010. Their work together helped CLS develop a vision for its new law center and played an important role in the nonprofit’s fundraising success.

CLS provides free legal assistance to low-income Philadelphians contending with employment, housing, welfare, utility, and bankruptcy issues.  The law center has been located at North Broad Street and Erie Avenue for over 25 years.  CLS recognized a growing need for its services but was also committed to staying its current neighborhood, which is  familiar to its many long-term clients and well-served by public transit. A nearby city-owned vacant parcel presented CLS with the opportunity to expand close to home.

While undertaking the intricate site acquisition process, CLS approached the Collaborative to help it envision the new law center. Carol Penn Horne articulated the nonprofit's overarching goal: a new sustainable building that is open and inviting to staff, clients, and the larger community.

The need for a new facility was immediately evident in a tour of the current building. Juliet Whelan, AIA, Principal of Jibe Design and lead volunteer for the project, saw the the potential for any new building to make a huge difference, but says, "the most important improvement our design offered was to translate CLS’ philosophy of openness and community cohesion into built form.”

The conceptual design proposed a “U”-shaped building arranged around a courtyard easily seen through glazed surrounding walls. The visitor’s view from the front entrance would extend back to the courtyard, “welcoming the client into the heart of the organization.” Shared lounge spaces, a generous central stair, and views into the courtyard from all floors connected staff and gave them unprecedented access to natural light (currently, only three out of the forty law offices have windows).  Juliet says that “the building’s ground level was opened with glass to energize the street” and share some of the positive activity inside with passersby.

Equipped with the ideas and renderings developed by the Collaborative, CLS cleared several significant project milestones in 2010 and plans to start construction in 2011. It has secured a $3.8 million matching grant from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, taking the project to the halfway mark in fundraising for the project. In April, CLS hired Atkins Olshin Schade Architects as its design consultant. The firm completed the design development phase in September and is poised to complete construction drawings by the end of 2010. See a rendering of their design in Brownstoner.  CLS has also brought Innova onto their project team as owner’s representative and engaged Clemens to build the new law center.

Conceptual designs necessarily have to evolve.  During design development, key elements of the conceptual design prevailed: the interior courtyard and the open feel of street elevation. But due to budget constraints, the generous staircase and the fourth story proposed in the Collaborative’s conceptual design were eliminated.

Reflecting back, Carol Horne Penn notes, “We wouldn’t have gotten to this point as quickly without the service grant. It helped the board visualize where they were going.” For her part, Juliet Whelan says, “I enjoyed being part of the process of engaging the entire staff to discover how a new building could best serve them.”