The R/UDAT as Urban Theater: A Planning Alternative for North Philadelphia

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Creator
  • Harrison, Sally
    • Other Affiliation: Member, Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA; Chair, North Philadelphia R/UDAT Committee
Abstract
  • In October of 1990, a cluster of neighborhoods in the center of North Philadelphia was the subject of an unusual urban design study. A volunteer team of urban experts from around the country gathered there, seeking to forge a vision for revitalizing this deteriorating inner-city community. Neither the community's grim statistical profile, nor its image as portrayed in the press, nor the abundance of its decaying and abandoned structures would suggest that there was much reason to hope for a healthy future. Over the course of a highly charged four-day visit, however, the visiting team was engaged in a process which has helped to alter dramatically some of the entrenched negative perceptions of the community. It has given its disenfranchised residents a voice and has provided the imagery and agenda for positive change. The team is known as a R/UDAT (Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team), and was fielded by the national American Institute of Architects (AIA) and invited by a local coalition of architects, planners and community leaders. The eleven-member R/UDAT team included architects and urban planners, a sociologist, an economist, an assistant chief of police, and specialists in housing, transportation, youth programs, and inner-city neighborhood development. Their visit consisted of a marathon program of on-site research, broad community outreach, brainstorming, debate, and synthesis. At the end of four days, the R/UDAT produced a fifty-page report which documented their findings, offering proposals for the neighborhoods' future development and new insight as to how the community might generate change from within.
Date of publication
DOI
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Journal title
  • Carolina Planning Journal
Journal volume
  • 17
Journal issue
  • 1
Page start
  • 53
Page end
  • 61
Language
  • English
Digital collection
  • Carolina Planning Journal

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