South Philly Review

There’s nothing unique about the fenced-in, abandoned DuPont Marshall Laboratory complex on a portion of what is commonly known as Grays Ferry Crescent, a stretch of land bound by 34th Street, Grays Ferry Avenue and the Schuylkill River.

In fact, Philadelphia is home to dozens of brownfields, such as the defunct Defense Personnel Supply Center, 20th Street and Oregon Avenue. (Also known as the Quartermaster, it was the one-time manufacturer of clothes and other goods for the U.S. Army.) Remnants of the town’s industrial age, most of these sites are left to the elements and relegated to the pages of history.

Grays Ferry Crescent is enjoying a revival of sorts, at least as far as attention is concerned, since it was the chosen site for The Ed Bacon Foundation and The Center for Architecture’s 2009 national design competition, Brown to Green. Open to college students in North America from all disciplines, Brown to Green provided an opportunity to push the envelope for transforming brownfields, which are abandoned or underused properties where redevelopment is complicated by possible environmental contamination, into sustainable environments for a green future.

In its fourth year, the competition focused on Philadelphia in keeping with the city’s legacy of foundation namesake Edmund N. Bacon. As city planning director from 1949-70, Bacon’s concepts shaped the landscape. In ’04, a year before his death, the father of actor Kevin Bacon and Emmy-winning composer Michael Bacon established the foundation with programs for designers and civic leaders, as well as to create a dialogue about urban planning.

While this year’s competition focused on Grays Ferry, last year’s was on the Ludlow section; ’07 centered on the Market East Station; and ’06 was about Penn Center. The Crescent, a more than 5.3-million-square-foot area, was selected by the foundation and Center for Architecture.

“The Grays Ferry site was very compelling because, one, it’s so large and it’s a single site; two, it’s for sale and new owners could potentially do something new with the site; and three, it’s such an important site — it’s right along the river, it’s close to Center City and it has the new [waterfront] trail going in. It just seemed like a really important space to focus on for the future planning of our city,” foundation board Chairman Greg Heller told the Review.

Of the 23 entries received, six schools were recognized. First place and $2,000 went to Cornell University for its “Rust Renewed: Returning Jobs, Community and Ecology to Grays Crescent.” The team of six, who will split the prize money, are master’s candidates in fields from architecture to real estate. Their mixed-use plan is in four phases and includes residential, commercial/retail and a parkland. The DuPont lab would not be torn down, but preserved to house an Industrial Heritage Museum, honoring the neighborhood’s industrial past that includes The Harrison Chemical Co. that sat at the DuPont site and employed 500 people from 1863-1917; Grays Ferry Iron Works that occupied the area just south of Grays Ferry Avenue in 1876; and a slaughterhouse built in 1907 that was across the avenue from the Iron Works.

Phase I called for soil contaminated by the area’s industrial past to be cleaned and re-used; Phase II involved building a waste management research and development facility to bring green jobs to the area. Phase III called for a retail corridor, high-rise hotel, conference center and office complex at Grays Ferry Avenue and South 34th. Phase IV entailed building 522 homes, as well as a learning center to teach people about brownfield remediation and the effects of soil contamination on communities. The entire project called for 7,686 parking spaces.

What residents heard of the concept, they were quite pleased with.

“What I really liked was the residential and retail plans. If there is any way we can use that property for more jobs for our community, it just helps us out immensely,” Grays Ferry Community Council President Bob Gormley said.

Long-time resident Lisa Parsley, from the 2300 block of St. Albans Street, called the plans stunning, but what really impressed the community activist was the emphasis on remediation.

“The plan is beautiful and pragmatic,” she said. “They address the TCE plume [contamination] and how to remedy it so it doesn’t continue to leach into the river. I don’t think people at the Jersey and Delaware shores realize that this stuff is in the ocean after it leaves the rivers. It washes up on the beaches.

“This plan is tying clean water and public health together in a comprehensive, exciting way.”

What set Cornell a part from the pack was its sensible approach to the site and good urban design, Heller said.

University of Notre Dame took $1,500 for second and McGill University in Montreal walked away with $1,000 for third. A little closer to home, the University of Pennsylvania walked away with an honorable mention and $500, along with Florida State University and Toronto’s Ryerson University.

“There were some ambitious visions for what this could become and how to really transform this area,” Heller said of the entries judged by E.R. Bacon Development President Elinor Bacon; Friday Architects/Planners Inc.’s Anthony Bracali; Brandywine Realty Trust President/CEO Gerard H. Sweeney; and Schuylkill River Development Corp. President/CEO and City Planning Commission Acting Chairman Joseph Syrnick.

Gormley attended the Dec. 8 ceremony at The Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St., where the winners were honored.

“It was exciting and it just shows we’re on the right direction trying to establish a communication with the City to move forward and show that Grays Ferry is a prosperous and safe place to live and we want to be considered for future endeavors,” he said.