Knight Cities Challenge

Last week EPX happily provided letters of support for two finalists in the Knight Foundation’s “Knight Cities Challenge.” The finalists proposed projects for two significant sites at 9th and Mifflin Streets.

Landscape architecture firm OLIN proposes “The Glass Schoolhouse Project” to reinvent Southwark Elementary School into a “multiuse community center including co-working facilities, makerspaces and recreation.” This project could serve as a model for other city schools. OLIN is currently completing work on a master plan for the transformation of the Southwark schoolyard.

Just across Mifflin Street, Scout Ltd. proposes to transform the vacant space around the former Bok Technical School into a “new community living room that brings community members together, encourages connections and engages people with neighborhood history.”

Winners be announced before April 1st and will share a portion of $5 million. The Knight Foundation “supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts.”

Here’s hoping BOTH of these potentially transformative projects receive funding!

Additional information on the Knight Cities Challenge can be found here.