WPLP


The West Philadelphia Landscape Project links environmental action and community development as part of an action research program. Our work, based in the Mill Creek watershed, has inspired projects in many other places.

News

A new WPLP Web site! Here you will find both the history of WPLP (see the Timeline on the homepage) and the most recent ventures. This site presents new information, provides fresh ways of accessing WPLP resources, and introduces the WPLP Network, a forum for WPLP alumni and partners (see PEOPLE).

Recognition

Read about selected honors and recognition

  • Environmental History calls WPLP a model for how environmental history "could serve to demonstrate the multitude of ways the urban environment affects and shapes city life,” 2005
  • NYU's Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, in their study of "Innovative Designs for Education," cites WPLP as a model for a "fully integrated, comprehensive approach," 2004
  • Harvard University's Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies calls WPLP a model project for ecology history, and design, 2004
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science describes WPLP's Mill Creek Project as "an excellent model" in applying Internet-based learning activities for K-12 classrooms,” 2004
  • Philadelphia City Planning Commission recommends WPLP as an online resource for vacant land and brownfields issues and cites the inspiration of WPLP for current Mill Creek plans, 2004
  • WPLP wins Community Service Award, American Society of Landscape Architects, 2004
  • City of Ottawa, Canada Growth Management Plan cites WPLP: "This project demonstrates the links between environmental issues, education and heritage, and is a model for Ottawa as it seeks to comprehensively implement a "green city" strategy," 2003
  • WPLP featured in Landscape Architecture magazine, 2000
  • National Housing Institute cites WPLP as a model of community-based planning efforts, 2000
  • President Bill Clinton speaks at Sulzberger Middle School, 2000
  • White House Millennium Council’s “Imagining America” cites WPLP as Model of Best Practice, 1999
  • Mill Creek Project and SMS featured on NBC Evening News, 1999. See video below.
  • WPLP featured in Bio-City, a Japanese magazine (in Japanese), 1999
  • Alexander Porshke, Minister for the Environment, Hamburg, Germany tours Mill Creek Watershed and Aspen Farms, 1999
  • Presentation to Pennsylvania Legislature as part of Governor’s Annual Budget Speech, 1998. See video below.
  • Philadelphia School District names Sulzberger Middle School "School of the Month"
  • The Mill Creek Project at SMS, 30-minute documentary airs daily on Philadelphia School District Cable TV Station, November 1999
  • Michigan Public Radio features a story on WPLP, 1998
  • Sulzberger Middle School students win Best Design, Philadelphia Region, Fifth Annual National Engineers' Week Future City Competition, for "Silver City," 1997
  • "Dig These Gardens" in Planning magazine, 1994
  • "Nature in the City: Redesigning the Granite Garden" on Living on Earth, National Public Radio, 1993
  • "Dig These Gardens“Surroundings: A Long Buried Creek in West Philadelphia” in Philadelphia Sunday Inquirer, 1992
  • Scope

    The tag cloud below illustrates the scope of WPLP. Relative size of words represents frequency of use on the WPLP Web sites.