West Philadelphia Landscape Project

For more than twenty years, hundreds of West Philadelphia Project staff and students, together with our partners, have produced a wealth of information on the Mill Creek watershed. We have studied its history, described its present, and made plans for its future. We have developed new curriculum and designed and built community gardens. This page provides new ways to access some of those resources.

Click on each category to see more.

WPLP Web sites

WPLP has been on the Web since 1996, with three major revisions: 1997, 2002, and 2008. To visit prior sites, click on the link below:

1996 First WPLP Web site
1997 Web site
2002 Web site

Projects

WPLP projects include built landscapes, a new middle school curriculum, a community database, and proposals for watershed management which have been implemented by the City of Philadelphia. Click on the links below to see some examples:

Mill Creek Project 1995-2002
Mill Creek: Subsidence and Flooding 1999
Mill Creek Watershed 1987-
Digital Database
West Philadelphia Landscape Plan 1997-1991
Community Gardens

Courses

From the first WPLP-affiliated studio course in 1987, university students enrolled in more than a dozen classes have made proposals for the future of the Mill Creek watershed and neighborhood. Since 1996, they have presented their work online, and so have students at Sulzberger Middle School. Follow the links below to visit the classroom and see their ideas:

Water, Landscape, and Urban Design, MIT, 2010
Transforming the Urban Landscape,Penn, 1996-1998
- See student work, 1996
- See student work, 1997
Power of Place, Penn, 1997-2001
- Visit the classroom I
- Visit the classroom II
Power of Place,MIT, 2001-2002
- See student work, 2001
The Mill Creek Project, Sulzberger Middle School, 1996-2002
- See student work, 1997
- Visit the classroom, 1998

Maps

WPLP pioneered digital mapping of topography, vacant land, and the urban watershed in the 1980s and 1990s. The WPLP digital database has not been updated since the City of Philadelphia developed its own digital database in the mid 1990s. The WPLP map archives include dozens of detailed historical maps of West Philadelphia and the Mill Creek neighborhood; these will be posted here if permission is obtained:

WPLP on Google Map
Digital Database
The West Philadelphia Digital Database: An Atlas and Guide. Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, l996.

Publications

The full text of the original WPLP reports from 1990-1991, the foundation for our work, are online, as are publications by staff and students.

Stories

WPLP Blog
Where Are You Now?
Staff, students, and partners describe their experience with WPLP:
- Six Stories from 2002
- "You Just Don't Leave Family"

Designs

We have designed community gardens, blockscapes, outdoor classrooms as part of a new middle-school curriculum, and stormwater detention projects, some of which have been built. Others remain speculative. Here are links to a few examples:

Aspen Farms Community Garden, 1989

Aspen Farms Community Garden, 1997-1999
Westminster Community Garden
Environmental Study Area and Stormwater Detention: Designs by Students, 1996

WPLP in the Media

See below for selected media reports on WPLP, including the Mill Creek Project with Sulzberger Middle School:

WPLP Key Words

The tag cloud below provides some terms to inspire a search. Relative size of words represents frequency of use on the WPLP Web sites. Click on each word to search the site.

WPLP