Frankford Pause

Placemaking for a community hub in Frankford

Frankford Pause is the name of the part art environment, part pocket park that has been developed in a former vacant lot in the heart of the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia. Located at a pivotal intersection between the commercial corridor and residential neighborhood, it also lies adjacent to the main transportation hub for the community.

This multi-phased project, under the leadership of Frankford Community Development Corporation (FCDC), is intended to serve as the premier outdoor event venue and community hub. The pilot phase, designed by Hinge Collective, was completed in early 2018. It has been a phased tool for Hinge and FCDC to leverage the involvement of the community to test out ideas of incremental placemaking, event programming, community engagement opportunities, and co-creation and building experimentation with youth.

Design of the final build-out of the park has been informed by the rigorous and in-depth post occupancy evaluation completed by Hinge over the spring/summer of 2018. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2021.

Engagement & Observation Report

The goal of the Engagement and Observation Report (EOR) was two part; to create evidence-based guidelines to identify future improvements that could be made to the park, and to identify the success of low-cost solutions that can be applied to other vacant lots within the community. Evaluating the first phase of the Frankford Pause Park represented a special opportunity to investigate how improvements made as part of phase one transformation of the former vacant lot would be used by various community members and groups to stimulate positive social interaction among them. Using a wide array of tools including administration of over 200 intercept surveys, employment of a youth cohort to build and test program elements, behavioral observation during event and non-event times, and interviews with community leaders we were able to gather a large amount of both quantitative and qualitative data.

Through this process, we learned about the users of the park, investigated how the design of the park served their needs, and were able to make suggestions about how additional measures can be taken to improve the current uses and expand to reach additional users.

Photo Credits: Chris Baker Evens Photography

Location: Philadelphia, PA (Frankford neighborhood)

Client: Frankford Community Development Corporation

Timeframe: Phase one completed in 2018, phase 2 completed in 2022

Project team: Hinge Collective, Philadelphia Water Department

Outcomes: