Ridge Avenue Reimagined: Blending History, Community & Sustainable Innovation

How the Roxborough CDC & Jefferson University MS is Sustainable Design collaborated to reimagine this historic commercial route into a vibrant, community-centered space.

Ridge Avenue in Roxborough has a deep history as a path for travel and commerce. Dating back to the late 1600s, Roxborough sources list it as a key route before railroads and even as a participant in the Revolutionary War.

Today, Ridge Avenue is an essential commercial corridor in Roxborough. But, it could use some help.

“Like any corridor in the city, it ebbs and flows in terms of its viability, and its thriving business culture,” said Jacqueline Cusack, Executive Director of the Roxborough Development Corporation (RDC). “We’re kind-of in a period of a lot of development, a lot of legacy businesses, but not attracting a lot of new businesses yet.” She believed that part of the reason for the lack of new business growth is unfriendly optics of the corridor.

Cusack became the Executive Director in August last year and joined in on talks about revitalizing the corridor using sustainable design practices. They talked about everything from street trees to wayfinding, but she said they needed more structure and “an outside view” to give them some new, inspired direction.

She knew just who could help – her alma mater, Thomas Jefferson University.

Jefferson University’s Master of Sustainable Design at the College of Architecture & the Built Environment advertises itself as a program that helps students “explore and understand how the built environment at all scales impacts ecosystems, microclimates, communities and society, and the experience of spaces.” As a graduate of the program, Cusack understood that one of the master studios could be a resource for her community’s needs. She reached out to her old professor, Robert Fryer.

“I reached out and basically said, ‘Here’s our whole corridor. It’s two and a half miles double-sided. These are the pinch points and challenges we see,’” recalled Cusack.

Fryer, the Director of the MS Sustainable Design Program, met with Cusack and Saglinda Roberts, the lead studio professor for the Resilient Cities and Communities Design Studio. Since this was the studio’s first time working directly with the RDC, Roberts says she was able to design and tailor the program specifically for the RDC’s and her students’ needs.

Roberts’s goals were twofold: community engagement with Roxborough, and giving students an understanding of how integrated (or collaborative) design works.

“[Integrated design] benefits them as designers [and] it benefits the community because you have all these other influences at the very beginning of the design process, instead of designing and then finding out you have to go back and change it from a community standpoint,” said Roberts.

“We want to be able to serve the community in a way that’s beneficial to them, but that it’s also organic from the community,” added Fryer.

After the meeting, Roberts, Fryer, and Cusack brought together students and diverse community members several times over 16 weeks for the Spring semester. They explored several sustainable design tactics for Ridge Avenue, like adding more green spaces, stormwater mitigation infrastructure and constrictions to traffic.

One participating community member, Larry Nannery, found that several designs benefited more than just the local environment and businesses.

Nannery has lived in Roxborough for three years and advocates for the neurodiverse and aging adult populations in and around Philadelphia. He says Cusack invited him to share his perspective during the design studio, during which he focused on walkability and housing.

“Philadelphia has a car-first identity still, and a lot of those who are neurodiverse [find] driving to be a high-stressor,” said Nannery. “So public transportation, signage, having pocket parks along the way so that people can rest – these are ways to increase the walkability of Roxborough and provide more soft sensory experiences.”

He also emphasized the need for senior housing to be not just dense – high-density, mixed-use housing produces lower carbon emissions than low and single-use buildings – but close to family, saying, “There’s an extra layer of thoughtfulness to design that, although we have to evolve the way we do things, we can still put as a primary customer those who are on the backend of the life spectrum.”

Now that the semester is over at Jefferson, Cusack says that the RDC is bringing some of the designs to life – with one caveat.

“The primary challenge lies in managing expectations. The students’ projects are meticulously crafted within the classroom environment, unconstrained by budgets or specific parameters, allowing for ambitious and imaginative conceptualizations…Translating these ideas into actionable projects involves navigating numerous logistical and financial considerations,” writes Cusack in an email.

As a result, Cusack adds, “We are starting with the ‘low hanging fruit’ projects: Ones we can execute without large funding needs. These include looking at installing new pocket parks, wayfinding signage and bioswales. It really gives us a jumping-off point to start figuring out how to revision Ridge Avenue.”

Cover photo: Julie Hancher, Jacqueline Cusack, Robert Fryer, Saglinda Roberts & Larry Nannery discussing the project at the Green Philly EcoFair, April 2024. Photo by Rivkin Collective.