Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2007 – 2009

Now a vital center of the Navy Yard revitalization, the Urban Outfitters (URBN) campus is expanded around the submerged historic Dry Dock No.1, the ultimate destination for the three-mile riverfront walk planned along the Delaware River. URBN’s campus becomes an extension of the public realm of Philadelphia, touted as a poster child for industrial urban redevelopment.

True to the industrial scale and character of the Yard, the publicly accessible landscape reinterprets the historic craneway as a promenade, workyards as dockside terraces, and criss-crossed railtracks as runways through steel walls curved like ship hulls. URBNites describe the regenerated landscape as “feeling as though it’s always been there” – of course, wearing new clothes.

Clients + Collaborators

URBN, Inc.; Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle, architects; Advanced GeoServices, Corp., engineers; Blue Wing Environmental, environmental engineers

Kudos

American Society of Landscape Architects, National Design Honor Award, 2014