Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2005 – 2011

For over one hundred and fifty years, League Island developed as one of the nation’s first Navy Yards, where hundreds of men and women toiled to build entire fleets of huge ships. Remaining true to the industrious scale of adjacent active ship building operations and to the patina of past production, the Historic Core of the Yard has been refashioned for the retail enterprise, Urban Outfitters (URBN).

An industrial strength landscape armature structures the retrofit of massive manufacturing buildings into design studios and corporate offices, forming URBN’s campus, and community, of creativity. Rebranded demolition debris is lovingly converted into patterns of porous pavement. Tapestries of hedgerows and drifts of wild + wooly grasses and wildflowers emulate URBN’s sensibility for the next evolution of this productive landscape.

Clients + Collaborators

Urban Outfitters (URBN Inc.); Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle, architects; Advanced GeoServices, Corp., engineers

Kudos

American Society of Landscape Architects, National Design Honor Award, 2014
Preservation Achievement Award, Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, 2007
Urban Land Institute Award, Finalist, 2007