We create communities that engage, empower, and connect people.
WRT is a team of architects, planners, urban designers, and landscape architects.
COMMUNITY DESIGN
Glen Canyon Park Improvement Plan San Francisco, CA
COMMUNITY DESIGN
Blue Ball Dairy Barn Wilmington, DE
WRT plans and designs communities that are equitable, resilient, and value-driven. With offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco, seeks to initiate, understand, and execute projects that create simple and effective solutions for complex problems across all scales. We embrace our roots of 55 years, and continue the legacy of design that has flowed through the firm for the past five decades. Our approach to any project is rooted in an environmental ethos which frames our understanding and forms the basis for creative and appropriate response.
We work to understand what makes each assignment unique—the political, economic, natural, and administrative realities that enable us to create enduring projects. Our plans and designs are not predicated on a specific form or style, but rather driven by attention to specific local contexts and conditions, backed up by decades of institutional knowledge from working in the public realm.
We create resilient communities. WRT views resilience as a holistic approach to the complex inter-related factors of community health and well-being. This approach aims to help communities guard against a wide range of impacts whether they be weather-related, sea-level rise, economic or social in their root causes. We work across scales and professional disciplines to create forward-thinking, actionable solutions for the unique needs of the communities we serve. Our iterative process depends upon, and is responsive to, community values and aspirations, our national perspective on place-based design, and a commitment to understanding the site-specific opportunities and challenges as a basis for strategic decision-making. This holistic approach helps create communities that are socially vibrant, culturally distinctive, healthy, and sustainable places for people to live, learn, work, and play to their fullest—now and into the future.
COMMUNITY DESIGN
Oakland Broadway/ Valdez District Specific Plan Oakland, CA
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT COMMUNITY DESIGN
Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan Austin, Texas
WRT worked with the City of Austin to develop its first comprehensive plan since the 1970s. Known for its creative economy and live music scene, Austin is experiencing rapid population growth accompanied by problems such as increasing traffic congestion and housing costs. WRT collaborated with the City on a planning process designed to achieve three goals set by City Council: broad-based community engagement; an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable future; and a strategic focus on implementation. The Imagine Austin plan was also guided by several action principles of increasing importance in a region expected to experience 750,000 new residents and 300,000 new jobs over the next 30 years. These guiding principles include growing as a compact connected city, integrating nature into the city, developing as an affordable and healthy community, and managing water and other environmental resources sustainably. Over 10,000 citizens were involved in the public participation process for the plan, which helped the team identify issues, develop alternative growth scenarios, and articulate a vision for Austin’s future. The vision for the Austin of the future is a beacon of sustainability, social equity and economic opportunity; where diversity and creativity are celebrated; where community needs and values are recognized; where leadership comes from its citizens and where the necessities of life are accessible to all. What We Did Urban Design, Planning, Comm Engagement Awards APA Sustainable Communities Division, Sustainable Plan Award APA Austin, Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Award Promotional Campaigns Category National Association of Government Communicators Comprehensive Planning Award
We are committed to equity. We believe in equitable communities that level playing fields for their most vulnerable citizens—homeless, low-income, youth, elderly, disabled, immigrant, refugee, and LGBTQ. Through our work we confront issues of housing affordability and insecurity, mitigating gentrification/displacement, advocating for environmental justice, supporting local economies, building local capacity, focusing on health and well-being, and rebalancing social determinants of health.
COMMUNITY DESIGN
El Corazón Cultural Center — Taller Puertorriqueño Philadelphia, PA
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT COMMUNITY DESIGN
Bartram Choice Neighborhood Initiative Philadelphia, PA
The Bartram Choice neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia has all of the ingredients that make urban living appealing – walkability, varied housing, vibrant commercial corridors, public transit, nearby job hubs, a rich history and diverse culture. Yet neighborhood residents face increasingly low employment, education, literacy, incomes and high rates of crime and trauma. These challenges are heightened for residents of Bartram Village, an isolated and deteriorating public housing site. As investors and developers take interest in the area, the challenge is to re-shape Bartram Village as an integrated mixed-income community that preserves housing affordability and positions residents to benefit from anticipated investments. Through a HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning and Action Activity grant awarded to PHA, WRT is leading a two-year planning process focused on mending deepseated mistrust through transparency and capacity building. Bartram Village and neighborhood residents are engaged on the Steering Committee, as task force cochairs, and as project ambassadors. The entire community has been invited to partake in extensive surveys, a summer festival, community-wide meetings, focus groups, youth workshop, a leadership series, “walkshop,” and bus tour of other redeveloped sites. To build momentum, a series of neighborhood Action Activities will be identified and implemented immediately following the Plan’s completion. The plan maps out an ambitious but achievable vision that celebrates the location of Bartram Village next to historic Bartram’s Gardens and builds on investments along the Schuylkill River including the waterfront trail and innovation hub. Short, mid and long term strategies focus on three interrelated themes. “Connect” aims to safely connect residents to neighborhood services and amenities. “Live” will create healthy, affordable housing integrating nature and activity to heal mind and body. “Thrive” seeks to improve access to education, skills, and meaningful employment. What We Did Planning Coordination, Community Engagement, Master Planning
We identify placemaking at all scales. Activating the public realm is integral to improving quality of life, supporting inclusive growth, and integrating the shared values of communities. Uniting planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, placemaking is a transformative tool that shapes public spaces into equitable community places. We develop a true understanding of the unique character of a community to create places that enhance existing assets, strengthen connections between people and spaces, and promote healthier communities.
PLANNING AND DESIGN
FringeArts Philadelphia, PA
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT COMMUNITY DESIGN
Castro Valley Redevelopment Strategic Plan Castro Valley, CA
WRT led a multi-disciplinary team to prepare Castro Valley’s Redevelopment Strategic Plan. The Plan aims to revitalize the Central Business District by (1) retrofitting the strip commercial development patterns that were established along the corridor when it was a State Highway, and (2) transforming the 1.7-mile Castro Valley Boulevard—a wide, automobile-dominated thoroughfare— into a safe and attractive retail main street, while still accommodating necessary traffic volumes. The Plan provides development concepts for several key sites that can serve as catalysts for future development and identifies strategic public investments that can be made to the public realm that will promote additional private investment in the area. The subsequent redesign of the Castro Valley Boulevard was the first step in implementing the Plan and jumpstarting parallel initiatives to encourage new commercial uses, centralize public parking, and strengthen the district’s walkability and bikeability. WRT’s design, informed by extensive community engagement, combines pedestrian enhancements with highly crafted elements that convey the community’s unique identity. It creatively employs stormwater capture and filtration to prevent erosion of nearby creeks and pollutants from entering the bay. What We Did Urban Design, Planning, Landscape Architecture
We embrace community values. The threads of a community create a sense of belonging, strength, comfort, and resiliency. An understanding of these threads— shared stories, common values, a similar culture—forms a foundation from which communities can build capacity, regenerate, and blossom. We tailor engagement tools to enable residents to discover the distinct characteristics of their communities, as well as their needs and ambitions. Working alongside communities, we shape aspirational yet implementable plans that range in scale from neighborhood, corridor, and district plans, to regional and citywide plans, to park and resiliency master plans.
PARKS AND OPEN SPACES
Lake Merritt Master Plan Oakland, CA
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT COMMUNITY DESIGN
Plan Lafayette: Comprehensive
What We Did Master Planning, Landscape Architecture
COMMUNITY DESIGN
El Corazón Cultural Center — Taller Puertorriqueño Philadelphia, PA
COMMUNITY DESIGN
FDR Park Redevelopment Master Plan Philadelphia, PA
We see ourselves as an extension of our clients’ team. We respect the context of each project at every step of the process, understanding that there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for the work we do. We benefit from the cross-pollination of ideas, perspectives, and techniques by emphasizing integrative learning, critical thinking, and collaborative problem solving.
PLANNING AND DESIGN
FringeArts Philadelphia, PA
WRT has received more than 350 local and national planning and design awards. We were one of the first firms to tackle issues of ecological, social, and economic resiliency with large scale interventions and planning— something we remain committed to today. WRT has received numerous design awards including the ASLA National Firm ward and the inaugural PA Excellence Award.
Noteworthy: Paseo Verde, Philadelphia, PA The nation’s first LEED Platinum Neighborhood Development certification (second in the world). John C. Anderson Apartments, Philadelphia, PA One of the first LGBT-friendly affordable senior housing developments in the country. Microsoft Campus, Silicon Valley, CA The first Net-Zero Water campus in the nation (also LEED, Living Building Challenge, and Well Building Standard certifications). GreenPlan Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA The city’s first integrated, sustainable city-wide open space planning framework.
COMMUNITY DESIGN
Glen Canyon Park Improvement Plan San Francisco, CA
PLANNING AND DESIGN
FringeArts Philadelphia, PA
We create transformative impact through planning and design. WRT’s success is based on our tradition of excellence, innovation, and leadership in planning and design, and our commitment to the firm’s guiding principles of designing with nature and reinforcing urbanism.
COVER PLANNING AND DESIGN
FringeArts Philadelphia, PA
WRT’s pioneering spirit guides our practice, transforming introspection into actionable new ways of serving our communities while remaining true to our collective values.
We design and plan for education, housing and neighborhoods, community developments, parks and open spaces.
PHILADELPHIA
SAN FRANCISCO
1700 Market Street, Suite 2800 Philadelphia, PA 19103
478 Tehama Street, Suite 2B San Francisco, CA 94103
T: 215.732.5215 F: 215.732.2551
T: 415.575.4722 F: 215.732.2551
www.wrtdesign.com