
Called-to-Serve CDC & The Reverend Leon H. Sullivan Community Impact Center
3600 N. Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19140
Project team: Called-to-Serve CDC, Mosaic Development Partners, Schultz & Williams, Watchdog Real Estate Project Management, and more
Project: Gut renovation of Zion Baptist Church Annex in North Philadelphia
The Zion Baptist Church Annex Revitalization project, which included a project team from Called-To-Serve CDC, Mosaic Development Partners, Leon H. Sullivan CDC, Watchdog Real Estate Project Management, Schultz & Williams fundraising consultants, as well as engineers, and architects, was the first grantee to take part in this new initiative between GBU and WPF. The project team gathered with sustainability experts from Re:Vision, Bruce E. Brooks, and New Ecology, along with GBU staff to hold an interactive table-top review session, or charette. The goal was simple – bring everyone together and look at the project plan through the lens of sustainability. Where were there opportunities to improve sustainability and resilience and how could the project team use this to their advantage to become stewards of the environment, help educate the community, and be a model for other community-based projects.
After 3 hours of discussing plans, goals, and learning about sustainability and resilience integrations, the team landed on pursuing LEED certification to complement the work they are doing for the physical overhaul as well as a planned workforce development program to be provided by Called-To-Serve CDC. This new sustainability goal not only helps set measurable environmental goals, it also creates an opportunity to educate the community about the benefits of sustainable design, such as lower utility costs and improved indoor air quality and occupant comfort, and will be the catalyst for creating green jobs that support the operations and maintenance of the new space.

FringeArts
140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Project Team: Fringe Arts Staff, Re:Vision, Andropogon
Project: Update of indoor & outdoor restaurant/beer garden space in historic property
FringeArts is a vibrant cultural hub that offers unique theatre, live entertainment, and dining options and occupies a former pump house near the Delaware River in Old City. Fringe Arts was the second grantee that took part in the pilot technical assistance initiative, with the goal to orient a planned overhaul of indoor and outdoor restaurant space on their property to operate more sustainably, become more resilient to flooding, and better integrated to the historical use of space and larger outdoor landscape that it sits on. GBU staff first sat down with Fringe Arts employees to discuss what sustainability meant to them, where they currently embed these principles into operations, and what issues they have faced with building upkeep.
Through this educational model and additional building walkthrough with experts from Re:Vision and Andropogon, the Fringe Team was given tools and understanding to make informed decisions about materials, use of space, and outdoor features such as green stormwater management, and were encouraged to continue to embed sustainability principles into operations and maintenance before, during, and after the renovation of their space. FringeArts is currently working with their design team to build a cohesive and sustainable vision for their theatre, restaurant, and outdoor space that reflects the new found sustainability goals of the organization and has begun setting internal goals for sustainable operations by conducting building audits and tracking, or benchmarking, utility bills.