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WRT

@wrtdesign

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We are planners, urban designers, architects, and landscape architects empowering people through planning and design.

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What happens when the neighborhood investment we asked for actually arrives? Bethlehem’s Northside (@northside_alive) is seeing a revitalized Boyd Theater, a new co-op market, and safer, more connected streets. Some neighbors are also facing rising rents, cultural erosion, and a deepening affordability crisis.

At #APAPA2026, Anastasia Osorio joins Sara Satullo and Celina Daddario of the @cityofbethlehempa, along with Northside residents, to lead a 1.5-hour walking tour through the Northside. Stops include the @bethlehemcoopmarket, the newly opened Friendship Park, and the tour closes with a facilitated conversation at Bethlehem City Hall about preserving a neighborhood’s vibe and culture as it grows.

The route covers about 1.5 miles, mostly flat, so wear comfortable shoes.

See you next week for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the @americanplanningassociation 2026 Conference. taken in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by @wrtdesign

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Allentown’s Prime-Age Employment Gap is a challenge with neighborhood-level solutions. Allentown Works responds by connecting residents in priority neighborhoods to sustainable careers in healthcare, manufacturing, and early childhood education, shaped through inclusive planning and community engagement.

At #APAPA2026, Hannah Clark joins Kevin McNulty of @allentowncitypa, Darian Colbert of @cohesionnet, and Deja Wilson of @allentown.works, to share what it takes to build trust, engage residents, and grow cross-sector partnerships that open equitable employment pathways and strengthen long-term community capacity.

Register today for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the @americanplanningassociation 2026 Conference. taken in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by @wrtdesign

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3 days ago

One of the nation’s largest brownfield sites is now a cultural and economic anchor for the Lehigh Valley. This walking workshop traces how industrial heritage, arts and culture, strategic planning, and public-private partnerships transformed the former Bethlehem Steel site into @steelstacks_pa.

At #APAPA2026, @jared_mcknight and @keiko_tc join Tony Hanna, former Executive Director of the Redevelopment Authority of @cityofbethlehempa to walk participants through the vision, implementation, and long-term community and economic impacts behind the award-winning redevelopment.

Tour requires registration for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association’s 2026 Conference, see you this weekend! taken in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by @wrtdesign

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4 days ago

How do you carry a 1914 Olmsted Brothers park into a changing climate? At the @wurbanparks Symposium in Istanbul, Türkiye, Charles Neer shared how the FDR Park Plan is answering that question for South Philadelphia.

For #WUPSymposium2026, Charlie presented the plan’s three goals: restoring the park’s ecological function through nature-based solutions, reclaiming the Olmsted Brothers’ original vision for a modern audience, and renewing the park’s role as a place that connects people across backgrounds. Shaped with more than 3,000 community members, the plan organizes FDR Park into an Ecological Core that manages water and provides habitat, and an Urban Edge that brings new recreation to the city’s most heavily used park.

Under this year’s symposium theme, The Living Legacy, FDR Park shows how a historic landscape can become critical civic and public health infrastructure for the next generation of Philadelphians. taken in Istanbul Türkiye by @wrtdesign

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3 days ago

The Landing @ 36N, the second phase of a 545-unit development led by @tulsahousingauthority and @pennrosecompany, celebrated its ribbon cutting last month. At 36th Street North and Peoria, the site of the former Comanche Park Apartments now holds 70 new mixed-income homes.

Residents shaped the master plan through the Envision Comanche process, which brought community-requested elements like an urban farm and a neighborhood grocery into the plan. We worked alongside THA and partners on the master plan and site design.

With a management suite, community room, fitness center, and ground-floor retail opening onto a future public plaza, The Landing is designed to anchor the neighborhood as it grows, joining last year’s 100-home first phase while Phases III and IV move through construction. It is a step toward housing that offers stability across incomes while keeping a community rooted in place. taken in North Tulsa, Tulsa by @wrtdesign

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Shared spaces shape how safe, welcome, and connected people feel, but many were never designed with women and gender minorities in mind.

At the 2026 @nomanational (National Organization of Minority Architects) Conference, Eden Wright and Janyah Green present “Shaping Communal Space: Gender-Inclusivity in the Collective,” research drawn from WRT’s affordable housing portfolio, where more than two-thirds of residents are women and gender minorities.

Through site visits, surveys, and resident conversations at Paseo Verde, North Central V, and Meriden Commons, the study looks at how layout, visibility, lighting, and programming affect safety, accessibility, and belonging. The session also traces how historical planning practices produced inequities across gender, race, and class, and introduces a framework designers can use to advocate for residents long after a project is complete.

Join this conversation at the 2026 NOMA Conference: The Leading Edge in South Florida (@soflonoma) on Saturday, October 17, 2026, 3:00-4:15PM.

#NOMA26 #TheLeadingEdge #NOMAEverywhere by @wrtdesign

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5 days ago

We’re hiring a Junior Landscape Designer to join our San Francisco team. This role spans parks, waterfronts, streetscapes, campuses, and coastal resilience projects, moving from concept through construction alongside planners and architects.

We’re looking for someone 2-5 years into their career who cares about ecological function and the communities these landscapes serve. If you want to design public spaces that help California adapt to a changing climate, we’d like to see your portfolio. Link in bio to apply. taken in San Francisco, California by @wrtdesign

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15 days ago

What would it take to build a future that no longer depends on carbon? On October 15, author Billy Fleming (@joobilly) joins writer and editor Diana Budds (@diana_b) at our Philadelphia office for Post Carbon Futures, the next conversation in A Seat at Our Table.

The speaker series takes its cue from WRT co-founder Ian McHarg’s The House We Live In, bringing together voices who examine how communities and their environments shape each other. This conversation turns to the climate question at the center of that relationship, and what it asks of the people who plan and design the places we live.

Join us at 5:30 PM at 123 S. Broad Street, Suite 1450, Philadelphia. RSVP at the link in our bio. taken in 123 S. Broad by @wrtdesign

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9 days ago

We’re hiring an Urban Designer + Planner to join our Philly team. This role moves between research, site analysis, community engagement, and the graphics that carry a plan forward, working daily alongside architects and landscape architects.

We’re looking for someone 2-4 years into their career who can turn complex information into clear stories. If you want to help communities shape their own future, we’d like to see your portfolio. Link in bio to apply. taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by @wrtdesign

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16 days ago

At the end of September, @designphilly opened its 2026 festival with the annual Kick-off + Awards Celebration, recognizing designers whose work is shaping the city and the field. WRT’s Anjelica (Anjel) Soesanto (@soesanto.anjelica), Architectural Designer Level II, received the Emerging Professional Award, which honors designers with ten years or less in practice who have shown exceptional talent and a clear sense of where design is headed.

DesignPhiladelphia’s awards are driven by community nominations, put forward by the people who see the impact of design firsthand. Anjel was nominated by Michael Spain and Liza Niles from Design Education at Design Philadelphia for designers who are making a strong impact on our community.

Since joining WRT in 2022, Anjel has worked on built projects from design to construction like FDR Welcome Center, Wilmington Friends School, Springside Chestnut Hill Theater, and currently is in the design phase for the Bartram Education Center. She has worked on master plan projects for the Out of Door Academy in Florida, Rutgers Preparatory School, and Watershed Institute Campus Plan in New Jersey. We spoke with her about the award, the work behind it, and what comes next.

Visit our website for the full conversation. by @wrtdesign

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6 days ago

We’re thrilled to announce that Inter(mediate) Spaces (@inter.mediate.spaces), an immersive installation created by Chloé Lee (@chloeyenlinglee) and produced by Present Futures (@presentfutures.studio) (Berlin), will be co-presented in Philadelphia this autumn with WRT (@wrtdesign).

IMS is a two-part experience that explores technology’s promise of connection, starting with community and ending in an immersive shared world.

What to expect?

• Living Labs (November)
A series of in-person gatherings where AI meets community storytelling. Through dialogue, memory journaling, and hands-on experimentation, participants explore the roots of their values and use AI tools to give shape to memory, desire, grief, and imagination. Human facilitation and collective curation are at the heart of it, so no audiovisual or tech experience is needed. Everyone’s perspective adds a layer to the story.
• XR Installation (December)
Built from the Labs’ stories with artist Chloé Lee (@chloeyenlinglee) and developer Lucas Martinic (@lucasmartinic), a shared 40-minute VR journey through collective memory, for two people at a time.

Together, IMS is a modular program and exhibition that engages collective imagination and archive. It offers a framework for connection across divides, through crisis, and toward new ways of reflecting together.

📅 Three Living Labs this November, free and open to all. Sign up at the link in our bio.

We’re looking for facilitators! If you’re passionate about community, design, or futures thinking and want to help guide the upcoming Living Labs, write to us at hello@presentfutures.de

📸by Wei-Ta Chen (@weita_photography) at Onx Onassis (@onassis.onx) in December 2025

This event is supported by @medienboard and @weareagog.

#PresentFutures #Philadelphia #LivingLabs #XR #FuturesThinking taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by @wrtdesign

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8 days ago

This past Saturday, Wilmington Friends School celebrated the opening of its new Lower School and the successful close of the campaign that made it possible. The morning began with a ribbon cutting at the Main Entrance, music from the 4th and 5th grade band, and a scavenger hunt that sent families through the new classrooms and playgrounds.

We partnered with the school on spaces shaped by a simple belief: learning happens everywhere. Classrooms, play areas, and the paths between them are designed to support curiosity, movement, and connection for the school’s youngest learners.

Congratulations to @wilmington_friends and the families, faculty, and donors who brought this project to life. taken in Wilmington Friends School by @wrtdesign

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17 days ago