North Camden Neighborhood Plan
Camden, NJ
Save Our Waterfront hired Interface Studio to document the vision and values of existing stakeholders in a comprehensive update of the North Camden Neighborhood Plan. The Plan offers a long-term strategy for revitalization and focuses on how to reinforce the core community through housing rehab and construction and a strengthened social support network, while also considering how best to develop the vacant and underutilized land along the waterfront.
The neighborhood and its newly minted Neighborhood Plan made the papers in January 2009 when then Governor John Corzine made the official announcement that Riverfront State Prison would be closing by Summer 2009. The Prison’s subsequent demolition freed up 17 acres of real estate just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Camden, a large parcel of land with spectacular views of the Philadelphia skyline and immense potential to spur reinvestment in the North Camden neighborhood, reinvent Camden’s Delaware River waterfront, and grow the City’s tax base through new mixed use development.
The Philadelphia Inquirer championed the Neighborhood Plan developed by Interface Studio for Save Our Waterfront, a local non-profit, and Cooper’s Ferry Development Association for documenting stakeholder visions and priorities for the future reuse of the site.
In addition to publicity, the Neighborhood Plan has received compliments, support, and political backing from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), which has convened an inter-governmental group of local, county, state, and regional officials to start moving the plan forward. For us, it’s exciting to see the first major steps toward implementation being taken, and the next time we drive over the Ben Franklin, we’ll be sure to wave goodbye to the Prison and hello to a new day in North Camden.
The Neighborhood Plan was awarded a 2009 New Jersey Smart Growth Award by New Jersey Future.
Client: Save Our Waterfront and the Cooper’s Ferry Development Association
