by Tracy Ostroff
Associate Editor

Summary: In addition to the AIA members who won elected office in the November elections, at least one major city is turning to its architects to plan its future. In October, Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced the appointment of Janice Woodcock, AIA, as the new executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

This “citizen architect” is no stranger to public service. Prior to her appointment, Woodcock served since 2004 as project director for the city’s Capital Program Office. She is a registered architect in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington. In her work with the city, she has focused on oversight of construction projects and management of Fairmount Park system improvements. She is a past president of AIA Philadelphia and remains active with the chapter.

It creates a place for us to shine, and our work reflects well back on our profession

“As we move forward with plans to redevelop and revitalize our riverfronts along the Schuylkill and Delaware riverfronts, we need the expertise and guidance of the Planning Commission at each step of the way,” Street said. “Janice Woodcock brings decades of experience and vision and will serve as a vigorous and engaged executive director as we continue to move forward on many exciting developments around the city.”

While working with the Center City District, she managed a project, “Turning on the Lights Upstairs,” which studied 10 downtown buildings to understand why upper floors tended to be vacant while street-level floors were revitalized and used. Her work produced a guidebook for building owners for conversion from commercial or industrial to residential uses. Prior to her work with the city, Woodcock worked as an architect and urban planner in private practice in Seattle, Boston, Portland, and Philadelphia, where she worked for several firms and also headed up her own design firm.

Honest brokers
One of Woodcock’s challenges will be to guide the development of Philadelphia’s Delaware Waterfront, a seven-square-mile swath of land in between I-95 and the Delaware River, and from Allegheny Avenue to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Woodcock will work with Harris Steinberg, FAIA, and Penn Praxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania’s school of design, to find a solution for the area plagued by inadequate access, poor industrial sites, brownfields, and unwieldy retail development. This fall, Mayor Street signed an executive order to create a master plan for the area, with Penn Praxis leading the effort.

The mayor’s directive, Steinberg says, “sends a strong signal that planning is alive again in Philadelphia.” He says he looks forward to helping the participants find a holistic vision of development based on guiding principles that reflect values defined at the beginning of the process. “We can harness the forces of good design and planning for world-class development.”

We can harness the forces of good design and planning for world-class development

Steinberg’s passion for civic engagement guides his work at Penn Praxis as well as his role as chair of the AIA Leadership Education Committee. He urges other architects to get more involved in the public sphere. “We are generally very well received,” Steinberg encourages. “We are problem solvers, we are consensus builders, and we are honest brokers. We don’t divide; we unite. It creates a place for us to shine, and our work reflects well back on our profession.”

Steinberg has found a particularly rewarding relationship with the media and advises architects to take the same road. “The press is looking for honest, good, smart, thinking people” to speak to the many quality-of-life and economic issues that affect local communities. Developing trusting relationships with members of the press is a point of entry that allows the architects’ voice to be represented, from background that reporters gather for their stories to bylines in the op-ed pages run by the editorial arm of the newspaper.

The reward, Steinberg reflects, is the “potential to create a lasting positive influence and change for the city.”