Explore / Lots

Small solutions can often be the most accessible for individuals and communities, while producing the greatest positive impact. Explore our solutions for Lots to find compact architectural structures, mobile education units, pocket gardens, greenhouses, hydroponic beds, and many other projects for pocket-sized spaces.

How much can one acre yield? A city rife with vacant lots is a city ripe with potential.

Farmadelphia

Philadelphia, PA

Using neighborhood ownership of urban farms to support local businesses and food security.

Idea

Neighborhood context map showing built and vacant areas. The parcel of land in question is owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority.

N. 31st St: Reclaiming the Urban Landscape

Philadelphia, PA

An eye-catching art installation-turned-community garden.

Idea

The composted soil is used to construct a new ground.

Horizontal Integration

Philadelphia, PA

A public park and soil farm constructed from Delaware River dredge material.

Idea

Neighboring buildings provide structural support for a tiered performance space.

Insert Use

Philadelphia, PA

An incremental approach to reclaiming vacant lots.

Idea

Seen from above, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum's green roof stands out colorfully. (Conservation Design Forum)

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Green Roof

Chicago, IL

Greenroof systems cover all horizontal surfaces on the roof of this Chicago teaching and learning center.

Completed

Exterior and interior of an abandoned house on LaClede Avenue, one of many left vacant thanks to Youngstown's housing surplus.

Lots of Green

Youngstown, OH

An ambitious plan to comprehensively repurpose a neighborhood's vacant properties.

Completed

Preparing formwork for the four-pocket pool. A grid of rebar helps shape its complex curves and stabilizes the poured concrete. (Travis Knapp-Prasek, SkateNC)

Durham Central Park Skate Park

Durham, NC

A public skate plaza inspired by informal urban skate traditions.

Completed

Teenage volunteers build a fence from salvaged wood.

Peabody High School Ecological Garden

Pittsburgh, PA

Engaging high school students in a brownfield renewal project on school grounds.

Completed

The Oaklyn Branch of the Evansville Public Library demonstrates the visually striking and energy-efficient implementation of green roofs on a public building. (Green Roofs for Healthy Cities)

Oaklyn Branch Library Green Roof

Evansville, IL

A public library’s green roof helps offset its energy costs and attract community participation.

Completed

Cliveden Park

Philadelphia, PA

This Philadelphia park renovation demonstrates minimally invasive techniques for stormwater management through topographic manipulation.

Completed

Matthew Langan’s Urban Arboretum envisions a Philadelphia with trees lining every street and nurseries filling every vacant lot and odd corner.

The Urban Arboretum

Philadelphia, PA

Returning Philadelphia to forest.

Idea

Rendered plan view of the new playground. Blue arrows indicate how the site will drain. (NYC Department of Environmental Protection)

Pearly Gates Park

Bronx, NY

A playground in the Bronx updated under PlaNYC.

Completed

A vast array of playground equipment and surfaces populate South Philadelphia's Herron Park. (Philadelphia Water Department)

Herron Playground

Philadelphia, PA

Water plays a major role in a South Philadelphia playground, from recreation to green infrastructure.

Completed

The external wall of the skate lab plainly shows its tire underpinnings. (Dan Hughes, NorthwestSkater.com)

Green Skate Laboratory

Washington, DC

A multi-purpose environmental education space, combining physical laboratory, classroom, and skateboarding bowl.

Completed

Emergent Performative Landscape

Philadelphia, PA

Phased tree production accommodates a new community space.

Idea

PSU students proposed a tire-stabilized community garden and tree plantation to bring life back to a vacant block on North Uber Street.

Charrette: 1920 North Uber Street

Philadelphia, PA

Managing urban stormwater with recycled tire swales.

Idea

Aronsson & Salmons' design combines basketball courts, tree production, and features of a traditional park, all in a compact urban space.

Urban Arboriculture Charrette

Philadelphia, PA

A small-scale urban forestry project from Pennsylvania State University.

Idea

Garden Boyz Market Garden Program

Cleveland, OH

A model urban gardening and workforce development program.

Completed

Corn is one of many different crops cultivated on the farm. [Greta De Meyer]

Old Husher's Farm Market Garden

Cleveland, OH

Community farm showcases a variety of urban agriculture techniques.

Completed

Farmadelphia’s fundamental purpose is to transform vacant properties into productive urban farms. These farms may include both open plots and greenhouses.

Farmadelphia (Greenhouses)

Philadelphia, PA

Immediate, affordable solutions for urban farmers.

Idea

The Food Project

Boston, MA

Boston-area youth education programs in urban, suburban, and rural agriculture.

Completed

Green Guerillas

New York, NY

Community gardening and activism in New York City

Completed

Added Value

Brooklyn, NY

An organization to promote the sustainable development of Red Hook by nurturing a new generation of young leaders

Completed

Urban Farming

Southfield, MI

Grassroots urban agriculture organization in Detroit.

Completed

Not A Cornfield

Los Angeles, CA

Landscape and memory: an agricultural monument in Los Angeles

Completed

Growing Power

Milwaukee, WI

A Milwaukee-based nonprofit offering training, demonstration, outreach, and technical assistance in urban agriculture.

Completed

Row houses and hoop houses coexist peacefully at Greensgrow’s Kensington location.

Greensgrow Farms

Philadelphia, PA

A nursery, farm market, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in Philadelphia, PA

Completed

A student team composed of Kiki Brown, Mary Huynh, and Carson Sio designed a vertical planting unit for homegrown produce.

Farm Philly

Philadelphia, PA

Student designs: new techniques for urban farming

Completed

A combined urban farm and traditional garden incorporating native plant species.

Edible City

Philadelphia, PA

A new garden city.

Idea

Aerial view of green corridors and Urban Catalysts in North Philadelphia.

Ecological Reconfiguration

Philadelphia, PA

New transportation and open-space networks.

Idea

Embracing Fallowdelphia

Philadelphia, PA

Customizable ideas for direct action

Idea

Hydroponic greenhouses include systems for cleaning waste water and re-using grey water for agricultural production.

Green for Green

Philadelphia, PA

Small-scale, low-cost solutions to stormwater management and soil degradation.

Idea

Dense planting in a suburban backyard, the result of a permablitz.

Permablitz Melbourne

Melbourne,

Making the Australian suburbs edible, one permaculture blitz at a time.

Completed

Weaver's Way Co-op

Philadelphia, PA

A model farm and co-op in Philadelphia, with diverse yet integrated operations.

Completed

Urban (em)power Boosters

Philadelphia, PA

Combine flexible surfaces with utility lines for instant activity niches.

Idea

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Grow
Use the Grow section to explore innovative methods for planting, growing, farming, harvesting, reforesting, and building productive landscapes. This Category covers subject areas like urban agriculture, community gardening, and urban forestry. Issues addressed include food security, soil science, nutrition, and the socioeconomic importance of safe food production.
Water
In this category, creative solutions for managing stormwater and street runoff appear side by side with irrigation systems, canals, and fountains. Water solutions for cities range from networks of streetside swales to small-footprint greenhouses occupying single vacant lots. Emphasis is placed on reducing impermeable surfaces in cities—these include rooftops, sidewalks, and traditionally paved surfaces like playgrounds and basketball courts.
Power
Alternative energy sources available in urban contexts include solar power, wind power, and biofuels. Efficient green-building solutions and varied methods of bioremediation—preparing polluted urban soil for other uses—also appear in this diverse Category.
Play
Public space, education, recreation, and safety are serious considerations for anyone rehabilitating urban vacant lots. Explore the Play Category to find inspiring designs combining all of these elements in parks, community centers, playgrounds, and alternative transportation systems.

By Scale

Lots
Small solutions can often be the most accessible for individuals and communities, while producing the greatest positive impact. Explore our solutions for Lots to find compact architectural structures, mobile education units, pocket gardens, greenhouses, hydroponic beds, and many other projects for pocket-sized spaces.
Lots of Lots
More space means bigger opportunities: long-term, large-scale operations working to fit the needs of entire neighborhoods. Lots of Lots collects examples of—and ideas for—rehabilitating former industrial sites, entire blocks, and other big vacant sites requiring complex planning. Projects like these offer city governments and corporations the chance to support communities through funding, operational support, and policy change.
Corridors
Building Corridors brings together populations, businesses, and neighborhoods never before in close contact. Explore this Category to learn how urban networks of all kinds—from bicycle lanes to trail systems to small-scale barter economies—can capitalize on vacant properties to effect citywide change.

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