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 CONTEXT

A 1868 map showing the adjacency of the site, which was once the pleasure grounds of the Pennsylvania Hospital, with the intersection of Lancaster and Haverford Avenues.

CROSS RIDGES

A comparison of 18th and 19th century Philadelphia maps shows the intersecting ridge lines of Lancaster & Haverford Avenues. Running from a central ferry on the Schuylkill River, Lancaster Avenue follows an Native American Indian trail toward the northwest. Haverford Avenue meets the Schuylkill at the upper ferry and continues westward to the town of Haverford. This ridge crossing figures prominently in the configuration of West Philadelphia.

GRIDS

The plan is based on the methods of land segmentation. Combining the rational logic of the city grid with the uneven development of neighborhood blocks unplanned events arraise and make a structure for new places. Beneath the extruded evidence of the once existing streets, lays the ground plane formed into new watersheds by the great intersection.

WATER SHED STUDIES

The figure of the intersection is taken as the form to create a new water shed on the site of the golf course.