When they come back from summer vacation this fall, students at the Chester Arthur school on the 2000 block of Catharine Street will find some major changes at their school yard. A couple of weeks ago, construction began in earnest here, or we'd be more on point to describe it as demolition.
Until a few years ago, this school yard was basically an asphalt desert, extending from the school all the way to 21st Street. In the summer of 2012, Friends of Chester Arthur raised money to build a playground which has been a huge hit with the little kids in the neighborhood. A couple years later, FoCa raised additional funds to improve the playground, building a seating area and adding some greenery. While these investments have certainly improved the school yard, they've served as a mere preview of the big project that's now underway. You may recall, we told you about a charrette this past fall hosted by FoCA and landscape architects Salt Design Studio, at which parents and neighbors discussed three concepts for the school yard.
The final plan for the school yard takes many of the elements of the concept above, including a shift of the parking lot to the southern side of the property, the creation of an entrance at 21st & Catharine, and a path running from that entrance to the school. Of course, the design has evolved considerably since it was a hand-drawn concept, and we now see exactly what we can expect once the construction finishes.
There's so much going on here, from added green space to outdoor classroom space to a track that doubles as a sundial. It's important to note that this school yard renovation isn't just about aesthetics or storm water management though. Its design is meant to maximize learning opportunities at the school. This differentiates this project from some of the other greening projects we've seen at schools around town, and we're pretty sure this is an unprecedented project in Philadelphia.
When all is said and done, this project will cost between $1.3 and $1.4M. Funding for this project has come from a variety of sources, with the William Penn Foundation contributing $1.1M, PWD adding $232K, the councilman's office kicking in $110K in NTI money, and FoCA raising an addition $100K for programming and maintenance. The project should be about 80% complete by the time the kids come back to school, and totally finished by October.
We cannot wait to see what the Arthur school yard looks like this fall. All the kudos in the world to the good people at FoCa and Arthur for their hard work to make this school yard project a reality.