Center City District – Dilworth Park, Philadelphia - Connect The Dots
15848
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Center City District – Dilworth Park, Philadelphia

Client:

Center City District (BID)

Project Summary:

Connect the Dots works on an ongoing basis with Center City District (CCD), one of the city’s largest BID districts composed of 233 blocks and more than 1500 properties, and 4 award-winning parks. Connect the Dots most recently supported CCD through the design and facilitation of engagement and research strategies that enabled CCD to make insight-informed decisions around the design and programming of Dilworth Park next to Philadelphia City Hall, with a particular focus on their Wintergarden green space. Connect the Dots worked to help CCD to understand how best to serve the users of Dilworth Park, and also to understand who is using the space and how they are using it.

Methods:

Connect the Dots partnered with the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation to execute the most recent study around Dilworth Park’s Wintergarden. The team developed a playful winter-themed pop-up to anchor the consultation process – which included a series of interactive conversations (‘Have a Cuppa and a Chat’), reimagined intercept surveys for all ages, ethnographic observation, point-in-time counts, and other interactive opportunities including a selfie frame. Through this methodology, users of the park were encouraged to give specific feedback on their use of the park and their visions for future uses of the space. Connect the Dots then analyzed the insights gathered via the various activations and developed a report outlining the process, key findings, and core recommendations moving forward.

Results:

20 key recommendations related to improving engagement, usage, design of Wintergarden

5 separate methodologies to gather insights from visitors at peak and non-peak times

2 weeks of direct observations at different days and times of day

20 hours of on-site direct engagement and intercept surveys

90 minutes of timelapse footage from above

453 Completed intercept surveys on-site

Ongoing work with CCD for future insight-driven projects

Testimonial:

“It was truly a pleasure working with Connect the Dots for the Wintergarden Gift Exchange at Dilworth Park. They brought compassion, professionalism and rigor to their work, both in preparation and in the field. Their thoughtful and creative approach to engaging the public really captured the voices and experiences of park visitors, and gave us new insight on ways to reinforce or strengthen programs for years to come.”