West Reading Elm Street

Derck & Edson had the pleasure of working on Elm Street planning for the Center Point Neighborhood in West Reading Borough.

This community is adjacent to Reading Hospital and Medical Center and a key residential area. Gateway enhancement concepts improve the physical elements of the 6th Avenue corridor connecting the hospital to the core downtown. Transformation sketches were created to show the potential for adaptive reuse of vacant properties.

Greening of the neighborhood was a key planning goal. We created various examples of how a residential driveway could be paved and planted to reduce impervious coverage and increase aesthetic value. By simply integrating a rain garden design concept in the parking space (see FIGURE 3), there can be up to a 56% reduction in that volume of runoff taking it from 2.27 inches to almost 1 inch. The net effect of one space is impressive, but when combined with the other 19 homes on the block, that cumulative effect is impressive.