_   Paul A. Vernon, Director Planning and Urban Design KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. www.ksk1.com. What's new in planning. The KSK planning and urban design team has begun work on updating their 2002 Conshohocken Borough Community Revitalization Plan. The planning process will help the Borough prioritize existing and newly identified goals, with associated action items, over the next five to ten years. The KSK team is organizing and coordinating a highly inclusive goal setting process through which the agenda for the revitalization plan update will be established. The main aim of the process is to instill a community-wide sense of ownership for the plan. Completion is anticipated in May 2011. Volunteers from KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. were recognized recently in the Community Design Collaborative’s Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites Publication. The October 2009 charrette challenged four teams to design temporary uses for vacant industrial sites selected by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and the New Kensington Community Development Corporation. Volunteers from KSK documented project sites, researched design precedents, and facilitated the charrette. Read more about this project here. What's new in architecture. The architectural practice at KSK continues its focus on historic preservation, affordable housing and sustainable design. The restoration of historic Stuart Manor (1789) in Lewisburg, West Virginia is nearing completion. Also on the boards are a number of projects for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Project H.O.M.E., and the Friends Rehabilitation Program, Inc. KSK is also currently working on restoration and renovation projects for several historic churches including Chambers-Wiley Presbyterian Church, home of the Broad Street Ministry. What's new in cultural resources. KSK's Historical Services group has been busy with the second phase of the Morris County Historic Resources Survey in northern New Jersey, a prioritized survey of eight municipalities, including historical research, field survey, data coordination, and report preparation. Meetings with community representatives have informed the direction of the project. KSK has also been directing replacement of the slate roof and related masonry restoration for First Presbyterian Church, Haddonfield, New Jersey. In a similar effort, we recently directed the restoration of the former Fidelity Trust building bank interior (now Wachovia/Wells Fargo), which suffered fire and smoke damage in February 2010. This project included restoring the painted, stenciled and gilded ceiling, originally designed by Philadelphia’s D’Ascenzo Studios. The project was highlighted in the November/December 2010 issue of Preservation magazine. KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. welcomes new Director of Planning and Urban Design   Paul A. Vernon recently joined the KSK team of architects, planners and historians to bring new leadership to the firm’s planning practice. He brings with him over twenty years of planning and urban design experience in urban, suburban and rural communities and a personal portfolio in architecture with a focus on community-based projects and special needs populations. All of this work has been in conjunction with many years of volunteer service to community development and human service non-profit organizations. With its long history in planning, focus on preservation and technical capacity in architecture, Paul is ideally suited for KSK as the firm continues working with communities whose goal is to protect cultural and physical resources, explore innovative ways to enhance existing resources and maintain or define their sense of character and place. KSK believes that planned physical changes around community resources should achieve a balance between sustainability, natural resource preservation, affordability, market demand and community preference. Paul has extensive experience in public speaking, group presentation, facilitation and communication, which is in line with the firm’s philosophy of involving people in making places. He brings additional resources to the KSK team through graduate coursework at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University and Kent State University. He comes to us from Cleveland, Ohio, where he most recently acted as the Associate Director for the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC). The CUDC is part of Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design and is a regional planning and urban design practice providing education, outreach, research and design assistance throughout Northeast Ohio. At the CUDC, Paul also served as an adjunct faculty member in the College’s Master in Urban Design Program. While at Kent, Paul’s work was included in publications of the CUDC’s Urban Infill series: Volume 1, Cities Growing Smaller, which focused on cities reimagining themselves in light of population loss and vacancy, and Volume 3, water|craft, which presented new ways of designing cities using regional water resources and best practices. Paul was also co-author of Envisioning Living Environments for People with Mental Illness, a best practices and design guidelines paper presented at the National Council for Behavioral Healthcare and published in Behavioral Healthcare magazine. Please join us in welcoming Paul to Philadelphia and KSK. pvernon@ksk1.com www.ksk1.com KSK Architects Planners Historians, inc. 123 South Broad Street, Suite 2250 Philadelphia, PA 19109 p: 215.-790-1050 www.ksk1.com Copyright (C) 2010 KSK Architects Planners Historians, Inc. All rights reserved.