Proposed 76ers Arena Community Impact Analysis
Client: Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation & City of Philadelphia (2023-2024)
With BJH Advisors and Sojourner Consulting
Tile Image: View of the pedestrian bridge over the Vine Street Expressway at the intersection of 10th and Vine Streets facing south. The 10th Street Plaza is visible on the right; Source: Sojourner Consulting, Proposed 76ers Arena Community Impact Analysis Report
As part of a team headed by Kei Hayashi of BJH Advisors and Sarah Yeung of Sojourner Consulting, with Urban Partners, Laureen Hom and Creative Development Partners, Laramee Kidd helped to assess the impact the proposed 76ers sports and entertainment complex may have on neighboring communities, particularly Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Due to Chinatown’s complex social, commercial, and cultural systems, its importance to marginalized populations, and its cultural significance, we developed a systems-based framework to provide a holistic assessment of how Chinatown functions and to identify important areas in which disruption may result in systemwide changes.
Laramee Kidd collaborated to produce the research methodology that distilled Chinatown’s core identity using a systems framework, supported the qualitative data collection and analysis process, and used a UNESCO framework to analyze impact to cultural assets in a holistic way, including the historic urban landscape as well as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) assets (traditions, rituals/events, knowledge).
Since Chinatown is a unique and interconnected system, the study identified that significant impact to small businesses or transportation could affect the whole community. These impacts may trigger a cascade of indirect impacts throughout the system, which could potentially result in the loss of Chinatown’s core identity and regional significance.