Lemoine Mindy Dec 15, 2006 12:07 pm

I'm coordinating with a community development corporation to reduce stormwater in a dense rowhouse neighborhood of Philadelphia. The obvious intervention is rainbarrels, but they would either sit on the sidewalk or take up some of the small open space available for gardening, playing or entertaining. The city gives them away but they're not popular in this area. One of the ideas coming out of our project is to change the product. Instead of an ugly and inconvenient rainbarrel, why not have a beautiful planter that never has to be watered! We're hoping for the Martha Stewart effect. One of the project partners is Philadelphia University. They are organizing a student design competition to include students from the industrial design, landscape architecture, and biology programs. We'll bring in a container gardening expert and a marketing expert. They're hoping to design a product that would actually be manufactured and sold. There are lots of technical and marketing challenges, but also lots of fun possibilities. Holiday themed wraps in the wintertime. Holders for seasonal flags. Tomatoes. Fig trees. Water striking chimes as it flows down. Color coordinated streets. Anybody have ideas to add? Do you think this might work?

Mindy Lemoine

Environmental Innovation Branch (3EA40)
Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: (215) 814-2736,
Fax: (215) 814-2783
[email protected]