In addition to real-world learning in my Master of City Planning Studio, I also obtained more on-the-ground experience as a Community Planning Intern at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. As an intern, I contributed my technical skills in demographic analysis, GIS (geographic information systems/mapping), Adobe Photoshop, and in other areas. During my time there, I visited many Philadelphia neighborhoods, attended a few Planning Commission meetings, and worked with different departments and divisions in the city.
One of the projects I worked on was in the linguistically and ethnically diverse Olney neighborhood. While it has been many years since I did this work, I remember being struck by the variety of businesses in Olney. In order to convey the variety in the neighborhood, I felt a single picture or even a few pictures wouldn’t quite capture the feeling of the district, so I created the collage shown here.