1326 N. Mascher Street Unit H Philadelphia, PA 19122 T 240-645-1246
INSIDE TG+P
INSIDE TG+P
We believe in letting our work speak for itself, and with more than 70 years of experience, Torti Gallas + Partners has a lot to say. But we find that listening is the most important part of any project.
Browse through our design portfolio to gain a better understanding of the transformative work Torti Gallas + Partners does. We’ve organized our portfolio by project type.
Creating the right places starts with having the right people in place. Our designers, architects, planners, and community liaisons bring a multidisciplinary approach to placemaking, because we know that the how and the why are just as important as the what and the where.
It’s relatively easy to design a basic physical structure. Designing buildings and places that promote balanced and sustainable progress, on the other hand, is a lot more challenging. When our clients want to build something that stands the test of time…a place with a soul, they rely on Torti Gallas + Partners and our 70+ years of expertise.
We believe in letting our work speak for itself, and with more than 70 years of experience, Torti Gallas + Partners has a lot to say. But we find that listening is the most important part of any project.
In the face of a national health crisis, designers have the tools to help transform suburban sprawl into healthy, walkable communities where people can thrive.
The subject of health seems to be ever present in our lives today.
With the influx of data and statistics streaming in from an increasingly connected
world, we’re realizing more than ever that where we live, work and play, as
well as the quality of those places, can dramatically impact personal and
community health. In response, the
architecture and planning industry has generated a collaborative and unified
focus in designing for Healthy Communities. At Torti Gallas, we are
energized by this effort, and are looking to utilize design in every scale of
our work to create healthier communities. But what does the term “Healthy
Communities” really mean? And how can we
improve health through design?
The link between health and designing communities is not a new one.
In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, health officials, social workers,
and architects pushed for social, sanitary and housing reforms to alleviate the
health crises caused by overcrowded living and working conditions. These reforms and standards created in the
beginning of the 20th century established urban planning as a profession
and its important role in regulating the built environment for public benefit.
That role continued in the post-World War II era, but the emphasis shifted away
from regulating dense cities to create healthy living conditions to the
single-use zoning and automobile-centric planning that formed the suburbs.
Today, rapid advancements in technology have provided public
health experts and urban planners the ability to once again collaborate. This time it is through synthesizing
voluminous amounts of health data and finding correlations that exhibit how deeply
the built environment and urban form affects one’s lifestyle and in turn, physical
and mental health.
The current national obesity epidemic is a prime example. The CDC
reports that the percentage of the US adult population who are considered
overweight, a determining factor of heart disease and many other chronic
ailments, increased a staggering 60% from 1960 to 2010, coinciding with a
period of explosive suburban growth. Furthermore, only 50% of adults in the US
get enough physical activity in their lives to reduce and prevent chronic
diseases. Definitive research has shown
that physical activity is vital to improving health, so environments that
promote it – such as active, mixed-use communities that favor walking or
bicycling over automobile travel – will improve health conditions. By making connections like these, architects
and planners have the ability to advocate for design that promotes healthier
lifestyles.
Recognizing the need for broader collaboration across the design and
public health professions, the Joint
Call for Action to Promote Healthy Communities was announced in 2017. It partners the American Institute of
Architects, American Planning Association and other environmental design
organizations with health based organizations such as the American Public
Health Association. This 450,000 member strong constituency endeavors to
establish health goals, implement lasting strategies and share their findings.
At Torti Gallas, we strongly support the principles of the Call for Action and have renewed our
commitment to promoting health through design. Utilizing public health data and
research available today, we are linking health outcomes to our own built and
planned work’s metrics, gaining a better and more powerful understanding of the
impact we make. Our Healthy Communities Initiative is conducting research,
testing measures and establishing best practices in five subject areas:
·
Active Living
·
Environmental Health
·
Food and Nutrition
·
Health Services
·
Social Cohesion and
Mental Health
Through our early investigations we have
developed the community health report card.
It is a comparative tool that measures the health impacts of one community
compared to another. Rooted in the development of a set of metrics that have
their foundation in medical and planning research, it quantifies the projected
differences in rates of chronic disease, hospital admissions, and costs in a
neighborhood. Ultimately, the report
card illustrates how the elements of design, from the number of street trees to
density of intersections and walk score, directly correlate to an individual’s
physical and mental health.
The work of our firm impacts a wide range of communities all over
the country and the world. Its breadth demonstrates that the definition of
Healthy Communities is a dynamic one.
One neighborhood’s health issues are not another’s. Just as the making
of place is not a rubber stamp process, but rather derived from the details and
specifics of a locale, our healthy community strategies are tailored to the
people and the places they serve. We seek input from health experts and community
members to ensure our designs are impactful, always looking to not only
eradicate unhealthy determinants, but also to create places where people can
grow and thrive.