"It's really about helping people understand what can happen when you create a sense of place," says Jay. "Instead of just doing ad hoc city planning and putting things here and there and not knowing what your neighbor is going to be doing, having a hodgepodge of design, the idea is that an emerging neighborhood can really benefit from the planning process."

Design Philadelphia's centerpiece will be an exhibition and symposium titled Emerging Neighborhoods, Emerging Design. For the exhibition portion Design Philadelphia asked seven area higher-learning institutions to troubleshoot the modern urban condition from a design perspective.

The Art Institute will tackle fashion; Drexel, design and merchandising; Moore, interior design; Philadelphia University, product design; Temple/Tyler, architecture; University of the Arts, interactive media; and Penn, graphic design.

Tod Corlett, associate professor in Philadelphia University's industrial design program, with fellow ID prof Hy Zelkowitz, steered their senior design studio outside.

"We asked students to go out into the street, where different types of street life would intersect," says Corlett. "Commuters and pedestrians, or pedestrians and the homeless. We asked them to find a problem where the objects or systems weren't doing their jobs or were interfering."

Kim Seff identified the problem of local bands advertising on the street and came up with a "button" you can wear or attach to an object and which headphones can be plugged into. "She's taking advantage of the fact that people are walking around with iPods and headphones," explains Corlett. "It's a little tiny object that a band can record a song on. It's intended to be cheap. You can give it to a friend, put it on the table at work, attach it to a telephone pole."

Eli Wiegmann talked to operators and customers of street food carts and came up with a modular alternative (above) that has bins that are easy to clean and store, space on the back for advertising and a longer, thinner design that reduces sidewalk congestion.

"We have one of the largest congregations of students being taught design in the country," says Jay. "We want to keep that goldmine here. There are a lot of benefits to living and working here. That's what we hope they'll take away from it."

The Emerging Neighborhoods, Emerging Design symposium takes place on Thu., April 6, 4-6 p.m.; the exhibition will be open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. April 6 and 10 a.m-5 p.m. April 7. The exhibition opening reception is Thu., April 6, 6-8 p.m., 2400 Market St. Visit www.designphiladelphia.org.