The Pennsylvania Wilds is a special place. It contains charming communities, vast forests, spectacular landforms, clean rivers and streams, and an array of other natural resources.

The Pennsylvania Wilds Design Guide: A Design Guide for Community Character Stewardship was created to help communities protect these treasured characteristics while reaping and strengthening the benefits of economic growth.

The Design Guide rolled off the presses in 2008 after a year of input from around the region. It is meant to be a resource for people, businesses or organizations embarking on new construction, renovations, signage projects and the like. A highly visual and readable document, it is also a great place to go for ideas and inspiration. All of the book’s guidelines are voluntary.

The Design Guide outlines several principals that can be used by developers, design professionals and others. Examples include: Applying the Pennsylvania Wilds logo more extensively throughout the region; incorporating wood and timber as a strong visual theme; preserving and rehabilitating historic buildings to retain a visual representation of the past; and incorporating elements such as water, wildlife, glass, and stone throughout the Pennsylvania Wilds as visual reminders of the region’s valued resources.

The Design Guide is a product of the Pennsylvania Wilds Planning Team, a 12-county partnership consisting of representatives from planning agencies, economic development groups, state and local government, and other community leaders from around the Pennsylvania Wilds.

Early on, the Planning Team recognized the critical need to support the long-term success of the Pennsylvania Wilds initiative while strengthening local economic development and protecting community interests. To achieve this, the group undertook the task to provide a resource that could be used to guide new development in a manner that respects local traditions and represents the natural characteristics of the region.    

Several businesses and communities are already using the Design Guide. In 2008, the book won a 2008 Planning Excellence Award from the state chapter of the American Planning Association. Members of the Pennsylvania Wilds Planning Team accepted the award at a ceremony in Pittsburgh.

Brain O’Leary, chair of the APA-PA Chapter awards committee, said in a written statement that the Design Guide was chosen for a Certificate of Merit for a number of reasons. “It provided excellent design recommendations to a large rural area,” he said. It also included many non-regulatory recommendations for local communities, he said, and “helped establish a recognizable identity for this part of Pennsylvania.”

Speaking on behalf of the Pennsylvania Wilds Planning Team, then-chairman Jerry Walls said the Pennsylvania Wilds is known for its community character and natural resources, and being good stewards of those assets is fundamental to smart growth in the region. The APA award validates that thinking, he said.

“It also confirms that the Design Guide concepts and recommendations are reasonable and appropriate for small scale villages and communities in rural Pennsylvania,” Walls said.

The Design Guide can be downloaded for free by applying here.