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33 Jetsetter.com ranked Spruce Street Harbor Park among the best urban beaches in the world. has lauded Fierabend as a "pop-up superstar" and the "king of Philadelphia beer-gardens." Since moving Ground- swell's headquarters here five years ago, Fierabend and company have designed some 30 projects across the city. These include the revival of long-neglected Delaware Riverfront spaces such as Morgan's Pier, a beer garden built in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge, and Spruce Street Harbor Park, a three-acre beach scene where bars and restaurants serve the masses from atop floating barges as LED lights and lushly colored hammocks — yes, hammocks — hang from trees. And then, of course, there's sand. Jetsetter.com ranked Spruce Street Harbor Park among the best urban beaches in the world. "Philadelphia has been awesome to us," Fierabend says. What's so great about Philly is that it has such an artist and maker community already in place because of all the design schools here, so you have this built-in cool factor and green factor." Making people feel coMfortable — especially while they're enjoying the out of doors — is a Fierabend forte. The Stalin Bedon '97 hired Groundswell to turn a vacant gas station in Princeton, left, into a hip restaurant. The floating gardens in Spruce Street Harbor Park in Philadelphia, below, show the passion for gardening that Fierabend had since he was a child. FACING: MICHAEL SLACK, JOSHUA ZINDER ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN. THIS PAGE: GROUNDSWELL DESIGN GROUP typical Groundswell project is warm and welcoming — not stuffy, and never precious. It contains intimate hideaways within light-filled common spaces, abundant plantings (15,000 of them at Spruce Street Harbor Park), a heavy dose of whimsy, and at least a dash of wonder. Fierabend's design ethos also embraces the adaptive reuse, or repurposing, of existing materials. At Talula's Garden, an Aimee Olexy restaurant on Washington Square Park, Fierabend had the tables made from wood joists of deconstructed buildings from throughout Philadelphia. At the headquarters of Philadelphia Distilling, in the Fishtown neighborhood, the floors were made from old oak barrels and all the fixtures are copper, to match the giant stills behind the bar. "I hate waste," Fierabend says. "I believe in repurposing items. I love the comfortable, rustic vibe. I love doing rustic with mid-century modern. It's important to have some surprises." For Fierabend, public spaces have

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