Race Street Pier Connector Now Open

Months after the unveiling of Race Street Pier, the Race Street pedestrian street connector is now complete.  What was once a dark underpass on Race Street beneath  I-95 is now flooded with colorful lights.   The connector project which entails lighting, landscaping, and other street- improvements is meant to reinforce the connection of Old City to the waterfront, and of Race Street to the Race Street Pier park.  The new public art installation is titled MARQUEE, it changes with the wind, ripples, tides, and vessels on the river.  A camera captures live images that are translated into sometimes abstract patterns of light.

The linkage is a critical piece of the city's long-term vision for the Central Delaware Waterfront.  One of the keys to an improved waterfront, officials believe, is overcoming the barrier of I-95 and reconnecting the city to the river.

Large yellow letters and arrows pointing the way to the city and to the river are key parts of the new space beneath the overpass.  They are also mounted on a metal mesh, lending and industrial feel to the project.  The effect is softened by lights that slowly changing colors.

Center City Lanes Closures for Bike Island Test

In an attempt to study how Philadelphia's main arteries can be made more pedestrian friendly, the city will be closing the left-most lane of traffic on Market Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard between 15th and 20th streets for the next two weeks.  The Center City District proposed the study about two years ago; that these two arterials could be made more pedestrian and bike friendly without significantly impacting traffic.

Each street will have three lanes open to traffic, and no parking spots will be lost in the experiment.  This proposal was fueled by the need to improve the public environment around very wide, auto-dominated streets.  these streets lack the first-floor businesses and amenities of other Center City arterial streets like Chestnut and Walnut.

Discussions with building owners along the corridor revealed there was a strong interest in adding a dedicated bike lane for Center City professionals who bike to work.  The bike lane would go in the closed lanes, which, if this test is successful, would be separated from traffic by a landscaped buffer or a raised hard surface, as well as a row of parked cars.

The closures are the latest in a series of moves by the city to make new use of street space, which have included a proposed pedestrian plaza program, as well as the installation of parklets in University City

North Broad Street-scaping

On Wednesday the Philadelphia Art Commission approved plans to reinvigorate the North Broad Street corridor.  The concept presented by the Avenue of the Arts, Inc. includes 55-foot tall light masts on North Broad Street that will anchor street-scape plantings designed to increase cover, context and a green screen thanks to the planting of 285 trees.  The improvements represent the kickoff for a $50 million installment of more street life on North Broad.  The commissioner felt the light mass were more dramatic and less "telephone pole like" at night vs. day, and unanimously approved the plan.

The Avenue of the Arts, Inc. has worked for almost two decades facilitating the growth of a dynamic corridor with over $1 billion in investment, over 20 residential projects, 8 hotels, 20 performance venues, 50 cultural organizations, over 10,000 parking spaces and more than 40 restaurants with over 2 million patrons.  Monthly meetings with City departments, PennDOT, SEPTA and others continue as AAI obtains the drawings, approvals and notices needed to keep the project moving forward throughout the entire North Broad corridor.

Cira Centre South

Cira Centre South has been in the works for almost 5 years now and finally it seams as though phase two of the project may actually happen.  Penn Connects offerers some nice updated renderings of the planned mixed use development that will soon be the neighbor of the IRS at the former Post Office and Penn Park.

The Post Office Annex development, as presented in a preliminary design by Brandywine Realty Trust, proposes two mixed-use towers fronting on Walnut and Chestnut Streets, and a 1667-car parking garage with street level retail in the middle of the block.  The now complete Parking garage will soon host its first tenants, Old Nelson Food Market and the Schulykill River Development Corporation.

The Walnut Street Tower will offer 500,000 sf of office space, with Penn leasing 115,000 sf; 12,000 sf of retail and restaurant space; 200,000 sf for a 225 room Hotel; and a 125,000 sf, 50 unit condominiums.  The Chestnut Street tower will provide 300,000 sf of apartments and 7,000 sf of possible retail along Chestnut Street.

Total project Cost: $520,000,000
Area: 1,888,000 GSF
Developer: Brandywine Realty Trust
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Penn Park is Open for Business

What was once a desolate concrete wasteland along the lower west Schuylkill banks is now a lush oasis of cypress and sycamores, laced in winding paths and decked out with playing fields and meadows.  Penn Park is certainly a design that gets better with age, but the new make over is exceeds expectations from what it formally was.  i would say many are actually surprised it was completed is such a short time, or even went into construction phase, given the trends in large scale developments in Philadelphia, private or public.

The new urban park sits east of the Highline and stretches from Walnut Street to South Street, featuring a fabric of tightly interwoven recreation and athletic components.  Formal and informal play fields are framed and subdivided by patches of canopy trees extending the familiar landscape of the campus.

Penn Park combines elements of sports activity with the opportunity for relaxation and informal play.  Athletic venues include sprint turf fields, a softball stadium, tennis center, and enclosed season air structure.

Total Project cost: $46,500,000
Area: 24 Acres
Completion: September 2011
Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Lenfest Plaza Set for Weekend Debut

This once drab and dark alley way will soon be draped with lights, motion and love!  Armed with a permanent, sure to be iconic sculpture, and a temporary sculpture design, the plaza's unveiling will be an impressive addition to Broad street.

Designing this significant public urban space meant "dealing with the negotiation between public and private infrastructure, usually structurally sound materials, and working within a tight schedule and through multiple agencies– the Streets Department, SEPTA, telecom, water and sewer," says David Rubin, and OLIN partner and lead designer on the project.

The goals for the plaza include better linking the two Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts buildings, as well as creating linkages to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the west and the Pennsylvania Convention Center to the east, across Broad Street.

The first temporary sculpture titled "Grumman Greenhouse,"by local sculptor Jordan Griska is crafted from a decommissioned Cold War-era U.S. warfare aircraft, made of armored aluminum.  Griska has folded the metal of the nose and body so that the plane appears to have nose-dived into the plaza.

The plaza itself, ambient lighting will be in place via projectors placed on top of Hamilton, and lamps along the ground that will give off patterns of dappled light.  The designers have also placed lighting under OLIN's honey-colored sinuous bench.  In the mean time no greenery is planned for the space.

Project Manager: Becker & Frondorf
Landscape Architects: OLIN Partners
Lighting: The Lighting Practice

SEPTA Installs Elevators at City Hall Station

Septa will finally begin renovations to its City Hall station and Dilworth Plaza.  City Hall is the only station on the Market-Frankford Line to not offer access for the disabled, and the Broad Street line is well behind in that regard.  Septa riders will finally be getting these elevators thanks to a consent decree that ends a contentious lawsuit filed against SEPTA eight years ago.

The two elevators, which will lead from the Dilworth Plaza concourse to the east and west El platforms, will be installed as part of Center City's redesign of the City Hall courtyard.  SEPTA and Center City will also install two elevators from the courtyard to the concourse as part of the project, as well as elevators down to the 15th Street trolley platforms.  By the time Dilworth is remade, only the Broad Street Line portion of the station will lack elevators.

The elevators are scheduled for completion by the end of 2013, according to the concent decree, which was approved by U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter last week.  SEPTA will pay between $7 million and $10 million to install elevators from the street down to the concourse, which is part of a $100 million plan to reconstruct City Hall station.  The Center City project will cost $50 million and has received federal stimulus funding.  It will replace the current concrete plaza with a grassy area, improved amenities and a cafe.