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Field Operations and James Corner, who designed New York's High Line, have released the initial rendering for the redevelopment of the Race Street Pier on the Delaware River, just below the Ben Franklin Bridge. The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation is working with a $5M budget to reconfigure the 109 year old pier into a recreation attraction. The biggest complaint from the Negadelphians so far? You guessed it. Parking. Here's my advice, check out one of the literally ten surface parking lots in the vicinity, or better yet, walk. There's something about driving to an urban park that's akin to using a wheelchair for fun. For real, people, come on. We are the fattest, ugliest, most unhealthy, and most depressed city in America for a reason. It's no coincidence that so many of you adamantly refuse to walk a block.
As more and more casinos open up across the Northeast, professional protesters will soon recognize the fact that they have bitten themselves in the ass by petitioning a distance between one casino to another. What could have been a clump of casinos in a gaming district destination attraction competing with each other in aesthetics, entertainment, and accommodations is slowly becoming a state filled with townships known exclusively for their one underwhelming and unattractive slot barn.
The once-proposed Park Tower by Skidmore Owings and Merrill would have occupied the new site of the Family Court Building, gracefully mirroring the adjacent Phoenix while an adjoining tower would have added height to this unusual little corner of Center City.
At first glance I didn't think this building was so bad. Wedged between two avant garde mid-century mid-rises and the sexy Art Deco Metropolitan, it might be nice to have something subtle and bland bridging the gap and replacing a surface lot. Then I saw the price tag. $200 million. Who approves these numbers and how do they get so high? Unions, or just an inept administration bent on burning through as much money as possible. In any other city this building would cost less than $100 million. What makes it even worse is the architect, John W. Chase of EwingCole, basically apologizing for the sub-par design, saying it is good enough given the circumstances. If you're going to blame the economy for bad architecture, it should be priced appropriately. I know the $200 million covers more than the blueprints, but considering that is a large chunk of what the Comcast Center and the Convention Center expansion cost, there is room in that price for a better looking building.
Many planners and architects consider Society Hill one of the most successful urban renewal projects in the country. Decades after its transformation, Philadelphians often don't realize that Society Hill was once the most blighted neighborhood in Center City, and many more are not aware of the severe architectural transformation that took place between the 1940s and 1970s. It's easy to stroll through the green-ways of Independence National Historic Park and assume that these are the meticulously preserved trails traveled by William Penn and Benjamin Franklin, and not the mid-century recreations of Ed Bacon and Mayor Richardson Dilworth.
Carpenter's Hall in 1958 during the reconstruction of adjacent buildings.
While many of the private residences of Society Hill are preserved examples of colonial architecture, only a handful of the iconic landmarks are actually original. Carpenter's Hall, the First and Second Banks of the United States, and of course Independence Hall are all original - although significant alterations were performed to return the structures to their 18th century appearance. It's difficult to imagine that the stone, Victorian era Drexel Building once occupied the SE corner of 5th and Chestnut or the equally imposing Irvin Building at the NW corner of 4th and Walnut. Here are just a few of the architectural losses that make up the ghost of Society Hill's once empowering skyline.
The Irvin Building on the NW corner of 4th and Walnut was designed in 1911 by Seeler, Edgar Viguers, and enlarged in 1928 by Ernest James Matthewson, and again in 1955 by Clarence Woolmington. It was demolished in 1974.
The Irvin Building
Diagonally across the street, The American Life Insurance Company Building at the SE Corner of 4th and Walnut was designed by Thomas Preston Lonsdale in 1888 with alterations designed by William Decker, an architect with a distinct style rarely preserved at the time it was demolished in 1961.
The American Life Insurance Company Building
The Brown Brothers Company Building at 330 Chestnut Street is now part of the site of Independence National Historic Park.
The Brown Brothers Company Building
The Drexel Building on the SE corner of 5th and Chestnut sat directly across the street from Independence Hall until it was demolished in 1955. It was designed by Wilson Brothers & Company in 1885 who made various alterations through the late 1800's and early 1900's. Later Harris & Richards would also make alterations in 1914. It is now part of the site of Independence National Historic Park.
The Drexel Building
Kahn Park at 11th and Pine in the heart of Antique Row wasn't always filled with Hostas, chess players, and Jefferson Hospital employees lunching. Prior to Kahn Park - named for famed architect Louis I. Kahn - it was briefly known locally as "Concrete Park", and prior to 1971, was the Greystone Apartments, and prior to that, the Gladstone Hotel.
The Gladstone Hotel was designed in 1890 by T.P. Chandler, founder of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, and prominent American architect.
Unfortunately, the Gladstone's dominatng 19th century presence conflicted with the vision of converting Society Hill and Washington Square into quaint, 18th century neighborhoods of colonial row houses, a vision that dominated the 50's, 60's, and early 70's.
By the 1960's, the Gladstone - or Greystone Apartments - had succumbed to the same fate of many other large urban hotels and apartment buildings and deteriorated to a perceived blight and was demolished in 1971.
Historic La Ronda before being demolished by Joseph D. Kestenbaum
A rendering of a Visich Architects McMansion
Joseph D. Kestenbaum's McMansion under construction
Field Operations and James Corner, who designed New York's High Line, have released the initial rendering for the redevelopment of the Race Street Pier on the Delaware River, just below the Ben Franklin Bridge. The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation is working with a $5M budget to reconfigure the 109 year old pier into a recreation attraction. The biggest complaint from the Negadelphians so far? You guessed it. Parking. Here's my advice, check out one of the literally ten surface parking lots in the vicinity, or better yet, walk. There's something about driving to an urban park that's akin to using a wheelchair for fun. For real, people, come on. We are the fattest, ugliest, most unhealthy, and most depressed city in America for a reason. It's no coincidence that so many of you adamantly refuse to walk a block.
