|
|
|
A park over Broad Street! And other big ideas for Avenue of the Arts.
Four finalists presented visions for the future of South Broad Street.
A park over Broad Street! And other big ideas for Avenue of the Arts.
If you, like me, are a sucker for a well-executed rendering, then you missed quite the event in the basement of the Bellevue last week. The subject of the exercise in idealistic draftsmanship was a vision for the Avenue of the Arts (aka South Broad Street) from City Hall to Washington Avenue. Developer Carl Dranoff, who has been positioning himself as the Avenue's patron, plunked down the money for the design competition, run by Avenue of the Arts, Inc. Judges including Dranoff, Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger, Center City District CEO Paul Levy, and Universal Companies CEO Rahim Islam will pick a winner this week.
And, they have quite a decision ahead of them. Four different finalists each presented intriguing visions for what South Broad Street could look like. If the money materializes, it could be pretty transformative stuff.
A couple developers proposed major parks at Broad and Washington. But Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects actually envisioned the park as a rolling hill that reaches over Broad Street, offering single-point perspective views down the Avenue to City Hall. Their plan starts small with temporary, buzz-building installations like mobile light displays, steps up to streetscape improvements and greening initiatives and concludes with big projects like the gateway development at Washington Avenue, with mixed-use buildings and the park with its "groundswell" bridge and space for performing arts, farmers markets and the like.
A park that runs next to and over Broad Street, by Jonathan Alderson Landscape Architects.
Artist Bruce Munro suggested a mobile light display for Jonathan Alderson's project proposal.
Stacy Levy, an environmental artist, concocted a plan for a living screen for the Sunoco station, part of the Alderson proposal.
LRSLA, which designed The Porch at 30th Street Station, went in a different direction. "The infrastructure is already in place. What we need is something that will attract people to the Avenue again and again," says LRSLA's Julie Bush, who imagines the avenue as something like Barcelona's Las Ramblas. The plan: a "kit" of options for use by an Avenue curator, who would put together events, food truck gatherings and arts happenings. As well, they're proposing a temporary Kunsthalle at Broad and Washington, which would host exhibitions and art installations until a permanent development came along.
LRSLA's Kunsthalle idea. Imagine if more temporary exhibition spaces went onto vacant lots in Philly until they could be developed.
If that sounds highly doable, well, not everyone went in that direction. After all, the proposals were meant to be big ideas, not bound by any specific price tag. Or, as one attendee asked a presenter at the event last Thursday, "So it has nothing to do with reality?" This was in response to the presentation by Cairone & Kaupp, Inc., which suggested eliminating all parking from the street, in favor of an avenue lined with trees and "curated art bubbles" for things like farmers' markets, parks, food trucks, sculpture gardens and workout spaces. They also suggested a mixed use development called "City-Zen Hall" at the Washington Avenue end of the strip, a counterpoint to City Hall. "At this stage, you have to think big," Cairone & Kaupp's Mike DeGregorio explained.
Finally, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's presentation focused on infill development — adaptive reuse of the area around the Carpenter Street subway station with a farmers' market; a transformation of the underground concourse; a pocket park on Broad Street across from the Kimmel Center. "The concept is tho think about those areas along Broad Street that are underutilized," explained Jeff Lew. They also created a plan for a park, about the size of Washington Square Park, at Broad and Washington, with a bridge over Broad Street to connect green areas, sculpture gardens and performances spaces. The whole thing would be tied together with the burgeoning North Broad (itself about to see a $15 million makeover) with elements like light masts running north and south from City Hall creating one "unified grand avenue."
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's idea for a park hugging Broad Street at Washington.
New life around the Carpenter Street station.
Light masts running up and down Broad Street.
I agree with you about the Alderson design. Their approach, complete with a charging mustang, brings an energetic and fresh perspective to Broad.— MilesDrentel
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
