|
|
|
My mixed feelings about The Piazza at Schmidt's
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
My mixed feelings about The Piazza at Schmidt's
 |
| Akira Suwa | The Philadelphia Inquirer |
This weekend, I took a trip through Fishtown and Northern Liberties, but it might as well have been a trip through time: I first sifted through old clothes and kitchenware at a flea market run by longtime Fishtown residents. Afterward, I hopped over to the hip Trenton Avenue Arts Festival, and then I attended the hipper-than-hip opening party for The Piazza at Schmidt's.
Riding past the old, imperfect-but-lovable Bambi Gallery on Frankford Avenue on my way to NoLibs, and then coming across its shiny new incarnation at The Piazza, it was easy to feel like an angsty teenager whose favorite bands are all selling out. But that was just a fleeting feeling. I agree with most of what architecture critic Inga Saffron says about the new development:
The evidence might lead to the assumption that The Piazza is a cheap, cringe-worthy theme park. In reality, The Piazza, which [opened] this weekend, is anything but. Actually, it's pretty wonderful Â… The Piazza accomplishes something rarely seen in new American developments: It feels like a real place.
Indeed, as much as it's not something that developed organically, the galleries, restaurants, clothing stores and JumboTron seem to mingle together in harmony the way something authentic would. (When I say "authentic," I simply mean that these businesses did not migrate into the neighborhood on their own, over time.)
I also dug the "five-minute neighborhood" aspect of it, as developer Bart Blatstein called it — wandering easily and quickly from shop to shop, and getting free beer in between was nothing I could complain about. Still, I don't think I like the look of it — it's very similar aesthetically to Blatstein's previous work at Temple University: monolithic, gray and kind of deadening. Any thoughts?
- 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
