Jan. 20
COMMENTARY / By Kiki Bolender and John Gibbons
The Center City District (CCD) is proposing a complete overhaul of the Dilworth Plaza, the public space to the west of City Hall. The concept has been taking shape over the last year, but there has been very little public interaction with and input into the design. We feel that this planning process, which directly impacts how Philadelphians view and use City Hall, merits serious consideration by the public and the design community.
A photo slide show and a three-part video tour of the site accompany this commentary. More detailed analyses of the proposed design are included by John Gibbons, co-chair of the AIA Urban Design Committee, and John Andrew Gallery, Executive Director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.
A December 2008 video showing the presentation of the CCD plan to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission is also featured below.
The proposed budget for the renovation work is $40-45 million, with $20 million called for as part of Mayor Nutter’s request for federal economic stimulus funds.
The project was presented to the Art Commission this month and the Planning Commission in December. Approvals are expected this winter, with construction scheduled before the end of the year.
When then President-Elect Obama started his pre-inaugural train trip in Philadelphia on Saturday, he referred to us as a “resilient, generous and decent” people. Especially in these troubled times, we and our built works have to aspire to that standard.
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According to CCD President and CEO Paul Levy, three structures are proposed – two along 15th Street – one as a stairway into traffic and the other housing a café and elevator access to the concourse. Both currently will have green roofs. A third smaller structure is contemplated along the north side aligned with a view up the Parkway. A smaller café and elevator access to concourse.
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RESILIENT
An architect friend, reflecting on the CCD plan, said that we should “… always be hesitant to throw something away too soon.” Thirty years is not a long time for architecture of solid granite. The plaza was conceived as a connector between the concourse below and activity on the street level. Transit riders can enter or emerge from the lower level below as it suits their convenience. The proposed new design wipes all that out, replacing a complex series of level changes with a single stair located to reinforce a design idea that is not reflective of natural user patterns.
We need to take a nuanced look at the existing plaza, and see what could be wonderful, and what might be hopelessly ineffective. The south end, with its ponderous granite furnishings and scary space-age fountain, does not appear to have much to recommend it. But the north end has the potential to be a wonderful place, with a sunlit lower level full of moveable chairs and bright umbrellas in the summer, and a skating rink in the winter.
In place of solid granite the proposed design concept would give us a glass sidewalk running almost the entire width of City Hall. Is this a material to stand the rigors of winter and time? Once it is covered with salt in bad weather, will we be able to walk on it? Or will it just be cordoned off, like another forlorn office building plaza? When the sun comes out after the storm, will that glass be beautiful, or will it be scratched and clouded from the salt?
GENEROUS
In place of the present imaginative (albeit sometimes strange and foreboding) links between the street and the concourse, the CCD scenario “envisions the complete reconstruction of Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall with a new high-visibility, transparent entrance to public transit …” (Center City: Planning for Growth, Broad Street and City Hall, page 4, April 2007). The two buildings proposed along 15th Street are 100 feet long and the height of a three story row house. The sides are glass, and the roof will be covered with earth for plantings. There is something amiss here. Air is holding up earth. Perhaps that is what happens when an object attempts to be both transparent and highly visible.
City Hall is a treasure – massive, quirky, over abundant in every way. (If you choose the right portal, you are greeted by carved elephants) As you approach it from the west on Market Street, each block reveals more and more of its outlandish width. The proposed pair of buildings would block that revelation, limiting your experience to the prescribed view. Stopped for the traffic light at Market Street, drivers would see transit entrances, not the seat of our government. Are these buildings generous? What do they give us? One replicates in function and type the SEPTA transit escalator enclosure across the street. According to Paul Levy, Executive Director of the CCD, the second is intended to house a café and provide elevator access to the concourse, both requiring solid enclosures within the glass.
Yet another building is proposed for the northwest corner of the site, with another point of elevator access, another café and a roof deck. The extraordinary view up the Parkway would be blocked, available only to those who could afford a seat on the roof. That is a total of three buildings in the plaza, each one blocking views to and from the plaza. Is the City eager to take on these high-maintenance structures? Is it realistic to imagine two cafes thriving in the plaza?
DECENT
Let’s just say for a moment that we get that $20 million from the federal government. Everything we build at this difficult and joyous moment in history should show our decency, our reaching out to one another, our standards of care. Does this design express those ambitions? A truly ambitious design would, with much greater modesty, find ways to make connections – connections to the concourse, to the buildings and plazas to the west and to the adjoining sides of City Hall. It would connect City Hall, that grand expression of our government, to its citizens and it would warmly welcome all visitors and passers by.
Opinions expressed in the article and the videos are those of the writers. AIA Philadelphia has not taken a position on the proposed project.
Kiki Bolender, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Schade and Bolender Architects LLP, Philadelphia; Co-Chair Philadelphia Chapter AIA Urban Design Committee. Contact her at kiki@schadeandbolender.com
John Gibbons, AIA, AICP, Director of Architecture / Associate Principal, Kise Straw Kolodner, Philadelphia, Co-Chair Philadelphia Chapter AIA Urban Design Committee. Contact him at jgibbons@ksk1.com
Comments
I agree with you. Grass, trees, and benches will attracted bums. Functionality and durabilityare most important. Removing the fountains would reduce maintenence costs and they should be replace with something more functional and revenue producing like a Starbucks or McDonalds. Invite private businesses into the Plaza to replace some of the cheesy sculptures and fountains. I would rather see money spent to make SEPTA safer, cleaner, and more accessible.
My two cents . . . The so-called "problem" with Dilworth Plaza is merely the fact that it's a (design) product of it's time. It screams 1976- the sunken sitting areas/changes in grade, the funky (and dreadful) site furnishings, bizarro sculpture, and the like. Come to think of it, let's refer to it as "That 70's Plaza"! But, overall in terms of concept it really isn't that bad. The one thing the designers got right (in my opinion) was the fact that they understood the context. City Hall/Centre Square suggests "strength", "power", "muscularity". And once again it was a product of it's era. Around the time it was built, who were PhiladeIphia's greatest stars? Rizzo and Rocky. (throw in the Broad Street Bullies and Joe Frazier too)
I have always been a huge Laurie Olin fan, but this new plaza plan, well . . . I just don't get it. It's far too "soft" and "effeminate". This concept works on Independence Mall (a brilliant and well executed design), but here? I'm not so sure. A "village green"? Huh? What? What are they thinking? Again, CONTEXT. Designers are notorious for forgetting what makes the site "the site".
And how about the users? I love those perspective drawings of the proposed plaza redesign put forth in the proposal. All those happy, slim, attractive, successful, upper middle class white professionals at play with their kids, enjoying the sun and sipping their strawberry peppermint mocha twist frappuccinos. This is Center City Philadelphia NOT Vancouver. I distinctly notice the absence in the images of real, authentic Philly folk that pass through and ACTUALLY USE the space. THEY ARE NOT REPRESENTED. Why? Cafes, a skating rink but no soft pretzel stand? Hmmmmm . . . interesting. This new place should be for ALL Philadelphians!! We don't need TWO Rittenhouse Squares, gentlemen. Remember "R and R", which stands for Rizzo and Rocky. Ask yourself, would any of those two legends be welcome in the space? I think not.
I think Dilworth Plaza should obviously be beautiful; however, it should be "democratic" as well. This plan isn't showing that. Also, the wow factor seems to be missing. It's all so "nice" and "pretty", but fairly pedestrian. Look at Millennium Park in Chicago. It's got the "wow". Moreover, when there, I'm always impressed at all the office workers, tourists, young and old, black and white, professional/working class/inner city all there having a good time and hangin' out. Although it caters to the upper class and is well policed, it feels public and open and everyone is welcome.
Kudos to Kiki and John for raising issues about the design. The proposal out there is "good", but for $40 million, good is not good enough.
Philly is doing some great things! There are so many great changes proposed all over the city from the Station Square revitalization project in University City to the Gallery at Market East improvements.
My only gripe is that there are all these great things going on yet we still only have two subways and the ones we do have are extremely dismal at best. Misses the mark completely. A ride on the subway is the least technologically advanced, noisiest, bumpiest, dirtiest, most outdated, rundown experience you could ever have!
We should just scrap them altogether and get some maglev monorails. That would be pretty awesome!
So, in response to the title of this article, let's not only get the Plaza right but let's strive for perfection and get EVERYTHING right for a change!
If all the public gets for $45 Mil is a funky pond, a few patches of grass, a glass/green covered stairwell and a couple of shops - I say don't bother - my first reaction (and last reaction) was "Gee, that's boring..." Sadly, I heard how involved the local businesses were, but not the public and that bothered me the most. I think the new plans might actually be a way to "Big Box" the plaza for them. For people like me who use the underground facilities frequently, the Dillworth Plaza area is relatively decent, esp when compaired to other parts of the city. Please fix something else that needs fixing more! Other than the lack of facilites for the homeless who like the plaza even better than me, there is only a slight need for change - I say spend that money on revamping facilities for the homeless so that they are more comfortable and that they get what they need. If they could have thier needs met, they might not be panhandling so often in that area. I actually like many of the features of the current plaza, especially sitting in the sun reading at the little benches underground with the sound of the fountain where you are somewhat protected from the weather (cooler in summer and not so windy fall and spring). The warm weather plantings are beautiful. Winter views could be improved though. The main things that need addressing are:
1) Homeless need more funding than plaza 2) Transit Signs/Directions 3) Remove trees in center Block of W side to show building - keep some at corners to soften 90 degree angle at ends - add others at corners for shade 4) Better intermodal links to transit types, esp Patco & city hall from underground, SIGNS! 5) Yes the fountain is funky above ground and dowright wierd below, however SIGNS and ART in that area could make the area infinately more inviting 6) Yes, LOTS of kids' ART! Children's ART everywhere in the underground! 7) KEEP the Granite, it's georgeous 8) Yes, interesting paving surrounding the hall sounds good, so does having a continous sidewalk on the NW corner 9) Save the millions spent on the plaza and give the homeless a place to get thier lives together if not long-term jobs. 10) Stop refering to the current plaza as a hole in the ground - the new plan is a closed in hole in the ground with some glass and green sprinkled unrealistically over it. With the new plan we exchange trees and granite for hard to maintain glass and loose something which looks more functional and more interesting to me. Thanks!