Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue

Philadelphia is such a relentlessly right-angled city, a place so completely devoted to its colonial grid, that it's not surprising that some architectural dissidents would insist on flaunting their curves. The PSFS tower, now the Loews Hotel, is the city's best-known nonconformist, but plenty of modest rowhouses also break out of the box with similar hip-jutting moves.

Bit by bit, the University of Pennsylvania is emerging from its redbrick rut. For years, Penn seemed incapable of putting up a new building that didn't include heaping quantities of those little red rectangles, along with gooey allusions to Philadelphia's Colonial past. The effect was to make the Ivy League campus feel like a place stuck in time, rather than one engaged in vital intellectual pursuits.

What influences the public's perception of Market East more: The mobs of rampaging teens who have descended on the Gallery mall over the last few weeks? Or the building's gloomy fortress walls, which have weighed down Philadelphia's traditional shopping street for well over three decades?

In the hope of ending its reputation for Fortress America-style embassies, the State Department yesterday selected a Philadelphia architecture firm known for its thoughtful and environmentally rigorous work to design a new, more welcoming U.S. Embassy in London.

When the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. selected Field Operations last fall to design a new park at the Race Street pier, it was hard to shake off a certain feeling of trepidation.

Philadelphia officials are usually generous architecture critics. There's nothing that they seem to enjoy more than crowing about their latest building project. Yet, even the city's most gregarious boosters are having trouble mustering nice words for the new Family Court building, planned for 15th and Arch Streets.

Young-Hwan Choi arrived in Philadelphia from his native South Korea in August. By October, the University of Pennsylvania architecture student had devised an elegant new design for the sidewalk sheds that protect pedestrians during construction. And he was barely into his second semester when New York announced it was adopting his innovative system as its official prototype.

During the last decade, America's supermarket chains made a startling discovery: City residents have to eat, too. The chains went into expansion mode, erecting spacious, modern stores in Philadelphia neighborhoods that hadn't seen a fresh apple in decades.

Let's cut to the chase on the architectural merits of 10 Rittenhouse, the poshly proper apartment house that has lately assumed its place on Rittenhouse Square's northeast corner, as if the location were its birthright:

The television series Sex and the City debuted in 1998, the same year I began writing about architecture and cities for The Inquirer. Little did I guess back then that Carrie Bradshaw's glamorous gallivanting through the streets of Gotham signaled a major image update for America's cities, from lawless jungles to middle-class playgrounds. It's the city that's sexy now.

SugarHouse Casino has asked the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for permission to add 42 table games to what was originally planned as a slots parlor, Leigh Whitaker, a casino spokeswoman, said yesterday. Under the state's new gaming law, casino operators can run table games if they pay $16.5 million for a license.

SugarHouse Casino has asked the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for permission to add 42 table games to what was originally planned as a slots parlor, Leigh Whitaker, a casino spokeswoman, said yesterday. Under the state's new gaming law, casino operators can run table games if they pay $16.5 million for a license.

SugarHouse Casino has asked the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for permission to add 42 table games to what was originally planned as a slots parlor, Leigh Whitaker, a casino spokeswoman, said today.

This early spring weather has lots of green Events in Philly coming up! See all the exciting happenings in Philadelphia in the next month:

Inga Saffron believes there is architecture and there are places, and you can’t write about one without writing about the other. Since becoming the Inquirer’s architecture critic in 1999, she has been just as likely to turn her eye toward Philadelphia’s waterfronts and sidewalks as to the latest glittering skyscraper. She is drawn to projects of all sizes and shapes, but especially those that form the backdrop of our daily lives.

Inga Saffron came to architecture criticism after five years as a foreign correspondent in Russia and Yugoslavia, where she covered two wars and was a witness to the destruction of two great cities, Sarajevo and Grozny. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2004, 2008 and 2009.

Read previous entries on her Skyline Online blog.

WE KNOW Mayor Nutter has a mess on his hands. The economy has bashed the city budget, and the options for closing a $150 million hole are relatively limited. To close the gap, he has proposed a $300-a-year fee to pay for trash pickup.

THANKS TO columnist Stu Bykofsky for bringing the issue of truck parking to the public. As the owner of a business, I have vans that deliver in Center City.

In the Art Museum's new Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Philadelphia has at last acquired a modern civic building that is a true Philadelphian.

WHAT'S IN STORE for Allen Iverson after the NBA? Perfect example of experience being the best teacher. Twelve years ago, we had a young man on top of the world, so he thought. Full of energy, pocket full of money, sky's the limit, so he thought. I don't think Iverson has thought about life after the NBA. He probably can play overseas for a couple of years - then what?

JIM BUNNING is a god! The senator from Kentucky is being vilified just because he had the guts to tell the truth.