A buildable dream for Penn's Landing
By Denise Scott Brown
How should we go forward at Penn's Landing? What should Philadelphia consider before making decisions for this important location?
We could start with an eyeful of reality.
Let's ask ourselves: What do we have now and how did we get it?
We must aim to understand the patterns of activities on and around Penn's Landing and to gain a sense of where they are going, hoping to get behind appearances. Slowly the trends become apparent. Where might we direct them?
Unsuccessful efforts to develop the site since the 1970s suggest we need a change of philosophy. Present dreams may not be realizable.
Yet consider the case of Baltimore. Most of its success has depended on visitors from Philadelphia. Why can they journey to Baltimore but not cross Interstate 95 to Penn's Landing?
And compare Penn's Landing with some Philadelphia "lost areas" that seem to have recovered: South Street, for example, or Main Street in Manayunk. Granted, they are different, but, for each, success lay in attracting a multilayered patronage, beyond the local users who were once their support. What might this mean for Penn's Landing?
We must realize that Philadelphia has many scales of attraction, from global to local. Beginning with the Liberty Bell, it has attractions that are globally known. It has scholars, artists and athletes who are internationally known as well. Some of its attractions are best known within the region, and some are known and used mostly by city residents.
What should be Penn's Landing's relation to each? How should Penn's Landing fulfill the needs of individuals, of small groups, of Sunday strollers, and of 1 million people? Of visitors, tourists, suburbanites, Center City and local neighborhood residents, special groups including school kids, and individuals? Of people who live and work on the site?
What multilayered, multicultural activities would best serve this city and its world of users now?
A key question is how Penn's Landing should link with the city's rich endowment of national and regional attractions. Penn's Landing is bracketed by the national historic shrines of Old City and the newer attractions of the Camden waterfront. Shouldn't Penn's Landing have a special relation with these? It can make common cause with the shrines and with Camden to some degree.
The point at which William Penn first docked his ship, symbolized by Penn's Landing, was Philadelphia's point of origin. Can we think of ways the city can metaphorically go global from the very spot where Penn landed? How would it do that?
I would like to see a large public open space maintained on Penn's Landing, suitable for our million-person fireworks displays and forming part of a continuous public way along the waterfront.
And in this city of many symbols and icons - the Liberty Bell, William Penn, the Chinese gate, hoagies, Campbell Soup - it seems to me that an important symbolic statement belongs in the main public space at Penn's Landing. It should be visible down Market Street from City Hall but should not block the view of the Delaware or at least the open sky. It should be visible from Camden and invite a reciprocal statement from that city.
Beyond that point, many questions remain: What should be the ratio of public and private uses? Of open space and enclosed space? Of spaces that can be both? Where should the public space be? What can private developers reasonably be expected to offer on the site, and what support might government be expected to provide? What beyond private uses is needed?
Another key question: What new activities on the waterfront might help reestablish city-river connections that were destroyed by I-95 and Independence Mall?
What could be the relation of waterfront uses to emerging patterns of land use citywide? Is high-end housing the highest and best use of the landing, since the piers to the north and south can take water-related housing, and housing is available in Center City and other neighborhoods along the Delaware?
How might the different neighborhoods relate to Penn's Landing? Given that neighborhoods north and south are more accessible to I-95 than is the landing itself, what share of overall river-related development can they assume?
If investment in Penn's Landing is to be leveraged over an area larger than its 13 acres, what area should this be?
Attention should be paid to the possibilities of the now-regenerating industrial land north and south of the landing, areas now accessible from Columbus Boulevard. Could any of these areas develop into an important waterfront nucleus? How might that affect what Penn's Landing, given its limited dimensions, should provide? Perhaps other centers of activity along the waterfront can connect with the landing and support something big and public there.
What measures would be feasible to improve access to the landing from I-95? The city should undertake a study of I-95, Front Street, and Columbus Boulevard. The emphasis should fall not on highway efficiency alone, but on how improved access could support and encourage waterfront activity.
Can we consider the longer waterfront as the main beneficiary of changes to the highway and assign Penn's Landing a role geared to its limitations?
Penn's Landing is accessible from Center City by mass transit. Could the landing then play some role in relation to uses on Market and Chestnut Streets and to waterfront uses north and south?
As for pedestrian access, why is it so unpleasant to cross I-95? What can we learn from successful long bridges in Europe and elsewhere? How can we create a fun, civic bridge more than 1,000 feet long?
Penn's Landing could be a central offering of Philadelphia, one deeply tied to its founding myth, appealing to a range of users from the global to the local. The region it could benefit is vast, and the tax money used to renovate the area will be paid paid many times in revenues from the activities it has generated and can generate, all around it.
In taking a broad view of these 13 acres, we can come to a dream for Penn's Landing that is buildable.
Denise Scott Brown is a partner in the renowned architecture firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.
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