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Pennsylvania
Experts Say Philadelphia Needs to Deal with I-95 Barrier Before Delaware River Waterfront Can Be Successfully Redeveloped
Separated from Philadelphia by I-95 and left over the last several years to become ''a dumping ground for big-box uses,'' the seven miles of Delaware River waterfront can be redeveloped and reconnected with adjacent neighborhoods only if the interstate barrier is dealt with, reports Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron from a three-day international charette, where top experts were telling officials to bury it, narrow it, deck it, just get it out of sight.
''Unless we solve this problem, our waterfront will never be a success,'' pointed out planner Richard Bartholomew of the Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) urban design firm at the charette's final session, which brought in more than 500 residents.
''You'd be making a huge mistake if you don't bury I-95,'' said Chicago's Millennium Park design director Ed Uhlir, noting that although his city spent $350 million to cover a complex of roadways and construct the park, the project paid back with $4 billion in private investment.
Others cited Boston's famous Big Dig, which also benefited the central city with more redevelopment, additional parkland and greater walkability.
Organized by Penn Praxis, a University of Pennsylvania nonprofit group working on a Philadelphia waterfront master plan, the writer reports, the charette produced two distinct scenarios for reconnecting the city with its river.
The WRT planner proposed to cut the 400-foot chasm in half by raising the parallel segment of Columbus Boulevard and stacking it atop I-95.
This would let the city extend east-west streets across the upper-deck boulevard and slope them gently on the other side to the river just as in the pre-interstate days.
As a more thorough alternative, Penn's School of Design Dean Gary Hack and his team proposed to cap both I-95 and Columbus Boulevard with an enormous concrete deck, which would give the city more land for development, letting it extend the street grid to the river and use part of the space below for a parking garage.
The garage would increase city revenue and keep cars out of the center, with people taking trolleys, ferries and other transit to get around.
In addition, said other experts, the city should turn Delaware Avenue, roughly parallel to I-95 farther north, into a boulevard with wide sidewalks, a bicycle path and rich landscaping; create an industrial park in that northern area; link the Center City business district and the waterfront with a trolley line; enhance the saw-tooth water line with a necklace of small parks, each easily accessible on foot from adjacent neighborhoods; and reclaim the south waterfront marshland.
Expecting the Penn Praxis waterfront master plan to be ready by October, just in time for commitment from candidates in the mayoral election, the writer directs readers interested in the redevelopment vision to http://www.planphilly.com/. -- Philadelphia Inquirer 3/5/2007
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