Archinect - News

Inga Saffron on the dueling ideals of urban density

2021-04-06T14:24:00-04:00

Not so long ago, density was promoted as a way to enliven underpopulated cities, particularly their downtowns. Then it became a tool for fighting climate change. Now, density is increasingly seen as an equity issue. [...] Two notorious projects help us understand the difference between density that enhances a neighborhood and projects that big-foot their surroundings.

In her latest column for the Inquirer, architecture critic Inga Saffron dissects two new mid-rise apartment building projects at opposite ends of Philadelphia (the "poop building and the Scrooge building," as she nicknames them) and how their individual approaches toward urban densification can have beneficial or detrimental effects on their surrounding neighborhoods.

"Our challenge is to accommodate new housing while still maintaining our quirky, beloved, lived-in neighborhoods," writes Saffron. "That’s why we need the right density in the right place."

Philadelphia developers are going all-in on new projects

2020-08-12T14:13:00-04:00

in the middle of a historic pandemic, with massive numbers of people unemployed and the city’s economic fortunes uncertain, developers seem to have decided that this is a perfect time to build on the Delaware.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a survey of several planned developments taking shape along the Delaware River in Philadelphia as a special tax holiday for residential development in these areas is set to expire on December 31, 2020.

Saffron reports that thousands of new residential units are in the process of being approved by local authorities as developers aim to complete projects, like the BKV Group-designed 1,140-unit Piazza Terminal complex, in anticipation of a post-pandemic rebound in regional housing and office markets.

How is Philadelphia's convention center adapting to the pandemic age?

2020-08-04T14:12:00-04:00

Conventions and trade shows are now wrestling with the same challenges facing schools, religious groups, and professional sports. Whenever large numbers of people gather indoors, in tightly enclosed spaces with mechanical air circulation, odds are that spikes in coronavirus infections will follow.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, probes some of the existential questions facing large urban convention centers, massive facilities that have had their spatial and economic potentials deeply challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saffron reports on efforts to upgrade and retrofit the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia for the pandemic age as digital and alternative forms of professional and academic gatherings begin to take root in response to the need for social distancing.

“Buildings Matter, Too" headline controversy leads to resignation of top editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer

2020-06-08T13:53:00-04:00

Stan Wischnowski, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned on Saturday, days after an article with the headline “Buildings Matter, Too,” on the effects of civil unrest on the city’s buildings, led to a walkout by dozens of staff members.

The inappropriate and offensive headline, conceived for a column written by The Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, drew widespread condemnation from the public and journalists at the newspaper alike, and resulted in the newspaper's editors issuing a public apology for writing the headline.

I was glad to see @PhillyInquirer respond with this apology and explanation for the unfortunate headline that accompanied my column Tuesday. I am deeply sorry for the trauma it caused black people in Philly, and my black and brown newsroom colleagues. https://t.co/N5f5uusQhY
— Inga Saffron (@IngaSaffron) June 4, 2020

Interrogating the "people over property" dichotomy

2020-06-03T18:43:00-04:00

Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes? That’s the question that has been raging on the streets of Philadelphia, and across my architecture-centric social media feeds, over the last two days as a dark cloud of smoke spiraled up from Center City.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a nuanced look at the relationship between protest, property destruction, and economic development in under-invested areas in her latest column. The article comes as cities around the country grapple with fierce protests seeking to force change in how America's police departments treat African Americans and other people of color. The protests have included acts of vandalism and property destruction on the part of both demonstrators and police.

Arguing that the destruction of buildings can have negative as well as provocative repercussions, Saffron writes, "You can be appalled and heartbroken by our country’s deadly racism, and yet still quake at what the damage to downtown portends for Philadelphia. Racism is built on strong foundations. The momentary satisfaction of destroying a few buildings does nothing to remove those structures. All it does is weaken our city."

Inga Saffron on Philly’s decade of “smartphone urbanism”

2019-12-27T11:17:00-05:00

The urban changes that Philadelphia experienced in the first years of the 21st century were gentler and more likely to enhance the city’s existing 20th-century form. The tech-induced trends from the last 10 years have challenged that physical form by radically reconfiguring the way we move through, and interact with, the city.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer provides a tech-focused decade-in-review highlighting the impact of smartphone technologies on the city’s urbanism.

Highlighting the proliferation of “fast-casual” food, buildings, and development approaches, Saffron writes: “once millennials (and their parents) got those smartphones in their hands, they promptly began moving into cities, buying fixer-uppers in working-class neighborhoods like Point Breeze and Fishtown, and transforming them into upscale enclaves.”

In particular, Saffron highlights the Foster + Partners-designed Comcast Technology Center, which some have likened to a giant middle finger; Weiss/Manfredi’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology from 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania; and Snøhetta‘s new Charles Library at Temple University as some of the decade’s best architectural works in the city.

Inga Saffron makes the case for saving Philadelphia's jaunty "Roundhouse"

2019-10-10T13:39:00-04:00

Despite having been closed for several years, the pavilion at 12th and Reed remains a much-loved landmark in Passyunk Square, where it is affectionately known as the “Roundhouse.” The contrast between its heavy stone walls and jaunty modernist roof make it unlike anything else in Philadelphia. Until it was eclipsed by a bigger community center in 2005, it was the place where neighborhood residents went to play bocce and take art classes.

As Philadelphia gets ready to undertake a $2.4 million renovation of the city's Columbus Square park, a curious stone drum topped by a folded plane roof set to be demolished under the plan has caught the public's attention.

Debate over the structure's provenance, particularly, whether the pavilion was designed by pioneering Philadelphia architect Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher or her business partner Gabriel Roth, has influenced the decision over whether or not to save it. Ultimately, city agencies have decided that the structure is directly attributed to Roth and therefore demolishing it would not erase a woman-designed building. The Philadelphia Inquire architecture critic Inga Saffron is neither convinced by the city's determination over the building's authorship nor by the overall decision to demolish the work, regardless of who is responsible for it.

Defending the structure, Saffron writes, "While we may never know whether a female architect designed this unusual mid-century modern...

The Columbus Square pavilion by Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher, Philadelphia's first licensed female architect, is slated for demolition

2019-03-13T15:24:00-04:00

The loss of this charming pavilion would be a double blow for Philadelphia history. Not only is Columbus Square’s little stone tower a fine example of mid-century modern design, it is also one of a handful of surviving buildings by Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher, the first woman in Philadelphia to receive a license to practice architecture.

The crown-roofed cylindrical pavilion designed by Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher in 1960 is a landmark in South Philadelphia's Columbus Square. Now, the building is slated for demolition as part of a renovation of the park.

“Because this is women’s history month, it’s also worth pointing out that, 85 years after Fleisher received her architecture license, it’s still rare to find a Philadelphia building designed by a woman. The Columbus Square pavilion may be small, but that doesn’t mean it can’t find a use...”, architecture critic Inga Saffron writes in the article.

Every City Needs a Crank; A conversation with architecture critic Inga Saffron

2017-08-17T20:07:00-04:00

This week we're joined by Inga Saffron, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. If you haven't read her latest piece on Henry Wilcots, the relatively unknown architect responsible for finishing Louis Kahn's masterpiece in Dhaka, go read it now. We talk with Inga about her experience meeting with Wilcots, architecture criticism pre and post-internet, Philadelphia and more.

Photo from 1970 of Wilcots and Kahn discussing the roof structure of the National Assembly building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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Meet Henry Wilcots, the overlooked African-American architect who completed Louis Kahn's Dhaka National Assembly

2017-08-14T13:59:00-04:00

It would be the decisive moment in Wilcots’ life. By saying yes, he ended up devoting more than 20 years to helping Kahn build the new capital...The meetings would cause him to move to Philadelphia, a place that at the time seemed to him far less welcoming to African Americans than Dhaka. When Kahn suffered a fatal heart attack in 1974...Wilcots would assume the awesome task of finishing a Louis Kahn masterpiece.

This article sheds light on the story of Henry Wilcots (now 89 years old), the much overlooked architect who was responsible for completing Louis Kahn's Dhaka National Assembly masterpiece. Dubbed as the “Kahn whisperer” by fellow colleagues, the calm-and-collected Wilcots was able to have a smooth working relationship with Kahn, the article says.

Inga Saffron calls BIG's new Navy Yard building "mesmerizing", "reminiscent of a Richard Serra sculpture"

2016-06-24T17:39:00-04:00

A spec office is not how a superstar usually makes a debut. [...] Ingels hasn't reinvented the form with 1200 Intrepid, but he does manage to inject it with an impressive level of pizzazz, imagination, and even refinement. [...] The optical effects are mesmerizing. If you stand at the corner and look across the breadth of the facade, the front wall appears to be tumbling to the ground like a collapsing row of dominos. The curves are reminiscent of a Richard Serra sculpture.

Related on Archinect:

Editor's Picks #365

2014-04-30T15:24:00-04:00

News

Dave Heller spoke with Inga Saffron about not just architecture but "city life criticism". Evan Chakroff asked for tips "Has anyone compiled a good 'top ten' of her articles?"

Quondam replied "Links to Saffron's articles appear almost weekly within ArchNewsNow's daily collection of worldwide architecture news. The articles themselves, however, may not have a broad audience appeal because they are, for the most part, very Philadelphia centric. What is significant though, is that a local newspaper still publishes the work of a critic that is so in tune"...

Referring to the Catalog #1 of the Los Angeles Biennale of Architecture/Urbanism Orhan Ayyüce warned interested buyers "for now, the aim is first limited and numbered edition of 100".

The NYT published an editorial by John Freeman Gill, which points out similarities between the fate of the Laing Stores (sometimes called the Bogardus Building) and the current FolkMoMA discourse/proposals. Steven Ward proposed a future PS1 competi...

Inga Saffron: It's not just architecture, it's city life criticism

2014-04-21T14:29:00-04:00

Inga Saffron, who writes the "Changing Skyline" column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism this week. She talks with Dave Heller about the state of criticism today, and the changing attitudes towards cities.

Previously: Inquirer's architecture critic Inga Saffron wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism

Inquirer's architecture critic Inga Saffron wins Pulitzer Prize for criticism

2014-04-14T18:01:00-04:00

Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. In its citation, the Pulitzer Committee cited Saffron "for her criticism of architecture that blends expertise, civic passion and sheer readability into arguments that consistently stimulate and surprise."