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So far, Philly’s proposed wayfinding makeover has won praise from transit advocates around the country. The proposal draws from international best practices for transit navigability, and reflects similar changes in Seattle and San Francisco as big cities grapple with how to lure riders back to mass transportation. — Bloomberg CityLab
Philadelphia's transit system is the country’s seventh-largest and is often the subject of criticism over its wayfinding and disorienting layout. The $40 million redesign is going to be rolled out gradually and will be fully unveiled sometime in 2022. A planned four-mile addition to the... View full entry
The transit situation on Thursday in New York City remained paralyzed, with service on more than half of the city’s subway lines disrupted, commuter rail lines running limited trains, and Amtrak canceling service on a major corridor. — The New York Times
Wednesday night’s flooding caused New York City to issue a travel ban usually reserved for major winter storm events. The storm also inundated large sections of major highways in Philadelphia and impacted operations at Newark Liberty International Airport. The New York subway hasn’t seen a... View full entry
A new study published in Accident Analysis & Prevention shows how biometric data can be used to find potentially challenging and dangerous areas of urban infrastructure before a crash occurs. Lead author Megan Ryerson led a team of researchers in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science in collecting and analyzing eye-tracking data from cyclists navigating Philadelphia’s streets. — Penn Today
As explained in a piece by Penn Today, current federal rules for making safe transportation interventions require the notation of crashes. This reactive approach relies on previous human cost before new considerations are made. Seeking to minimize harmful events altogether, Ryerson and her team... View full entry
This year’s AIA Conference on Architecture just got an unexpected celebrity guest. Tennis legend Venus Williams will be the keynote speaker at this year’s edition of the conference, where she will deliver a lecture titled ‘The Need for Change.’ Williams, who has long been seen as a... View full entry
A captivating, one-of-a-kind structure will allow visitors to seemingly walk atop the Schuylkill River, right along the southern shoreline of Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden. Set to arrive in 2022, FloatLab is a large, walkable art installation and learning lab. It is a new project from Mural... View full entry
An installation by SLO Architecture has been unveiled in Camden, New Jersey, which repurposes 3600 facemasks into a dynamic façade and pavilion. “Turntable” will sit as a 6-month-long installation in Coopers Poynt Waterfront Park, facing the Delaware River and downtown Philadelphia, infusing... View full entry
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has unveiled a $233 million renovation, reorganization, and interior expansion of its historic 1928 main building. The undertaking, called the Core Project, was led by Frank Gehry and saw the addition of nearly 90,000 square feet of reimagined and newly created space... View full entry
The Durst Organization, the New York company selected last year to redevelop Penn’s Landing, is nearing final land-use approvals for a nearby 26-story apartment building that would be its first Philadelphia project. [...]
Durst’s project would rise at a longtime parking lot beside the waterfront north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
Designed by NYC-based Handel Architects, the proposed residential high-rise near the Delaware River waterfront will offer 360 residential units, a 116-space parking garage, and 10,000 square feet designated for shops and restaurants, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. View full entry
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.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
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... View full entry
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced May 7th as the grand opening date following a major renovation endeavor led by Frank Gehry's team. Called the Core Project, the transformation represents two decades of planning, design, and construction of 90,000 square feet of revived and newly... View full entry
Plans are underway to start building in 2022 a pocket park where people experiencing homelessness will not only be welcome but will also be asked to design and build aspects of the space. It’s the only project of its kind in Philadelphia, say design professionals involved in the project. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia's largest homeless shelter, the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, aims to plan and build the small pocket park near its facility on North Pearl Street. View full entry
The problem we have across the United States is we’ve been given a false choice for the future of our cities. We’ve been told that our cities are one of two things: the failing bankrupt, crime-ridden cities of the 1970s, or the bourgeois, gentrified cities of more recent history. And that’s our choice. If we want a tax base, then we need chain stores and gentrification. Otherwise, we have no tax base and cities become a horror story. — WHYY
On March 11, architect Vishaan Chakrabarti presented a virtual panel for the Industry Intersections: Art, Design + Development, hosted by the Arts + Business Council in Philadelphia. Along with guest panelists, Lindsey Scannapieco (co-founder of Scout), Sven Schroeter (Director of... View full entry
After breaking ground on its first residential high-rise in Philadelphia in June 2019, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates now celebrated the topping out with developer Dranoff Properties. Dubbed Arthaus, the 47-story glass-and-steel tower sits on Avenue of the Arts vis-à-vis the city's Kimmel... View full entry
The Point Counterpoint II, a boat designed by Louis Kahn for musical conductor and longtime friend Robert Boudreau, will dock permanently in Philadelphia after it was recently saved from the scrapyard. Yo-Yo Ma, the renowned cellist, made a plea in 2017 to save the vessel from... View full entry
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. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
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... View full entry
