PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Benjamin Franklin Parkway carries a lot of cars, but it transcends mere streethood. It lends its name to the surrounding area and its 10 lanes to fireworks, concerts and parades. If a new effort the city launched last week works, it will become safe, more functional, pedestrian-friendly and, perhaps, even more beautiful.
"The Parkway is an amazing public space, but it’s time to consider a new vision," says Parks and Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell, "to bring in some really amazing thinkers and designers and to really reimagine what the Parkway can be to future generations."
The city has issued a request for qualifications, the first step in the hiring process, looking for a design team to undertake a bold, sweeping change for roadway. The teams will be invited to present their ideas to the public in June, though officials warn the actual redesign will be a long process — something likely left to a future administration to carry out.
The Parkway was first envisioned in the late 19th century and completed just over 100 years ago. It was intended strictly as a thoroughfare for cars to get from Center City to Fairmount Park — but a monumental one, summoning the
Champs-Élysées of Paris, lined with grand public buildings, including the library and Family Court and the city’s major cultural institutions.
It makes for a beautiful and iconic view from the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
However, urbanists love to hate it, finding it too car-centric, too disruptive of the city’s flow, too barren of normal city commerce.
"It’s really kind of a gash in Philadelphia," says Diana Lind, an urban policy specialist and executive director of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia.
Lind runs a Facebook page, People for a Better Parkway, posting ideas for improvements that include restoring Logan Circle to a Square and making it an actual park, like the other original squares laid out by William Penn.
She envisions reduced traffic lanes and more amenities, including retail and restaurants, maybe a farmer’s market. She says the museums could extend outside their walls, brining programming onto the street. And she says there’s never been a better time — with traffic reduced by the pandemic and people hungry for more outdoor public spaces.
"It’s a particularly prime space for that," says Lind.
She’ll have a chance to weigh in. Lovell says public engagement will be part of the process.
The project is a kind of acceleration in the direction the city’s been moving for the last decade. The city has added recreational areas, for instance, converting Eakins Oval from a traffic rotary and parking area into a family fun zone for the last seven summers. It created a pocket park at the 22nd Street intersection to showcase the historic statue "Maja," which used to stand outside the Art Museum.
It’s also installed rumble strips, road markings, pedestrian crosswalks and flex posts to make it safer for pedestrians.
"Today’s Parkway is more welcoming to foot traffic than any time in recent memory," said Deputy Managing Director for Transportation Mike Carroll. "The opportunity to provide improved pedestrian connections through Eakins Oval to the Art Museum steps is exciting — and an indication of how far we have come in laying the foundation for a public thoroughfare that is as livable as it is iconic and as welcoming as it is grand."