PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Construction is complete for the newly renovated space in the Bella Vista/Headhouse Square area just off of South and 2nd streets, and it is getting a lot of attention.
Headhouse Plaza is the name of the newly renovated stretch of land on 2nd Street between Lombard and South.
Crews levelled off the street and removed the fountain there.
“There is a flexible space (where) we can put umbrellas out. We can put seating up. We can create shading," said Michael Harris, executive director of the South Street Headhouse District.
“It was a hard decision, and initially the fountain was part of the plan...but because of the finances to fix the fountain, the finances to maintain the fountain, this space is now repurposed as a flexible area.”
Architect Rich Villa said he was happy with the final results, but also admitted this wasn’t the initial plan.
He says they didn’t nix the fountain until they had already started construction, and they tried pushing for more shade and green space.
"Mike and I had meetings. We went into people’s houses, you know, they were like, 'I want to talk about this,' and so we scaled back," said Villa.
“It started out with some more greenery, but that was sort of scaled back because of some of the near neighbors. They had concerns about greenery. People didn’t want a place where all the dogs were going to go.”
Villa was not happy about the fact that people wanted to scale the project back.
"We didn’t really get a chance. It was sort of just pulled away," he said.
"I mean, there were so many competing demands.”
There was some online criticism, but a resident of the area named Susan said she was happy with the outcome.
“It’s family friendly. It has little seats here and there, but not a place that you could lounge all day. We like that idea," she said.
“We love it, it’s a great improvement. The parking is nice. We were afraid they were going to take away the parking.”
“We reduced parking by 25%. There were 40 spaces. There are 30 now," said Harris, who believes the space is a lot safer now.
"There is new lighting. There is new landscaping. There are new trees. There are these new shade structures," said Harris.
"There is a walkable pathway down the centre from South to Lombard down the Shambles. There’s 16 new ADA ramps.”
Ben from South Philly said he likes being able to walk down the middle pathway:
“It looks different...it looks nice. Much better than it used to," Ben said.
Fishbein shared she’s just happy the yearlong construction is over.
“You know, the streets are paved nicely now," she said," so that’s a good thing.”