PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — South Philadelphia’s Singing Fountain is getting a makeover.
A proposal is in the early stages to upgrade the popular public gathering spot.
Bryan Fenstermaker, executive director of Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation (PARC), said the fountain’s cherubs and mermaid are waning, so there is work to be done.
“We’re trying to address two situations at the fountain,” he said. “One is the maintenance and care of the Singing Fountain itself, and then pedestrian safety is a kind of a larger concern for us as an organization. And as for people who are visiting and live in the area, traversing the streets to get to this space is of concern.”
PARC is working with a local restoration firm, Materials Conservation, and expects to have a cost estimation soon. Fenstermaker predicts it will be anywhere between $30,000 and $50,000 just for the fountain itself.
“But it could be over six figures, so I don’t know,” he added. “That’ll be the difference in plans, and then what we would do is probably raise funds for that and maybe do it in the offseason of next year.”
Fenstermaker may consider state grant opportunities, if possible.
The Singing Fountain — named for the speakers mounted nearby that spill music onto the triangular plaza on Passyunk Avenue and Tasker and 11th streets — sits at the center of Passyunk’s commercial corridor. It was installed in 2004, and Fenstermaker said it shows.
“A lot of the tiles are getting loose,” he said. “For us to kind of clean them and scrub them, they start to fall off, so we’re in this position of we can’t clean it because it’ll fall off, but it doesn’t look clean. … The other thing is the drainage.”
He said it may be at least two years, optimistically, before the project is complete.