Real Riverfront Planning on the Delaware?
Pinch me, and maybe I'll believe it's true. Can it really be that Vince Fumo and Frank DiCicco met with Mayor Street to discuss setting up a development corporation to help plan the Delaware waterfront? So says today's Daily News. It's certainly a better approach than trying to withhold riverbed leases, as Gov. Rendell and Fumo proposed last month. Still, the Penns Landing Development Corp. hasn't exactly been a fount of enlightenment.
A serious plan for the Delaware can't come too soon. There are dozen proposed towers clustered on the waterfront in Northern Liberties, in obvious anticipation of a pair of casino aces across the street. The tallest of the lot, Bridgman's View, a 900-foot-tall tower by Agoos/Lovera that would be Philly's highest condo building, will be discussed tomorrow, May 18, at the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association meeting. It takes place at 7 p.m. in St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Church at 4th Street and Fairmount Avenue.
posted by Inga Saffron at 12:29 PM
5 Comments:
I think we have the making of a possible great plan for transforming north Delaware ave. I have been following allot of the projects and want to express that we must not cut corners and do everything possible to take the neighborhood into account. So far we should use the Bridgeman's View Tower approach, by doing everything by the book and including the Northern Liberties input for the development of North Delaware ave. They are supporting a study and are in the process of setting up a liaison committee. They are also offering 1% artwork for their project. We need to set a standard and so far this is the Best I have seen.
We also need to include representatives from the industries that will actually be involved along that area (ie--hospitality and retail), too often industry people that actually know something about their industries are excluded from real dialogue and planning.
Is the recent publication by the Center City District on reclaiming the Delaware waterfront being considered in any of these discussions?
The fate of the North Delaware doesn't really rest on the quality of design of certain towers. The space between buildings is the place where cities live or die. And that is where a lack of planning on the North Delaware is going to be a real problem.
A plan would start by describing how we want the riverfront to work as a district, and then work backwards to the architectural and infrastructure requirements.
The current Philadelphia approach is to receive development proposals for specific proposals, and then try to figure out what the infrastructure impacts are and the relationship with the Delaware Avenue and other businesses.
i own small recreational boat. it would be nice if they put in a boat ramp in south philly.the only place in philly to lauch a boat is the franklin arsenal. you would think with all that unused land the city could at least designate a small part for a boat ramp at least one down in south philly instead of just one for the whole philly. if you have one in north philly one should be in so. philly.i dont see the problem with developing this land or why it has took so long. look at the river walk at the schykill do the same thing at pennslandig what is the holed up.new york has developed there waterfronts. this has been going on for 30 some odd years its been to long.i seen recently a month or so back a proposed development of the water front and they had access for kayak launches but still no boat ramp in south philly. the only boat ramp i seen for the delaware was well south of the city.the plan was still not sufficent why cant these people put boat ramp in south philly. why cant they see that is a good idea?
Post a Comment
<< Home