A planned redevelopment project for the area surrounding
30th Street Station could dramatically transform the neighborhood, bringing
additional commercial space and improved vehicle and pedestrian access to
Center City.
The leaders of the project—Amtrak, Drexel University, and
Brandywine Realty Trust—are currently in the process of considering master plan
proposals.
Organizations affected by the project, including Penn, the
City of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and SEPTA,
are also involved in the discussions.
The area covering JFK Boulevard to Spring Garden Street, and
the Schuylkill River to 32nd Street is currently part of the route for Amtrak
and SEPTA Regional Rail trains, as well as a train service yard.
Harris Steinberg, executive director of PennPraxis, the
applied research arm of PennDesign, calls the area “96 acres of prime real
estate hiding in plain sight.”
In 2011, graduate students in Steinberg’s planning course
studied ways to transform the rail yards into a new, urban pedestrian and
transit friendly development. The report produced by the class, “A Vision for
Schuylkill Rail Yard,” suggested highway and rail line infrastructure changes
to improve access from University City to the city’s cultural institutions on
the Ben Franklin Parkway.
“You can put in pedestrian bridges [and] some traffic
bridges to Race Street to get to the Parkway,” says Steinberg.
Steinberg explains there are many similar developments that
can serve as models for this project, including HafenCity in Hamburg, Germany,
and New York City’s Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, which offers
residential and business space.
“In some cases, we don’t have to look further than our own
city,” says Steinberg. “Penn Center and Suburban Station and The Gallery over
Market East are built over train lines.”
Steinberg acknowledges that redeveloping the area will
present engineering and financial challenges.
“It’s not cheap, it’s not easy, and it’s not going to be
quick,” says Steinberg. “But if we want to position Philadelphia competitively
for the next century, these are the kinds of projects that need to be taken
seriously in order to think about how to modernize and amenitize the city to
attract people and capital to Philadelphia.”
Source: UPenn.edu
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