Developers use architectural renderings as a form of
storytelling - highlighting what they want us to notice in their projects,
obscuring what they don't. Some buildings are shown standing alone in the
world, while others appear as mere specks in a crowd. At night, the lights are
always blazing, as if electric bills didn't matter.
So it is with a plan by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
for a high-rise research campus on the east bank of the Schuylkill, next to the
South Philadelphia rowhouse neighborhood known as the Devil's Pocket. The
massive undertaking could ultimately house as much square footage as two
Comcast towers. In June, Children's expects to break ground on a 375-foot
tower, a free-standing garage, a public park, and a waterfront promenade, and
yet we hardly know what they will look like.
This is not for lack of renderings and plans. In the 18
months since Children's announced it was establishing the satellite campus
across from its home base in West Philadelphia, it has bombarded the community
with images.
Those renderings have mainly shown views of the project from
30,000 feet. One illustrates how Children's' four towers would be arranged on
the site. Another provides a diagram of traffic circulation. There have been
colorful collages to suggest the landscaping planned for Schuylkill Avenue and
something that the hospital insists on calling "the Spanish Steps."
What they haven't shared with the public is the actual
architecture of the tower, or how human beings might interact with it at the
ground level. Given the project's sensitive location, between the popular
Schuylkill Banks park and Devil's Pocket, the absence of information is deeply
troubling.
Children's executives have spent the last year meeting with
neighbors to talk up the project, which is being designed by a big-name cast
that includes Pelli Clarke Pelli; Ballinger; and Cooper, Robertson &
Partners. The hospital has been up front in acknowledging that its new
skyscraper - where scientists will crunch data on computers - will be an abrupt
shift in scale from the adjacent rowhouses. As compensation, hospital officials
have promised to enrich the neighborhood with welcoming parks and improved
access to the riverfront. (They're also giving the city an easement along the
water's edge for the next segment of the Schuylkill Banks trail.)
But the public spaces depicted in the pictures look anything
but inviting.
Last week, the hospital finally released the first
renderings of the campus' premiere public space, a wedge-shaped plaza that will
provide pedestrian access from the South Street Bridge to the front door of the
new tower. The plaza is, in essence, the project's lifeline to the city, where
the public realm and Children's' private world will come together. Such mixing
occurs naturally on sidewalks all over the city, but rarely in the controlled
world of hospital grounds.
While the rendering seems intentionally imprecise, it's all
too clear that the plaza is more of a landscaped entrance than a real park, and
will be as sterile as an operating room. Enormous planters consume most of the
space, forming a cattle-chute pathway straight to the front door of Children's'
22-story tower.
While scattered benches and planter walls will offer
seating, everything about the design says, Look, don't touch. You can see
plenty of so-called green space just like it if you wander across the South
Street Bridge to the tangle of driveways and porte cocheres that is the
hospital district.
It doesn't help matters that Children's' plan calls for a
30-foot-long garage ramp along the eastern edge of the plaza - although you
wouldn't know that from the rendering. The artist has disguised the planned
240-car garage with a 10-story tower that won't be built for years. Ironically,
the garage driveway is one of the few spots on the drawing where the rendering
depicts a gathering of pedestrians.
All this worries Andrew Dalzell, programs coordinator for
the South of South Street Neighborhood Association. "It's fantastic to
have all these public spaces," he says, "but are we going to feel we
are trespassing on CHOP property, or will we feel welcomed?"
From that plaza, Children's employees and city residents are
supposed to be able to continue south along an elevated promenade. On the
renderings, the promenade appears as little more than a gray swath, but
Children's vice president Douglas E. Carney promises it will be a spectacular
perch for enjoying views of the Schuylkill, "like an infinity pool."
Children's plans to set aside space for a single food vendor and outdoor
tables, probably a chain like Au Bon Pain.
Sigh. This promenade could become so much more. It is the
only spot south of the Waterworks where there is room for outdoor dining.
Once the extension of Schuylkill Banks is finished next
year, the South Street Bridge will become a major entrance to the park,
attracting thousands of people. One can imagine families, runners and dog
owners gathering on the promenade for Sunday brunch. Oh, wait. No dog owners.
Children's says it wants to discourage dogs in the plaza and promenade. That's
no way to make friends with the neighborhood.
The public space is just as disappointing below the bridge,
at Bainbridge and Schuylkill Avenue. Located just off South Street, in the
thick of the neighborhood, Schuylkill Avenue could, with some effort, become
part of that walkable, commercial corridor. But Carney insists that Children's
will not create any spaces for cafés or retail. Instead, it plans an enormous
circular driveway that it says might be used occasionally for farmers markets
or events. Does an office building that will house 1,000 researchers really
need such a big drop-off?
Carney defends the lack of meaningful retail by arguing that
such things "are not part of CHOP's core mission." The neighborhood
association is still negotiating with Children's for improvements, and the
hospital must still obtain several zoning planning approvals before
construction. Will the city stand up to its second-largest employer?
Children's may do vital work, but it's also a billion-dollar
nonprofit - one that will pay no property taxes on this huge site. The health
of its new neighborhood deserves the same quality care as its patients.
Source: Philly.com
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