Pier 68, a 400-foot-long slab of crumbling concrete and
overgrown weeds, juts into the Delaware River from a shopping center parking
lot off Christopher Columbus Boulevard. The fence surrounding it is looped with
barbed wire. Several signs read, "Danger: Do not trespass."
On Thursday, Mayor Nutter and the Delaware River Waterfront
Corp. (DRWC) announced that by the summer of 2015, this forbidden space is to
be transformed into a manicured park.
"This park will supply green space in a section of the
city that really needs it," Nutter said.
He joked that Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan
Greenberger will be giving fishing lessons on the pier every Monday evening
after its completion.
"They will be free lessons, of course," he went
on. "We are public servants, so we cannot charge."
The pier's redevelopment is part of the DRWC's 20- to
25-year plan to create more than a dozen similar waterfront parks from Pier 70
to Pier 53, all connected by a path called the Delaware Trail. The DRWC expects
to finish Pier 53's makeover before the end of this summer.
"This is part of what will eventually become a whole
new network of parks every half-mile," said DRWC president Tom Corcoran.
Digital images of a redesigned Pier 68 show modern wooden
benches, hammocks, picnic tables, a lawn for sunbathing, a paved extension of
the Delaware Trail, and plenty of trees.
"When the sun's out in the summer in Philadelphia,
you're going to want shade," Greenberger said.
A "cut" in the pier, Greenberger added, will allow
water from the Delaware to pool into a small pond for fish and aquatic plants.
The layout for the park, designed by Philadelphia-based
architecture firm Studio Bryan Hanes, relied partially on surveys and public
meetings with residents of Pennsport, the surrounding area.
"We had tremendous community engagement,"
Greenberger said.
While Pennsport citizens provided approval, a number of
private and public organizations, including Walmart, Wells Fargo, and the
William Penn Foundation chipped in cash to help pay for the $1.7 million park's
construction.
Plenty of work remains to be done. The DRWC estimates that
its long-term plan will cost more than $814 million. The funding will be
wasted, community leaders warned, if security problems and isolation cause
parks like Pier 68 to remain vacant.
"We need a safe, well-lit, clean way to get from park
to park," said Pennsport Civic Association president James Moylan as he
stood before the barren lot. "This is just another piece of the puzzle in
the work to reclaim the Delaware waterfront."
Source: Philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment