From London’s Garden Bridge to D.C.’s OMA-designed bridge-cum-park to Miami’s newly announced “Underline”, it’s a well-known fact that cities are clamoring to replicate the mix of infrastructure and green space that New York’s High Line pioneered. Now Philadelphia is one step closer to joining that select group.
As of this week, a new round of funding puts the project 60% funded, with the possibility of construction beginning by this summer if additional grants are secured. Much like the High Line, the project is in the heart of the city’s downtown and has been years in the making. The old rail lines, known as the Reading Viaduct, were abandoned thirty years ago. However, they still still snake through the Callowhill neighborhood just north of Philadelphia’s downtown. These Phase I renderings and concept plan come from Studio Bryan Hanes, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture and urban design firm. The city commissioned them to produce a design for the “Spur,” a small 30-ft-wide section of the rail lines that ends at the major thoroughfare of N. Broad Street. Residents wished the project to retain the simplicity and industrial character of the tracks, and consequently, the architects have used extensive amounts of weathering steel to compliment the vegetation and wooden benches and paths.
The Viaduct terminates at ground-level at Broad St. as seen in the top images. The bottom map shows the extend of the Spur, though the tracks extend many blocks northward. All images courtesy Studio Bryan Hanes
Originally suggested back in 2003 by a group of local residents, the effort to build the park grew and coalesced to create the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Friends of the Rail Park. The Callowhill neighborhood, home to the Spur, has experienced significant growth and re-population since the city de-industrialized in the latter 20th century. However, it lacked access to any form of parkland. The Friends of the Rail Park has been collaborating with local government, specifically the City Center District, and their efforts have finally come to (partial) fruition: This past Monday two foundations — John S. and James L. Knight and William Penn Foundations — announced a combined $11m donation towards five public space projects in Philadelphia.
Of that $11,, only $1m will go to the Reading Viaduct Spur, with the rest going to a New Discovery Center (a collaboration with environmental groups at a 40-acre lake), a new trail on the Schuylkill River, a playground, and a library/park renovation. While these are all major projects, the Reading Viaduct Spur will likely receive the most publicity. If construction begins by Summer 2015, the City Center District will lease the land from SEPTA (the regional transportation authority) and turn the finished project over to the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation department.