|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
September 26-October 2, 2002 cityspace Size Does Matter
Bigger isn't always better, especially when it comes to convention centers. Some of the best things that have happened to Philadelphia are projects that were on the books for years but then never got built, thereby avoiding unnecessary damage and creating the opportunity for a higher form of development. The crosstown expressway that would have wiped out South Street is a prime example, as is the Simon plan for transplanting the Gallery and its parking garage to Penn’s Landing. The proposed expansion of the Convention Center appears to qualify for membership in this select group. For several years now, advocates for the center have been telling us that it is essential for the continued economic well-being of the city and the region. The theory is that we must keep up with cities such as Baltimore, Boston and Washington, D.C. (that is, ours must be as big as theirs), if we are to sustain the growth and development of the hotels, restaurants and other tourist-related components of our hospitality industry. Not so fast, argue the more conservative among us. First you must fix the labor problems that threaten to kill our golden egg-laying goose. Others have suggested that perhaps the market for convention space is, in fact, not infinite, and that if too many cities build themselves a one million-square-foot convention center of their very own, there will not be enough meetings to fill them all. These are certainly serious concerns, but they do not tell the whole story. Missing from the debate seems to be any consideration of the physical impact of virtually doubling the size of this already over-scaled behemoth of a building. Take a look at what's there today. The main entrance to the old Reading Railroad terminal station on Market Street has been beautifully transformed into the ceremonial front door to the Convention Center, and the former train shed saved and converted into meeting space. Nice job. But once you cross Arch Street, you arrive at the main building, a building that is so big and inherently unfriendly that it overwhelms the architects' best efforts to civilize its exterior. Where once there was a variety of building fronts lining the sidewalks of eight city blocks (two blocks each of Arch and Race streets, the west side of 11th Street and the east side of 13th Street), we now have a giant box that offers the public a two-block-long face along Arch Street and various other parts of its anatomy along the other streets. The retail along 11th Street is an abysmal failure, with undersized windows opening into largely vacant miniature stores. It is only slightly better on 13th Street, with windows into an empty public concourse interrupted by locked doors that have signs on them directing you to the Arch Street entrances. The worst are 12th Street and Race Street. The only way to provide the size floor that the exhibit planners require was for the building to bridge 12th Street for its full width of 300 feet. In spite of its jazzy neon lighting, the tunnel feels oppressively long, empty, dark and unsafe, qualities that Philadelphia has worked hard to overcome on other streets throughout Center City. Race Street is just as bad, only longer. While the Convention Center may well have stimulated significant development within the hospitality sector of our economy, its major physical impact on the adjacent blocks appears to be further proliferation of lifeless voids used for surface parking. Do we really want an even bigger version of this? The expansion plans as currently developed call for adding another 600 feet of length to this already huge 800-foot-long building. It's as if we are trying to recreate the "Chinese Wall" that was demolished to make way for Penn Center. The building will span across 13th Street, giving us a second wonderful tunnel. At least Broad Street will be treated well, with a large atrium-like lobby creating a second main entrance. This building may create great exhibit space on the interior (and it might even get used if we can solve the labor problems and if there really is a bottomless demand for more and more meetings), but because of its size, it will be a blight to the neighborhood that surrounds it and compromise redevelopment prospects for North Broad Street. A major part of Philadelphia's humane urban character is the scale of its street grid and buildings. That is why giant parking garages are such a menace; that is why many are so worried about the replacement of the individual storefronts along Walnut Street with larger-scaled national chain retail buildings; that is why the 50-story apartment buildings proposed and under construction in various parts of Center City threaten to overwhelm the area around them; and that is why we need to be very, very careful before we agree to the expansion of this giant intrusion of a building. William P. Becker is a principal of the construction cost consulting/project management firm Becker & Frondorf, and a member of the Design Advocacy Group. 
-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there
| ||||||||||||||||||||
