Completed East Passyunk Avenue gateway to be unveiled at upcoming ribbon cutting ceremony
We’ve been following the plans for the East Passyunk Avenue gateway project since it was first announced back in January of 2014.
After a few month of work since the April groundbreaking ceremony, the completed gateway is ready to be unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, September 10.
The completed gateway includes more seating, greenery and lighting. Originally, plans for the gateway included an Indego bike share station dock and fountains, but due to space constraints and the cost of maintaining the fountain, they were removed from the plans.
This project is from the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation, along with a $495,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation. P.A.R.C. also completed another project this summer with the improved space at the Mifflin Triangle.
If you want to check out the ribbon cutting ceremony, it will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 10 at the gateway at Broad Street and East Passyunk Avenue. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be followed by a reception across the street at Palladino’s.
What do you think of this new community space?
I love the intent of this space. I like the added greenery. I like the seating.
But the red and blue neon lights? I feel like this is where “Escape the 80’s” should be based. It looks dated and weird and out of place to me….anyone else get that feeling?
I find this…underwhelming.
I pass by this everyday. I still can’t for the life of me figure out why they removed the trees that were there and didn’t not put new ones in their place. I rarely see anyone sitting there. Maybe some shade would have helped. I also do not get the red and blue rope light. I thought that was supposed to be projection. I am a little disappointed.
I saw the projection lights going up yesterday. Hopefully trees are next.
I have never seen anyone using this space. I’m not sure what is supposed to happen under the slanty “show piece” or what I would want to go here for. It appears to be an attractive nuisance for the zombies that wander Broad St. between Passyunk and Snyder. I think this is an example of moving forward on a project for the sake of doing “something” but without vision or purpose.
The Mifflin Triangle upgrade was done correctly. This one was not.
My thoughts exactly.
This thing gives me angst on a daily basis.
People who want to linger in this area sit across the street on the half wall on the side of TruMark under the shade. During the car show there were 15-20 people hanging out on the TruMark wall at any time, while I could count on one hand the number of people who did more than walk through the gateway.
The pavilion lacks both use and beauty.
The space is used regularly by skateboarders, as the benches and tables are the perfect height for them. Fine by me, but I’m sure this was not an intended outcome.
On the ground underneath the bank sign with the red stripe there’s an access area cut into the cement that is sealed with trim. This trim is often askew, leaving a long narrow hole. It was recently secured with duct tape.
The other part of this project – the planters on South Broad – are always filled with trash. That are has a huge trash problem, so I’m surprised at the decision to put in planters instead of trash cans, or at least a mix of both.
It also just hurts that this is the result of a half a million dollars and that the community wasn’t more involved in the planning process.
With so many other examples of public spaces done right (better) in this city or others, for similar budgets, this corner remains a mystery to me. The length of share bike racks elsewhere in the city and then long side of this corner are spot on, with room to give and would have included the neighborhood in the great bike share program, enabling more people to visit the restaurants/stores in the neighborhood from other parts of the city. I would hope that there can be another round of discussions for ways to make the space become usable/welcoming to those of us that live here. (Mifflin Triangle looks great.)
That’s been turned into an ugly, useless space. What a waste of resources.
PARC does lots of great work. This should have been another feather in its cap. Unfortunately, this space does not work in the summertime without water or shade. Forevermore, there is no noise control (Broad street traffic). No food. No life in the surrounding facades (which is the main problem but PARC cannot change, unfortunately).
It seems the space was designed with performances in mind, but we wouldn’t know because this public space solicited no public input. Maybe it will be nice in the autumn/spring when there is a programmed event? A rather limited scope. Otherwise, as a daily space it is already a failure.
GATEWAY TO WASTED $$$! really is this needed and even be fussed over?? i think the overhead whatever is atrocious and please tell me why our school taxes go up higher as well as cutting back services..but they got a hell of a lot of money to fix things that arent broken..yeah another place for loitering for laying all over and various illegals deal meeting place!! Go one ..two blocks down it’s sleazy as hell instead of making it more attractive they find a corner to throw money and i would not doubt pocket a bit of.
Could the plaze be more inviting….absolutely. It wouldn’t take much to soften it with additional materials in the future. Dilworth Park was pretty sterile when it debuted, but there have been additional improvements with planters, the cafe space, etc that are building on the original concept. More concerning is the lack of interest the three banks surrounding the Gateway seem to have in maintaining their outdoor spaces. This is particularly true of TruMark and their beds of weeds. All three banks should take a page from Valley Green Bank up Broad St and how well they do in landscaping and maintaining their facilities. Also, St. Agnes does a great job landscaping amd maintaining their outdoor space as well.
the lack of an indego station is a real shame, as the current map doesn’t show a single station near there. a big mistake, amongst the other mistakes others already pointed out.
@tjt: Yes! Indego should be there at all cost. How could you not put “bike share” right next main subway stop!? I know, it didn’t “fit”, but it should have been made to fit. Get rid of everything else and put in an Indego.
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s ribbon cutting, should be “fun”!
More plants would go a long way. That corner used to be alot more green, and that is what is lacking now. It was a mistake to take out the trees and flowers that were there.
Who is responsible for the atrocity, and how can we get them removed from whatever position that gave them the power to greenlight this?
How to we get the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation to stop ruining our neighborhood? This is a disaster. They have GOT TO GO.
This is so very unappealing (ugly !!) who would want to sit in that cemented place, Philly (& other urban areas) desperately needs trees, trees, trees. The trend in many urban areas seems to be “cement to the curb”, many of the row house streets need trees, that is why I stopped house-searching in Philly, row houses on cement streets w/ no trees are so unappealing.