In Philadelphia, proving that even a highway can be turned around

Philadelphia's Vine Street Expressway is a sunken highway that, like all too many urban thoroughfares, divides its surrounding neighborhoods and discourages street life. Even the surface-level streets on each side of the expressway feel like highways, with their wide lanes, fast-moving traffic, and poor pedestrian amenities. Such an intimidating place can still be turned around, and PPS is working with Philadelphia's Center City District to do just that.

Luckily, the Vine Street corridor passes through several key places that can link neighborhoods together by serving as destination points. The goal is to create "special places" in these crucial areas along Vine Street, such as Franklin Square, Chinatown, and Logan Square, all of which have the potential to become more active and attractive destinations. These revitalized places, together with a humanized, pedestrian-friendly treatment of the surface streets, will make Vine Street a connector and link between the various neighborhoods along it.

Logan Square
Surrounded by numerous nationally acclaimed public institutions, Logan Square has the potential to become a destination with global recognition. There are multiple museums, an art college, a library, a beautiful cathedral, a four star hotel and a courthouse all directly adjacent to the Square. At the center stands Swann Fountain, a beautiful piece of public art that takes one back in time to a Logan Square where people gathered and strolled down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Today, the idea of strolling is an intimidating exercise. Cars now dominate the space and issues of safety, comfort, use and access are under question. PPS and the Center City District are now working with local residents, businesses, and institutions to help Logan Square realize its potential as a world-class civic space.

Franklin Square
Of the five historic Philadelphia Squares, Franklin Square is the only one that has not reached its full potential as a public space. Strategically located near the new National Constitution Center and Mall, WHYY Radio Station headquarters, the American College of Physicians and American Society of Internal Medicine, Franklin Square can benefit from the unique array of institutions that surround it. PPS workshops have generated a range of ideas that include changing to the streets to make it more accessible to pedestrians, redeveloping the properties around the square, and restoring the historic fountain in the center.

To gather ideas and opinions about the Vine Street revitalization, PPS has created Vine Online, an interactive website that enables local residents, businesses, and institutions to give their input to the project. To learn more about the project and how the website works, you can visit Vine Online: http://www.pps.org/vineonline/index