Reclaiming the Delaware River Waterfront
City Planning Studio

Philadelphia has a rich history, a vibrant downtown, a first rate architectural fabric, and a thriving urban culture. Yet, one of our greatest amenities, the Delaware River Waterfront, has been forgotten. Inadequate access, poor maintenance, and lack of a plan have left us with a patchwork of vacant or underutilized land, a jumble of uncoordinated development, and a shortage of quality parks and open spaces. Philadelphia must reclaim its waterfront by:

• Building an Open Space Network
• Getting Connected
• Creating An Urban Destination
  

In the spring of 2005, a group of city planning students from the University of Pennsylvania were selected to perform an analysis of the Philadelphia Waterfront along the Delaware River and propose a redevelopment strategy for the area spanning from Penn Treaty Park to the north to Oregon Avenue in the south. The studio, Reclaiming the Delaware River Waterfront, was overseen by Gil Rosenthal, senior partner at Wallace Roberts and Todd (WRT), and by Paul R. Levy, Center City District.

Background

Philadelphia has begun to reevaluate the value of having access to prime waterfront views and refocus on utilizing the entire length of its riverfronts along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. The first phase of the long awaited Schuylkill River trail has been completed from Locust Street to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the trail has been filled with residents and students walking, jogging, rollerblading and biking along this new gateway to Fairmount Park.

Late in 2004, Mayor John Street announced that he was abandoning the effort to select a developer for a dense commercial development of Penn’s Landing, opening the way for a more comprehensive look at the central Delaware waterfront.

In 2003, Penn Praxis and the Philadelphia Inquirer hosted a series of public forums and sponsored a design charrette that resulted in a series of broad principals that should govern waterfront planning and development

In 2003, the Philadelphia based firm, Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT), working for a consortium of eleven (11) neighborhood groups, their District Councilman Frank DiCicco and State Senator Vincent Fumo, completed a conceptual plan for the Delaware Waterfront from Penn Treaty Park at the edge of Fishtown all the way to Home Depot in South Philadelphia. This plan proposed new river trails and other public amenities, new connections to adjacent neighborhoods, recommendations for development zones along the river, as well as an innovative proposal to overcome the barrier effect of I-95 in the Penn’s Landing area.

The student’s studio picked up from here and further explored the concepts proposed by the WRT plan, as well as developed their own vision for the Delaware River waterfront.

Methodology

1. Analysis

• Students began the process with an analysis of existing conditions along the Delaware River waterfront including zoning, tenancy, parcel ownership, and susceptibility to change.
• Following the review of existing conditions, the students examined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats along the waterfront.
• In order to conceptualize what constituted a successful waterfront, the studio reviewed urban design principals for waterfront development, looking to both successful and unsuccessful cities as examples. Along with examining other cities, the students examined previously proposed plans for development along the Philadelphia waterfront.

• The first phase for the redevelopment of the Delaware River waterfront would include the creation of a greenway trail similar to the existing Schuylkill River Park Trail. This proposed trail would not only serve as an attraction for users but would also be a link for newly proposed areas of park and open space.
• Following the construction of a greenway and park system, would be the further development of residential pockets to the north and along Front Street. Additionally, there would be the development of some commercial uses including restaurants and cafes, and small shops.
• The final phase would include more large scale development such as an entertainment complex at the Great Plaza in Penn’s Landing and a “what if” scenario for the tentative casino site.

• The studio determined what actions would be appropriate and necessary for the public sector to carry out and what should be left to the market.
• As part of the implementation strategy students proposed a waterfront zoning overlay and design guidelines which would control future development along the waterfront.
• Funding sources and management entities were also examined by the studio.