Competition Program

Market East is a centrally located district of the city, with numerous major destinations and assets. Its success relies on building connectivity with the street, with neighboring areas, and between the various institutions and developments.

Objectives

The competition program asks the entrants to put forth ideas to reconnect Market East to the street and to the city at-large. Successful entrants will consider how Market East and the surrounding blocks can be revitalized into an exciting urban, pedestrian, and shopping experience for its diverse set of users. Entrants are expected to:

• understand the successes and failures of Market East over its history, in order to respond to its current form
• understand the range of destinations and locations at and around Market East, in order to comprehend the range of possibilities for new connectivity
• identify key missed opportunities for Market East, and key locations of focus
• select a critical area or component to focus on redesigning
• conceive a design concept for revitalizing Market East, through increased connectivity
• rethink Philadelphia's rich urban spaces for today's user.

Boundaries

The program boundaries are Chestnut Street to the South and Arch Street to the North. The east is bounded by 6th Street and Independence Mall and Broad Street and City Hall to the west.

General Guidelines

• Entrants may create a concept for the entire site or focus on a section of it, and may deal with one or several types of connectivity issues
• Entrants are asked to create an entirely new vision or design idea, and are expected to design an urban solution, appropriate for the heart of a major city
• Entrants are encouraged to address issues of sustainability
• Submissions should be highly visual, giving viewers a true sense and experience of the entrant's imagined future space

Program Elements

Successful entries will create an original design concept for rethinking Market East and this urban retail center. The existing conditions and development should be re-imagined with limits set only by the entrants themselves. Suggested program elements are listed below, but participants should develop an individualized program based on their design for the reconnection of Market East with its evolving downtown context.

• Organizing Concept: Ed Bacon's work always began with an "organizing concept" — a central idea that unified the plan. Before adding specific design elements, entrants are encouraged to create an organizing concept to demonstrate the overall structure of a project, its connectivity to its surroundings, and system of spatial movement.
• Pedestrian Connections: The blocks surrounding Market East receive generous amounts of foot traffic due to the surrounding amenities and central location. Entrants might consider how to continue pedestrian flow from Independence Hall or the central business district into the heart of the Market East development. Entrants might also consider improving north/south connections to adjacent commercial and residential areas. Consideration could also be given to the relationship pedestrians have to retail on all levels and the below-grade concourse.
• Vehicular Connections: Market Street is highly used as a cross-town route. Septa and NJ Transit buses both operate numerous routes on this crowded thoroughfare. On Filbert Street a Greyhound bus station adds to congestion. Entrants could consider vehicular and pedestrian access, in particular the re-routing of bus lines and the overall road network, to minimize conflict with pedestrians.
• Destination Connections: Market East contains Macy's (in the historic Wanamaker's Building) the Gallery Mall, and numerous other shops. It holds two major hotels (including Loews in the historic PSFS Building), the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and Reading Terminal market. It borders Chinatown, City Hall, the Avenue of the Arts, and Independence Mall. The area is at the heart of downtown with major transit connections. Yet many of these locations lack visual connection and physically feel separate. Entrants could consider how these destinations could become more connected.
• Public Transportation Connections: Every regional rail line coming into the city stops at Market East Station. To the north are Greyhound and Chinatown bus lines. The PATCO high-speed line to New Jersey has a major stop at 8th and Market Streets. Septa and NJ Transit run many lines on and near Market Street. SEPTA's Green Line trolleys connect at 13th and Juniper Sts. These transit connections are linked through an underutilized, but extensive underground concourse. Entrants might rethink how users access these stations and the relationship between transit and the street.
• Vertical Connections: Entrants are encouraged to consider the space in three dimensions. The Gallery mall currently has four stories, and the Marriott hotel already has a sky-bridge connection. Additional vertical elements may be appropriate given the design.
• New Development: Entrants can incorporate a new development for the current parking lot between 8th and 9th Streets on Market Street and the parking lot at 13th and Market Street into a comprehensive master plan for the area. Additionally, entrants may demolish and replan entire blocks, if they feel it is necessary. Entrants should also feel able to suggest new uses of existing structures as fitting with their master plan.
• Place Markers and Amenities: Entrants could consider the use of wayfaring signage, place markers, lighting, and other visual elements to give Market East an easily recognized identity, and more pedestrian-friendly environment. Plantings could be used to define spaces, frame views, and enhance design ideas. Street furniture, such as benches, trash and recycling receptacles, and bicycle racks, could be located by the entrant to promote a clean and progressive Market East.

Design Problems

Market East is a large site with many complicated issues and interrelated elements. While entrants are encouraged to understand and respond to the entire scope of the site, they may select a specific element or area to focus their attention. The following are several major design problems that entrants may choose (but are not required) to address.

• Connecting the Gallery to the Street: The Gallery is a successful urban shopping mall, with a fairly strong retail market. However, it does not succeed in connecting to the street level at Market Street or at Filbert Street. There are a few nice connections, like the entrance at 9th and Market Street, with a cascading stairway and glass-enclosed courtyard. However, for much of the Gallery's span, it turns blank walls to the street. Entrants may choose to address the problem of re-connecting the interior and exterior spaces of the Gallery.
• Connecting Market East to Chinatown: The vibrant streets, shops, restaurants, and markets of Chinatown sit just to the north of Market East. Yet they feel like completely separate areas. To get to Chinatown from Market Street requires crossing under dark tunnels. Additionally, the Convention Center also turns blank walls to Chinatown, not capitalizing on the potential connectivity. Entrants may look at the relationship between Market East and Chinatown.
• Connecting to the Central Business District: The major office towers of the central business district are separated from Market East by the massive walls of City Hall. Entrants could consider new types of visual connectivity between the east and west sides of City Hall, utilizing the City Hall Courtyard, new roadway or crossing configurations, wayfaring signage, vertical connections, etc.
• Connecting to Independence Mall: Millions of tourists annually visit Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Constitution Center. However, just to the east, instead of inviting restaurants and shops are blank walls, office buildings, and shabby retail. There is no visual connectivity between Market East and Independence Mall, no directional signage, and no viable reason for tourists to venture east. Entrants may look at ways to change this relationship, with a particular emphasis on the Federal Court House and the Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters on the north and south corners of 6th and Market Streets.
• Connecting to the New Convention Center: The convention center is about to undergo a major expansion, with new buildings along Arch Street spanning to Broad Street. Currently Market East has some connections with the convention center. The historic Reading Terminal Headhouse, for example, connects from Market Street to the convention center, Market East Station, and the Reading Terminal Market. However, these types of connections between Market East and the Convention Center are not as integrated as they could be. Entrants may consider new types of connectivity.
• Connecting Market Street: The North and South sides of Market Street feel very disconnected. The North side holds the Gallery, and the south side contains low-rise, street-level retail. Entrants could think about connecting the existing developments on both sides of the street, or how new development could build a stronger relationship, balancing the two sides of the street.
• Other Ideas: Entrants are encouraged to exercise creativity, and to identify other problems not discussed here as their area of focus.