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Penn Center focus of national student design competition

The Ed Bacon Foundation has launched a national student design competition that focuses on Penn Center, a cluster of office buildings in Philadelphia's Central Business District.

The contest, called Imaging Penn Center: A National Student Design Competition to Plan New Life for Philadelphia's Central Civic Space, hopes to bring renewed attention to the development that was designed by renowned city planner Edmund Bacon and built during the 1960s. Bacon died last year.

Penn Center, which sits along Market Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, is located across from City Hall. Aside from office buildings, it also has Suburban Station, a commuter train station, retail, and public plazas. It is considered one of the largest and most ambitious downtown redevelopments of its time and replaced what was referred to as the Chinese Wall, or a massive railroad, that covered eight city blocks.

Penn Center "is vastly underutilized by the public, yet it holds great potential for revitalization," said the foundation in a statement about the competition. The organization said that the contest challenges students to imagine the site's potential, and to generate ideas for restoring the space as a modern Philadelphia epicenter.

The competition is open to any college or university student in the nation studying planning, architecture, urban design or related fields. Prizes total $6,100 with $2,000 for first place winner. Entries are due Sept. 15. Winners will be announced in October. Entries will be judged by a jury of national experts.

The Ed Bacon Foundation is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit established in 2004 with the mission of preserving and strengthening the vision and legacy of Bacon.

For more information, please visit www.edbacon.org/penncenter.