Competition Program

Penn Center garden opening to subway concourse at 15th Street. City Hall is the structure at top left.
Click for enlargement

When it was built in the 1960s, Penn Center was one of the nation's largest and most prominent downtown development projects. Today, Penn Center is one of Philadelphia's central urban spaces — a combination of plazas and office towers. It is located in the heart of Center City, at the eastern end of Philadelphia's business district. Penn Center contains a public plaza, nestled between high-rise office buildings, spanning two city blocks. The plaza is currently highly underutilized by the public. Penn Center sits above an extensive below-grade concourse that connects offices, shops, the Municipal Services Building and City Hall to Philadelphia's public transportation system — including subway and trolley service, and regional rail lines to other city neighborhoods and to the suburbs.

Objectives

The program asks entrants to put forth ideas to revitalize the streetscape and urban environment in and around the Penn Center public plaza. Successful entrants will consider how Penn Center is used by residents of Philadelphia, those who work in its surrounding offices, and by the millions of visitors who travel to Philadelphia each year. Entrants are expected to:

• Understand the successes and failures of Penn Center in order to respond to the current state of the site
• Create new amenities and uses for Penn Center in order to revitalize the space, and activate the public plaza
• To rethink Philadelphia's rich urban spaces, as a world city catering to today's user

Documents Provided

• Site plan (pdf) (updated 8/7/06)
• Submission form (pdf)
• Existing conditions aerial and photos

Boundaries

The program boundaries are Market Street to the South and John F. Kennedy Boulevard to the North. The east is bounded by City Hall and 17th Street to the west. While not the focus, entrants should keep in mind that Penn Center is one of several semi-connected public plazas around City Hall, including LOVE Park, Dilworth Plaza, and Muncipal Services Building Plaza.

Program Elements

Successful entries will rethink the use of Penn Center and devise an original and inspired plan for its future utilization. The existing plaza should be re-imagined with limits set only by the imagination. Participants should develop an individualized program based on their design for the revitalization of Penn Center, considering ways to create a cohesive design that promotes the growth of Penn Center as a destination as well as a crossroads. Some suggested areas of focus include:

• 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.
• Urban Solution
  Penn Center is an intrinsic and central element of Philadelphia's Center City. Solutions should be urban in character and appropriate for the site's downtown setting.
• Connectivity
  Entrants are encouraged not to think of the project site in isolation, rather to pay attention to how it relates and connects to the important urban spaces and destinations surrounding it including City Hall, the business District, Avenue of the Arts, and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Penn Center was built at the same time as other nearby public plazas (City Hall's Dilworth Plaza, LOVE Park, and Municipal Services Building Plaza) that could become more connected and share aesthetic elements and programming concepts established by Penn Center's revitalization.
• Sense of Place
  The Penn Center plaza currently has little identity of its own. Entrants are encouraged to create design solutions to turn the plaza into a destination, creating a recognizable identity, and a greater degree of prominence in Philadelphia's downtown. Penn Center is a barren area with few defining features, amenities (outdoor seating, concessions, street furniture, etc.), or public art. Entrants may add such elements with care given to view corridors, location, and sun angles.
• Pedestrian Crossings
  The Penn Center plaza is a pedestrian space; however, there are no mid-block crosswalks or other methods for pedestrian movement between the blocks. Entrants may devise a method of awareness for both the pedestrian and driver, facilitating a method of safer travel. The corners of Penn Center are treated like every other in Philadelphia's street grid. Entrants might consider if they should be treated differently.
• Vertical Connections
  Entrants may consider the three-dimensional, vertical aspects of Penn Center, as well as the ground-level elements.
• Sustainability
  The revitalization of Penn Center should be a long-term solution, shaping Philadelphia's future. For these reasons, care should be given to using sustainable, durable materials, and green construction techniques.
• Creativity and Vision
  Ed Bacon's concepts were often bold, visionary ideas that would redefine a space. Entrants are encouraged to think big, creatively, and three dimensionally.