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| Philadelphia's Reading Viaduct Elevated to Public Park Status |
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 by: Rebel - Havertown, PA
started: 08/29/11 11:46 am | updated: 08/29/11 11:46 am |
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The old Reading Viaduct, becoming a city park? Talks have been going on for eight years to get city officials on board with the idea. Now, the city is in talks with Reading International Co. to take control of the larger section of the viaduct to transform it into an elevated public park.
Meanwhile, the Center City District is working with SEPTA on a legal agreement to create a park on the shorter section of the viaduct owned by the transit agency.
Some compare it with the High Line in New York, a reclaimed rail trestle on Manhattan's west side that has been drawing huge crowds since it opened in 2009.
Others see the Reading Viaduct as a place that could host outdoor concerts and art festivals while also having walking trails and some benches.
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"We have all these beautiful urban views, and yet you feel like you're in a country meadow," said Hamilton Street resident Sarah McEneaney, who has been lobbying for nearly a decade to transform the viaduct into an elevated public park with spectacular, panoramic skyline views.
"It immediately transports you from a bustling urban environment to one much more quiet with a lot of birds and a lot of plants."
"I see it as a gathering place. A great place to ride your bike, go running or have a picnic.â€
"I see it being redeveloped for people in the city to enjoy and become a destination. It will be a community asset for people in the neighborhood and for other people . . . to plan their day to go there and spend the day."
On the recent tour, Sarah McEneaney walked up to the now-closed 9th Street railway station, where she once boarded trains bound for Reading Terminal, and said that she could see a café operating there.
The closed station sits across the viaduct from a building already full of artists' studios, at 915 Spring Garden St.
Candace Vivian, a Northern Liberties photographer:
"I think it would be great if there could be walking trails and some benches, but keep some of the native and local grasses, like they did with the High Line. Maybe they could work with Bartram's Garden or the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, but don't have it too manicured. Keep the integrity of it. It's been a wild place for a long time, it would be nice to keep that same idea."
Already there is much buzz about the Callowhill and Chinatown North area, where several buildings have been converted into artists' studios and loft apartments.
Chinatown North is bound by 8th, 12th, Vine and Spring Garden - roughly the same territory as the Callowhill area.
A restaurant and bar, the Arts Bar, is being planned on Callowhill near 12th Street, next door to Underground Arts, a theater and performance arts space in the Wolf Building. Meanwhile, a music venue is set to open in the old Spaghetti Warehouse, on Spring Garden Street.
And late next year, the old Goldtex factory, at 12th and Wood, is expected to open with 161 apartments, said Matt Pestronk, co-owner with his brother Michael of Post Brothers Apartments
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