More Park, Less Way
The Benjamin Franklin Parkway evolved
With its signature vistas and sweeping views of the
slowly over its first four decades. From
city, the Parkway is unsurpassed as both an iconic
its initial inception in 1871 as a gateway to Fairmount
image of Philadelphia and as a scenic backdrop for
Park to the current design by French landscape
large-scale events, and yet work remains to be done
urbanist Jacques Greber in 1917, the Parkway has
to truly integrate the Parkway into the urban life of
been shaped by the powerful forces of politics,
the city. Parking dominates Eakins Oval. Pedestrian
progressive planning ideals, and the public interest.
crossings remain difficult despite recent traffic
Envisioned in the early 20th century as a diagonal
improvements. There is a dearth of amenities along
boulevard, lined with Philadelphia’s great cultural
parts of the Parkway. Perhaps most significantly, there
institutions and linking the Philadelphia Museum of
is little to entice the daily user to stop and linger.
Art with City Hall, the City has only partly realized
While the Parkway’s scale and grandeur are able to
that vision for the Parkway. Over the past century,
accommodate events such as parades, charity runs, and
the Parkway became less an elegant pleasure drive to
major concerts, this has been at the expense of creating
the park and more an automotive conduit to the city.
and maintaining the fine-grained and nuanced urban
The redesign in the 1960s of Eakins Oval as a traffic
texture that can draw and retain Philadelphians
circle tipped the balance in favor of the car over the
throughout the day, week, month, and year.
pedestrian experience. More Park, Less Way: An Action Plan to Increase With the release of this action plan, the City of
Urban Vibrancy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia is poised to lead the effort to guide the
focuses on the Parkway from Logan Square to the
next iteration of the Parkway’s history. As a result
Philadelphia Museum of Art. It recommends a series
of the work of the public and private sectors over the
of actions to shape the evolution of the Parkway as a
past decade and a half, the Parkway has evolved from
21st-century public space. The actions include de-
the heavily-trafficked thoroughfare it had become.
signing high-quality urban parks on long-overlooked
There has been a collective impact of significant
parkland; reconsidering how the community accesses
public funding for pedestrian, traffic, and streetscape
the Parkway; programming public space along
improvements; the restoration of buildings and
the Parkway in creative and consistent ways; and
gardens along the Parkway; and the construction of
developing a structure for ongoing management of the
new museum buildings, parks, and amenities: The
Parkway as a special district within the park and city.
boulevard is on the brink of becoming an active player
Together, these actions will bring much-needed urban
in the city’s now-thriving urban landscape.
vitality to Philadelphia’s grand cultural corridor.
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