Above: A satellite image of what the area surrounding City Hall (center) will look like in 2025. The large white-roofed buildings will make up a mega Pennsylvania Convention Center, which will require the demolition of over 600 buildings.Philadelphia--When the nearly $800 million Convention Center expansion opens in March it will increase the facility's exhibition space to one million square feet. This a massive amount of space to designate to visitors of our fair city, given its intermittent use and placement within the compact urban core and among the multitude of historic structures in Center City. However, one million square feet is minuscule compared to the Convention and Visitor Bureau's master plan.
In 14 short years, the closest independently owned restaurant to City Hall may be north of Spring Garden Street or south of Washington Avenue. A plan to make the Pennsylvania Convention Center the largest exhibition hall in the world was quietly passed unanimously in City Council last month. The plan was attached to the bill that now requires city residents to shovel a 36-inch-wide path along sidewalks within six hours after a snowstorm and a possible $300 fine when failing to do so.
"Having our sidewalks safe for residents is crucial," said Councilman Ben Tormhaus, who represents most of the Clinton Hills Village neighborhood in East Philadelphia. "I was under a lot of pressure to enforce this shoveling bill, even if it means that most of my represented area will eventually succumb to the wrecking ball. They knew we wouldn't refuse the bill no matter what was attached."
People may now have a clear path to walk when it snows, but they won't have a house or apartment to clear a path for. Cutthroat competition in the convention business has forced the city--so they claim--to take such drastic action.
In 14 short years, the closest independently owned restaurant to City Hall may be north of Spring Garden Street or south of Washington Avenue. A plan to make the Pennsylvania Convention Center the largest exhibition hall in the world was quietly passed unanimously in City Council last month. The plan was attached to the bill that now requires city residents to shovel a 36-inch-wide path along sidewalks within six hours after a snowstorm and a possible $300 fine when failing to do so.
"Having our sidewalks safe for residents is crucial," said Councilman Ben Tormhaus, who represents most of the Clinton Hills Village neighborhood in East Philadelphia. "I was under a lot of pressure to enforce this shoveling bill, even if it means that most of my represented area will eventually succumb to the wrecking ball. They knew we wouldn't refuse the bill no matter what was attached."
People may now have a clear path to walk when it snows, but they won't have a house or apartment to clear a path for. Cutthroat competition in the convention business has forced the city--so they claim--to take such drastic action.
"We're growing more and more tired of losing the Button Makers Convention to cities like Las Vegas or Columbus," said Fiona Gimbles, vice president of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, between bits of the Convention Confections. "I don't mean them specifically, although we did end up losing them to Nevada. In general, we don't want to lose any conventions no matter what their size and to accomplish this we need to expand exponentially. It's the only way."
The new facility, which would require the demolition of over 600 buildings, including historic landmarks, would be able to accommodate every convention in the world ... at the same time. It is estimated that nearly 80,000 city residents will be displaced, thereby decimating the third most populous downtown in the nation (only New York and Chicago have larger city center populations).
"This will be huge for Philadelphia," continued Gimbles. "The influx of tourist dollars will really be immeasurable. The businesses that survive demolition will really benefit. I mean, totally benefit."
Planners were asked why the Convention Center is building out instead of up. Destroying what visitors come to this city for in the first place will give them reasons not to visit.
"It's not like we're knocking down Independence Hall or something. We spared most of the parks. Okay, that was because we want conventioneers to have easy access to the downtown parks," said city planner Curt Frommen, head of the nonprofit planning agency Two Philadelphia's: One Philadelphia. "This is why we will be extending the convention center so that it surrounds Logan, Rittenhouse, Washington and Franklin Squares. Visitors can walk out of the convention center and right into one of the parks."
Gone will be most of the business district's skyscrapers, including the Comcast Center, One and Two Liberty Place, the Mellon Building and Bell Atlantic Tower. The iconic landmarks to be lost are too exhaustive to list here but include, the Cathedral SS Saint's Peter and Paul, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kimmel Center, the Barnes Museum (currently under construction), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and parts of the tidal Schuylkill River.
Crowds gathered in protest of the plan yesterday around City Hall, burning a 1:10,000 sized diorama of the Convention Center that displayed a figurine shoveling the styrofoam sidewalk.
"We needed the shoveling bill passed desperately, there's no doubt about that. But we also need places to shovel," cried Dennis Baker, 47, of Old City. "It's all very confusing. I'm protesting, but I'm not sure what I'm protesting."
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