Perhaps you've enjoyed a day walking around Philadelphia, pretending that you're a tourist and not a cynical resident of this wonderful yet frustrating town. And what a pleasure it is to be a tourist in Philadelphia, seeing things through more innocent eyes, snapping photos of the Liberty Bell, the Italian Market, and LOVE Park. These days though, LOVE Park is closed to the public thanks to a long planned renovation effort, with fencing covering over the progress from prying eyes and camera lenses.
Demolition activity began this past winter, and though it hit a bit of a snag in June due to some infrastructure issues, it appears as though the demo work is now pretty much finished. With the demo work seemingly done, there's now the small matter of putting the park back together. Per Plan Philly, the $16.5M effort will include swaths of new green space, a smaller fountain with an adjacent water element, an artistically reimagined Welcome Center that includes a cafe of some kind, and of course the return of the Robert Indiana LOVE scupture. Hargreaves Associates has the lead on the design effort, with Kieran Timberlake handling the renovation of the Welcome Center. These renderings are almost a year old but should still largely apply.
Perhaps our favorite thing about this effort, aside from the fact that the park was looking much worse for wear in this its 51st year, is that it will add a large amount of new green space to one of the most prominently located parks in Philadelphia. And that the renovation comes in at a price that's a mere 30% of what it cost to redo Dilworth Plaza around the corner, this seems like good value for money to boot. The timeline for the project expects completion in the spring of 2017, and while we fully expect some delays on that timeline, we can't wait to see the finished project in person.