Think fresh. Dare even to think big.
Small, quick and doable should not be the mantra for developing the prime Philadelphia waterfront at Penn's Landing, now that big-talk-no-action developer Melvin Simon is history.
Don't downsize the vision. Instead, let's see the venue's true potential, then expand it. Waste no time ruing the flight of the nation's largest shopping mall builder. More and more, it seemed what Simon Group planned on the waterfront would have been an enclosed white elephant.
Now is the time for the city, the Penn's Landing Corp. and the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) to expand the horizon.
For openers, don't limit the discussion to that 12-acre sliver of waterfront. That just encourages self-contained plans from developers who need to extract bang for their buck, resulting in proposals that crowd the site, block river views and turn their back on the city.
The 20-story Hyatt hotel and 242-unit Dockside high-rise already have done enough of that in the neighborhood.
A quick survey of people with planning and development savvy turned up a few key principles:
(1) Look past the considerable barrier of Interstate 95 to Old City, Market Street and Independence Mall. Dream of ways to connect the riverfront to all that vibrancy.
(2) Don't block river views or turn Penn's Landing's back to the city.
(3) Think open design, not enclosed.
Jeffrey Rhodes of Lower Merion, formerly a principal in Urban Investment & Development Co., has done big projects in several cities. He recommends thinking big here, specifically: If I-95 is a problem - and, boy, is it - then cover it up.
He mused upon a grand plan to cover I-95 from Market Street to at least Walnut, but preferably to South Street. Yes, that means turning the highway into an underpass. It would require federal or state funding that seems implausible at this fiscal moment.
But don't undersell what a can-do governor and activist congressional delegation might be able to raise in service of a bold vision to defend and expand the vitality of a great city.
Mr. Rhodes notes that Copley Place in Boston was built atop the Massachusetts Turnpike. Both he and Philadelphia architect Jorge Lovera envision a blossoming of retail, restaurants and residences in the space that would be created.
Such high-end development might enable less dense, more open and civic uses for Penn's Landing.
