Changing Skyline: Perking up the Parkway

Other than building a cafe or restaurant on 20th Street, the Barnes' options are few. Fairmount Park, which rules the parkway, objects to visible commerce on the boulevard. But there may be a way out of the dilemma - bicycles.

The 20th Street corner is the perfect spot for a rental kiosk. Some might argue that the humble bicycle is an unlikely companion for an aristocratic art palace such as the Barnes, but remember that the museum intends to adhere to high environmental standards. What's greener than a bike? It sure beats a 26,000-square-foot bus drop-off.

The Barnes' corner is also the entry point to the great Kelly Drive bike path. A short excursion is a perfect way for visitors to relieve museum fatigue - or to visit the parkway's other cultural outposts. To avoid a kiosk that detracts from the Barnes' elegance, the foundation could hold a design competition. And if the proposed structure included a cafe, so much the better.

Fairmount Park also has been thinking about bikes. In March, it will begin reconfiguring the parkway to eliminate one car lane in each direction in the local travel sections. The space it gains will provide land to widen the sidewalks and improve access for bikes. The bike lanes are being shifted to the local sections.

Meanwhile, to make it easier to cross the formidable parkway, Fairmount Park will widen the central median from six to 18 feet to enlarge the comfort zone for pedestrians. By the end of 2010, all the sidewalks and landscape edges will be upgraded to the park's elegant new standard. The long-overdue improvements are a dramatic reflection of the city's shift in priorities: It's not just about moving cars anymore. Pedestrians and bicyclists are finally getting equity on the streets.

Even PennDot is going with the new program. The final piece of the improvements will come when the state begins rebuilding a series of bridges supporting the crossings over the Vine Street Expressway. As part of the project, which could start in 2013 (just as the Barnes opens!), PennDot will cap one of the four ventilation openings in front of the Free Library for another vest-pocket park, on a remnant of Logan Square. It also will add sidewalks on Vine Street.

But the state says that capping the other three openings would be just too costly. Maybe so. But there will never be another chance like this to repair the damage done to the square by the expressway.

The Barnes architects say they envision visitors wending their way through the 20th Street gardens before discovering the museum entrance. That's a lovely idea. But surely the best part of any journey is the distractions we encounter along the way. Let's have more of them.

Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.