Changing Skyline: Rejuvenation plan offers brighter future for Philadelphia's Kimmel Center

If the giddy atmosphere of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts has accomplished anything in the last few weeks, it has been to remind the city why it was once in love with the Kimmel Center.

It promised to be a great popular gathering spot, but the romance lasted hardly longer than the sheen on the Kimmel's pleated glass roof. Within months of its opening in 2001, Philadelphians had amassed a litany of grievances against the building. They were put off by the fortified brick walls, the barren interior plaza, the broiling temperatures in the rooftop garden, the acoustically challenged Verizon Hall, the hard-to-find restrooms, and, perhaps most of all, the lack of anything resembling a vibe.

But since the plaza was taken over by PIFA-sponsored wine tastings, hip-hop dance parties, and a twinkling, 81-foot-high Eiffel Tower, the Kimmel has been bursting with vibe. On Saturday afternoon, at an hour when no major events were scheduled, dozens of people were hanging out under the Kimmel's snow-globe roof, doing nothing more than enjoying the filtered sun rays. My guess is that the plaza will remain abuzz - until PIFA goes poof on Sunday.

The Kimmel now has a chance to reclaim that PIFA sizzle, but only if management can muster the will and the money to implement a bold and brilliant rejuvenation plan to pump life into architect Rafael Viñoly's prematurely old building.

Completed almost two years ago by Philadelphia's KieranTimberlake, many details of the master plan had been kept under wraps until this week, when the Kimmel's board agreed to show it to The Inquirer. The details were about to leak because of a June vote in City Council to allow a sidewalk cafe on Spruce Street, one of three starter improvements that the plan recommends.

Of course, people have been talking about fixing the Kimmel virtually since the day it opened. After chief executive officer Anne Ewers took over in 2008, she asked the nonprofit Penn Praxis group to explore concrete ways to improve the building. KieranTimberlake, which has designed several fine theaters, was hired to expand those findings into a formal master plan.