Rooftop Garden

When he was out stumping for the $265 million - and counting - needed to build the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, former Mayor Edward G. Rendell used to say the spot he most looked forward to spending time in was the rooftop garden. It's an exhilarating space. About 85 feet up, the perch offers a view as far south as the airport, and east to the Delaware River and beyond. It was intended as a leafy, urban escape where anyone could have lunch or a cup of coffee. But Rendell will have to find some other place to unwind.

It can take time for a new building to work out all the kinks, even when the architecture is very good. In the case of Rafael Viñoly's Kimmel Center, which falls well short of that mark, the tweaking has been going on for more than a decade. In the last year, the Broad Street performing arts center has finally begun to set things right, starting with the acoustics in its Verizon Hall. The Kimmel hopes to cross another big headache off its list Tuesday, when it reopens the dramatic, but brutally hot, rooftop terrace on top of its Perelman Theater.

When the Montgomery County commissioners toured the Human Services Center in Norristown earlier this year, they were stopped by two workers. Would it be possible to take the forlorn-looking rooftop garden just off the third floor and make it come alive again, the pair wondered? Why not, said the commissioners. On Wednesday, in a mist more nurturing to perennials than people, several hundred county workers gathered to dedicate the not-so-secret garden that now features park-style benches scattered among raised beds of green-and-white hostas and lacy, red maples.

Several Cooper University Hospital employees will be moving into a new 25-unit condominium complex just a couple of blocks away from their employer, in Camden's Cooper Plaza neighborhood. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Thursday to mark the completion of the Cooper Building, a $7 million project completed by Newark, N.J.-based M&M Development L.L.C. Thirteen units, ranging in price from $117,000 to $143,000, have been sold and are ready for move-in. Four units are being reserved for affordable housing and will be listed as low as $53,000 for qualifying families, officials said.

The Kimmel Center will be opening its most pleasant under-glass space to the general public after all. And the end of construction at Perelman Theater once again has been delayed. The rooftop garden at the $275 million-plus Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts will be accessible to the public starting in late March or April, says the center's new president, Janice C. Price. "We will have a big public event to open it," Price said. Anyone, she said, will be able to take the Broad Street glass elevators to the garden atop Perelman Theater to take in the views while stopping by for a morning cup of coffee or a sandwich.

For the second time since it opened in 2001, a deluge fire-sprinkler system in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts discharged a large amount of water by accident - this time flooding the rooftop garden and the Perelman Theater below. No fire was found, but water released Tuesday sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. soaked through the rooftop garden into the theater, its stage, seats and floor, and onto electrical equipment. As a result, this weekend's three performances by the Rennie Harris Puremovement dance company were postponed.

The restaurant is closed, the gift shop shuttered. If you show up at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts just before curtain, the place is lively, and its patrons fill Center City restaurants and garages before and after shows. Most other times, though, the Kimmel Center sits empty and sterile, physical evidence of a promise unfulfilled. Linger too long in the plaza and a security guard will come along and ask you to state your business. The Kimmel was conceived as an energetic public space.

Ten bucks doesn't buy much these days, maybe pastry and a latte. But a sawbuck (and a mere fin for kids under 12) will buy you the bargain of the year at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which is throwing another 15- hour Summer Solstice Celebration, an explosion of musical genres. A wristband will enable you to pop in and out of the facility's six venues all night, sampling your musical bag and maybe something unexpected as well. This is the fourth all-night bash (it didn't work out in 2005)

Mediq chairman Bernie Korman is moving his company's architectural and design subsidiaries into a building that was once a grain elevator for the Union Army. The offices of Medifac, Kenneth Parker Associates and Tishman Speyer/Mediq are slated to move into the granary this spring. Between 150 and 200 people will work at the granary, Korman said. Mediq, with headquarters in Pennsauken, is a healthcare products and services corporation that includes a network of entrepreneurial subsidiaries.

AS YOU TURN THE corner of Broad and Spruce streets or emerge from the subway concourse, the Sid seems to soar into the sky. The sun glints off the accordionlike folds of the 150-foot-high curved glass skylight, giving Rafael Vinoly's bold block-long structure a striking contrast to the traditional buildings surrounding it. On the Broad Street side, where school buses are lined up for the daytime theater shows, a canopy housing the building's restaurant...

It can take time for a new building to work out all the kinks, even when the architecture is very good. In the case of Rafael Viñoly's Kimmel Center, which falls well short of that mark, the tweaking has been going on for more than a decade. In the last year, the Broad Street performing arts center has finally begun to set things right, starting with the acoustics in its Verizon Hall. The Kimmel hopes to cross another big headache off its list Tuesday, when it reopens the dramatic, but brutally hot, rooftop terrace on top of its Perelman Theater.

IT'S AUGUST, and your garden cup overfloweth. Tomatoes, herbs and cucumbers are coming at you fast and furious; the farmer's markets and community-supported agriculture boxes are bursting with fresh produce, beautiful berries and heirloom veggies. If you're feeling like Lucy trying to keep up with the bonbons at the chocolate factory, here's a thought: Why not try drinking some of those fruits and vegetables for a change? Although virgin juicing is one way to go, expert bartenders are finding plenty of inspiration in the garden, using seasonal produce to create cocktails that brim with fresh summer goodness.

When the Montgomery County commissioners toured the Human Services Center in Norristown earlier this year, they were stopped by two workers. Would it be possible to take the forlorn-looking rooftop garden just off the third floor and make it come alive again, the pair wondered? Why not, said the commissioners. On Wednesday, in a mist more nurturing to perennials than people, several hundred county workers gathered to dedicate the not-so-secret garden that now features park-style benches scattered among raised beds of green-and-white hostas and lacy, red maples.

Several Cooper University Hospital employees will be moving into a new 25-unit condominium complex just a couple of blocks away from their employer, in Camden's Cooper Plaza neighborhood. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Thursday to mark the completion of the Cooper Building, a $7 million project completed by Newark, N.J.-based M&M Development L.L.C. Thirteen units, ranging in price from $117,000 to $143,000, have been sold and are ready for move-in. Four units are being reserved for affordable housing and will be listed as low as $53,000 for qualifying families, officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO - On the roof of Glide Memorial Church here, gardeners use wine boxes and coconut coir. In Chicago, they plant on wooden platforms. In New York City, one homeowner installed steel beams. As more people turn to roof gardens to grow their own food, they are coming up with all kinds of ways to keep those plots light, and avert roof sagging and cave-ins. "Weight is a huge factor," says Josephine Quiocho, a project organizer at Graze the Roof, a community garden that grows spinach, mustard, kale, sweet peas, and other crops on Glide Memorial's roof.

The restaurant is closed, the gift shop shuttered. If you show up at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts just before curtain, the place is lively, and its patrons fill Center City restaurants and garages before and after shows. Most other times, though, the Kimmel Center sits empty and sterile, physical evidence of a promise unfulfilled. Linger too long in the plaza and a security guard will come along and ask you to state your business. The Kimmel was conceived as an energetic public space.

Most folks visiting the 2009 Philadelphia Flower Show haven't the room or the desire to have giant columns like the ones illustrating Roman gardens on the Convention Center floor. But Gordon Hawkins does. In fact, he already has four foam and stucco columns, 8 feet tall and topped with mirror gazing balls, in his rooftop garden in Brooklyn. "Italian gardens are pretty formal and so are my columns," he said this week during a spin around the "Bella Italia"-themed Flower Show, which runs through Sunday.

Ten bucks doesn't buy much these days, maybe pastry and a latte. But a sawbuck (and a mere fin for kids under 12) will buy you the bargain of the year at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which is throwing another 15- hour Summer Solstice Celebration, an explosion of musical genres. A wristband will enable you to pop in and out of the facility's six venues all night, sampling your musical bag and maybe something unexpected as well. This is the fourth all-night bash (it didn't work out in 2005)

For the second time since it opened in 2001, a deluge fire-sprinkler system in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts discharged a large amount of water by accident - this time flooding the rooftop garden and the Perelman Theater below. No fire was found, but water released Tuesday sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. soaked through the rooftop garden into the theater, its stage, seats and floor, and onto electrical equipment. As a result, this weekend's three performances by the Rennie Harris Puremovement dance company were postponed.

When planners were out trying to loosen purse strings to help build the $275 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, it was sold as an 18-hour generator of street traffic, a major spark to economic development, a home to indigenous arts groups that would flourish amid an outpouring of new support, and an importer of international cultural riches previously unsampled here. Its leaders dangled a restaurant that would become a destination in its own right, and an architecture so iconic that visitors would flock to tour the building - our version of the Sydney Opera House.