Quote:
Originally Posted by philatonian
I was thinking, if Vine Street was lined with tall buildings, even midrises, the expressway wouldn't be nearly as noticeable. There's a really similar highway that runs through Portland, but because there's so much development on both sides, you kind of forget it's there. I think the problem with 676 has as much to do with Vine Street itself as it does the highway. Maybe if we get more infill like the Mormon apartment building and (hopefully) the Chinatown Tower we'll forget the expressway was ever an obstacle.
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The crux of the idea is basically what you are saying there - plus creating a greenway that feels like a continuation of the Ben Franklin Parkway from the street level, while also adding the amenities and built-in population that it lacks (flanking Vine Street).
It is essentially the same concept as the Penn's Landing redevelopment applied in a different location. Meaning; cover the highway to expand the recreation and tourism, while better connecting the newly desirable development sites to the city at large. One feeds the other.
A full build out might look something like this:
.. I didnt really think the greenway design was really "extravagant" at all! I thought people might balk at how plain most of it would be (half the caps are essentially giant planters with no pedestrian access, just an elevated trail/bridge running above it.) I thought that might provide for a reclusive feel on parts of the trail where the trail is floating in full growth vegetation that blocks out the site noise and imposing build environment. But then the trail would slope back down to ground level plazas with city view/access and amenities on every other cap.
The elevated path could be at ground level the entire way, if that would be more simple... But then the continuous running/biking paths of the Schuylkill/ Parkway and the Viaduct trail would have a disjointed connected (stopping at 9 cross-streets). And a major motivation to designing this greenway was to make that uninterrupted connection so that the City Line would not be (misguidedly) used for it.
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This just has fewer lanes on the BF Parkway, and they are moved to the outside of a central pedestrian mall. There could be more lanes that I show too, just reduced it to 3 each way as a proof of concept (would need traffic data to see how many are really needed - never been on it around rush hour) The only roads that get changed/removed here are 1) Vine Street westbound re-routes through Logan Circle (which may actually be an improvement to traffic flow. And 2) 430' of 19th St (between Logan Circle and Wood) is removed. And that isnt necessary to the overall concept. Southbound traffic on 19th would need to take Callowhill to 21st to regain access BF Parkway and Logan Circle. If that is too disruptive than the Logan Circle park space by the Library would just grow with the new caps, but not taking the 19th St ROW... No biggy.
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