Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanyika
Thanks for your remarks at the commission meeting, Jay. You spoke very well. I am astonished, though, that during the entire presentation, none of the commissioners mentioned the significance of the Sedgley Porter's House — one of the small jewels of Fairmount Park. Establishing proper historical context for the early 20th-century filling station is important, but the 220-year-old Porter’s House by Latrobe is irreplaceable. It seems, in fact, if I understood them correctly, that there are plans to park truck trailers in front of it, blocking views from the park. Incredibly, nobody challenged that.
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Sort of understandable as the statutory makeup of the Art Commission doesn’t necessarily include any architectural historians.
The Art Commission shall be composed of eight appointed members and the Commissioner of Public Property. Of the appointed members, one each shall be a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a landscape architect, a member of the Commission on Parks and Recreation, and an experienced business executive, and two shall be members of a faculty or governing body of a school of art or architecture.
The current members and their professional roles are listed here (scroll to bottom):
https://www.phila.gov/departments/ph...rt-commission/
I’m less sure of exactly where they’re moving the trailers and such to; I had thought to the other side of the Sedgley Porter’s House. I’ll have to review the meeting stream on that point.
By the way, the necessary amendment to the historic designation of the Gulf station was acted upon by the Historical Commission yesterday. Though their earlier approval to move the building implied that the site would be Aviator Park, the City law department determined that the PHC’s earlier action was site-agnostic and as such the designation amendment was easily approved. While designations typically include a building and its site, since the building’s historic period of significance is tied to the 2000 Arch St location, the building will be redesignated as an ‘object’ upon execution of the physical move.
Here is the submission for yesterday’s PHC meeting:
https://www.phila.gov/media/20230208...nt-revised.pdf
“The Law Department reviewed the Historical Commission’s approval of the relocation of the gas station of 14 May 2021 and determined that the approval is valid for moving the gas station to any publicly owned and accessible site in Philadelphia because the primary regulatory question decided at the time was whether the gas station could be moved from its original site, not whether the gas station should be moved to a particular new site.”