The North Delaware Waterfront
Philadelphia
The City of Philadelphia initiated a large and comprehensive urban design and planning effort in 2001 to revitalize 11 miles of largely obsolescent riverfront land totaling some 3500 acres along the North Delaware River. The study area runs from north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge adjacent to Center City to the County Line. Currently the site is underutilized, with a mix of utilities, some viable industries, various small manufacturing and distribution functions, some pockets of residential use. One third of the land area is either vacant or marginally used. The predominance of these uses together with the parallel alignments of Interstate 95 and the N.E. Rail Corridor along the length of the site have effectively severed this area and the river itself from the city and its neighborhoods. While the area is seen as a great strategic resource for Philadelphia, the study raised multiple challenges including overcoming the formidable barriers, designing a new infrastructure which permit portions of the lands to be opened up to new uses, dealing with the vast scale of the area and need for immediate actions that demonstrate the site's potential as well a long term strategy that preserves desirable flexibility. Ken Greenberg provided urban design and strategic planning advice to a multi-disciplinary team led by Field Operations of Philadelphia.