July 09, 2024
Provided Image/Gensler
Avenue of the Arts will undergo a $100 million project to enhance the streetscape along South Broad Street from City Hall to Washington Avenue. Work will begin next year on the block between Spruce and Pine streets.
Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts is set to get a series of streetscape improvements that eventually will extend 10 blocks along South Broad Street from City Hall to Washington Avenue.
The $100 million beautification project will be led by Avenue of the Arts, Inc., the nonprofit that develops and markets the cultural district. The first phase will cover the block between Spruce and Pine streets outside the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. It will include new landscaping, sculptures, rotating public art and outdoor performance spaces. The median along Broad Street also will be planted, and new architectural lighting will be installed to enhance the atmosphere at night. Work will begin next spring.
"We've achieved much as an organization over the last 31 years," Laura Burkardt, executive director of Avenue of the Arts, Inc., said in a statement. "Today, the Avenue of the Arts is one of the city's most dynamic mixed-use corridors with thousands of residents and millions of visitors each year. This initiative will add 'world-class arts city' to Philadelphia's renown as a hub of history and sports."
The first phase of the project will be completed by spring 2026 in time for the city's celebrations for the nation's 250th birthday. The city has pledged $1 million from its budget to help fund the beginning of the project, which will rely on a combination of public and private money.
On Tuesday, officials released a series of renderings that show the initial plans along the block outside the Kimmel Center. The area will receive new banners, wayfinding signs, seating areas and sidewalk improvements.
The Avenue of the Arts will undergo a streetscape transformation in the years ahead.
The rendering above shows plans for the sidewalks along the Avenue of the Arts.
New wayfinding signs will improve navigation and access to SEPTA along the Avenue of the Arts.
Developer Carl Dranoff, who serves on the board of the nonprofit, said South Broad Street will become a "lush boulevard" that improves life for residents, theatergoers and people visiting the city. Dranoff Properties owns the condominium tower Arthaus across from the Kimmel Center campus and has other residential projects planned along the Avenue of the Arts.
The corridor is home to the Academy of Music, the Wilma and Miller theaters, and the Ensemble Arts Philly brand that encompasses major performance groups in the city. The future of the stretch has been the subject of some uneasiness after the sudden closure of the University of the Arts and the ending of degree programs at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, both longtime fixtures along the Avenue of the Arts.
The streetscape project is designed by architectural firm Gensler and will be carried out in block-by-block phases. Planners have not yet determined a timeline for the full project to be finished.
