SUMMER 2020
Summer 2020 – IN THIS ISSUE Writing in the midst of the pandemic, we explore many of the ways creative thought and action are used for the enrichment of civic life in Philadelphia, for all citizens, and create our unique urban environment.
FEATURES 10 Public Art in Philadelphia: Looking Back, Looking Ahead by Susan Miller Davis, AIA
DEPARTMENTS
14 Preservation and Placemaking Along Philadelphia's Delaware River Waterfront by Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA
5 EDITOR’S LETTER 6 COMMUNITY 8 UP CLOSE 22 EXPRESSION
ON THE COVER
18 Public Art as Cultural Representation by Andrew Zitcer and Salina M. Almanzar
The City of Philadelphia two Miles in Length and one in Breadth. Inset to: A Mapp of Ye Improved Part of Pennsylvania in America, Divided into Countyes, Townships and Lotts. Surveyed by Thomas Holme. Sold by George Willdey at the Great Toy, Spectacle, and Print Shop, at the corner of Ludgate Street, near St. Paul's, London. 1687. CONTEXT is published by
AIA Philadelphia A Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 215-569-3186, www.aiaphiladelphia.com. The opinions expressed in this – or the representations made by advertisers, including copyrights and warranties, are not those of the editorial staff, publisher, AIA Philadelphia, or AIA Philadelphia’s Board of Directors. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without written permission is strictly prohibited. Postmaster: send change of address to AIA Philadelphia, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Published JUNE 2020
Suggestions? Comments? Questions? Tell us what you think about the latest issue of CONTEXT magazine by emailing context@aiaphila.org. A member of the CONTEXT editorial committee will be sure to get back to you. AIA Philadelphia | context | SUMMER 2020 3
2020 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Paul Avazier, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, President Soha St. Juste, AIA, President-Elect Robert Shuman, AIA, LEED AP, Treasurer John B. Campbell, AIA, ARIAS, RIBA, LEED AP, Past President Rich Vilabrera, Jr., Assoc. AIA, Secretary Brian Smiley, AIA, CDT, LEED BD+C, Director of Sustainability + Preservation Phil Burkett, AIA, WELL AP, LEED AP NCARB, Director of Firm Culture + Prosperity Stephen Kuttner Potts, AIA, Director of Technology + Innovation Erin Roark, AIA, LEED AP, Director of Equity, Diversity + Inclusion Jeff Goldstein, AIA, Director of Design Kevin Malawski, AIA, LEED AP, Director of Advocacy Rob Fleming, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Director of Education Timoth A. Kerner, AIA, Director of Professional Development Danielle DiLeo Kim, AIA, Director of Strategic Engagement Scott Compton, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, PA Director Clarissa Kelsey, Assoc. AIA, Director of PEA Mike Penzel, Assoc. AIA, Director of PEA Tya Winn, NOMA, LEED Green Associate, SEED, Public Member Rebecca Johnson, Executive Director
CONTEXT EDITORIAL BOARD CO-CHAIRS Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA, Drexel University Todd Woodward, AIA, SMP Architects
Oct. 7 - 8
BOARD MEMBERS Wolfram Arendt, AIA, LAYER Architecture David Brownlee, FSAH, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Julie Bush, ASLA, Ground Reconsidered
The Forum on Architecture + Design is AIA Philadelphia’s
Susan Miller Davis, AIA
regional education and expo conference. The Forum focuses
Daryn Edwards, AIA, CICADA Architecture Planning
on curating multidisciplinary educational content for
Clifton Fordham, RA, Temple University
designers, civic leaders, product manufacturers, technology
Fauzia Sadiq Garcia, RA, Temple University
providers, and real estate developers - all the industries that
Sally Harrison, AIA, Temple University
contribute to shaping our built environment. The Forum will be a totally virtual conference experience. Visit www.aiaphiladelphia.org/forum-on-architecture-anddesign for more information.
Timothy Kerner, AIA, Terra Studio Elizabeth Miller, Community Design Collaborative Jeff Pastva, AIA, Bright Common Rachel Simmons Schade, AIA, Drexel University Eli Storch, AIA, Looney Ricks Kiss Franca Trubiano, PhD, University of Pennsylvania David Zaiser, AIA, Whitman Requardt and Associates LLP
STAFF Rebecca Johnson, AIA Philadelphia Executive Director www.aiaphiladelphia.org/forum-on-architecture-and-design
Elizabeth Paul, Managing Editor Tiffany Mercer-Robbins, The Mercer Suite, Layout Designer Laurie Churchman, Designlore, Art Director
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EDITOR’S LETTER
PLACE SUSAN MILLER DAVIS, AIA Public Art Curator/Consultant
PHOTO: SUSAN MILLER DAVIS
HARRIS M. STEINBERG, FAIA Executive Director, Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, Drexel University
William Penn (detail—taken during 2017 restoration), Artist: Alexander Milne Calder. Commissioned by City of Philadelphia
In the weeks since this issue of CONTEXT was completed, the US
Americans from all backgrounds have responded swiftly and admirably
(and the world) has been traumatized by the murder of George
– unleashing a tsunami of protests and civil unrest across the country
Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
in both cities and countryside – heralding the potential for real change
The venomous and dehumanizing tentacles of racism are woven into the conquest of our continent and the establishment of our country.
against the backdrop of a country grappling with an ongoing pandemic and the consequences of an economic freefall.
We have repeatedly averted our gaze from the unyielding legacy of the
As Paul Avazier, AIA Philadelphia president, says eloquently in his
subjugation of Native Americans first by the Spanish in the American
letter to the Community (page 6), “…change starts with each one of
West, and the pernicious chain of events unleashed by the visage of
us, as individuals.”
the first slave ship appearing off the coast of Virginia in August 1619. Actions have consequences, and the veil that blinded us for centuries to the degrading stain of racism in our culture was ripped aside this summer, exposing the venal presence of the systematic, pervasive, structural racism that poisons our daily lives.
As we have strived to communicate in this issue, each of us is a member of many communities, all interconnected. Let us commit to decency, empathy, and determination to be the change we now know must be integral to our lives into the future. We must never forget, and never give up. n
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COMMUNITY
Dear Fellow Members of AIA Philadelphia As we look back at the first half of 2020 it is clear that we have been faced with the need for adaptation, growth, and reflection. But as we enter the second half it is apparent that as architects we cannot just adapt, but we need to evolve and become agents of change. There are different types of change, some changes we have no choice over, such as what we experienced in mid-March. As COVID-19 swept across the world we all shifted into survival mode. The landscape changed and to survive, we had to adapt. After adjusting to work-from-home and virtual everything, and just as we began to think that the worst was over the landscape changed again. The murder of George Floyd and so many others before him is unacceptable. Basic human compassion, equality, and the right to live should not be questions, yet we see inequality, oppression, and disregard for life in acts being committed throughout our society. Our responsibility as architects is to preserve the health, safety, and welfare for the greater public, yet for years this has been ignored when it comes to basic human rights. No longer can we stand silently, no longer can we proceed as though we play no role in this, and no longer can we avoid the grave injustices that many in this world face. As our message proclaimed, WE ARE OUTRAGED! We need to see the world in a whole new way, a truthful way, and we need to hold ourselves accountable for how we affect everything we touch. We want to do the right thing and with good intentions, so it is time to make good on the promises of before and become agents for change. The fact is, racism still exists. It is alive, and we are complicit in its continued existence because too many of us have not accepted or understood the depth of the problem. While many of us are aware of inequities surrounding our profession, too few of us are working on ways to combat those problems. In 1968 Whitney Young gave a keynote address at the AIA Convention, as a direct admonishment to the profession for being blind to inequality. Some improvements have been made since then, and EDI is a genuine topic of conversation and a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. We need to evolve within ourselves, our firms, our chapter, our profession, and our society. To do that we need to ask for help, ask how we can help, and then listen. This will not happen overnight, it will take time, and we need to commit to a sustained focus on these issues until the work is done. As Architects, we are problem solvers with an ability to coordinate and unite people around a common vision. But before real change can occur, we need to be willing to look within ourselves and think about our views and experiences and how they affect our thoughts and actions. You've heard the saying "Be the change you want to see in the world." Well, there really is no better way to say it – change starts with each one of us as individuals. We need to get outside of our comfort zone and knock down the barriers that exist within ourselves. If we all take the time to confront our inherent bias, can you imagine just how far we will have come? Let's be the agents of change we so badly want to be and then let's move forward together – united in a way like never before. Thank you. Sincerely,
Paul J. Avazier, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB President, AIA Philadelphia Associate Principal, Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
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Dear Friends and Colleagues, Every year the Board of AIA Philadelphia reviews our current strategic plan and realigns resources accordingly in order to achieve our goals. Over the past few years, the work of the Context Editorial Committee has produced incredible content for our quarterly publication. I have been impressed with the range, relevance, and intellectual curiosity of our guest editors for each issue. For some time now, we have discussed how to get the Context content online in a more shareable format in order to enlarge the audience for the publication. Surely there are pros and cons between print only and digital only publications and in an ideal world with limitless resources we would continue with both: print and digital. However, obviously resources are not unlimited, and a combination of the COVID pandemic and the necessity to redesign of all AIA and CFAD websites in 2021, has forced our hand to temporarily pause the production of Context in both digital and print versions until some point in 2021. This issue will be digital only and will be the last issue until next year. Sincerely,
Rebecca Johnson Executive Director AIA Philadelphia | Center for Architecture + Design
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UP CLOSE
IN DIALOGUE:
A CONVERSATION WITH SUSAN MILLER DAVIS AND HARRIS M. STEINBERG. “Editors’ note: Covid-19 conquered Philadelphia at warp speed in early March 2020, confronting us with the challenge of completing this issue of CONTEXT from behind the mask of quarantine where Zoom had become an instantaneous electronic town square. Corralled, we carried on our musings on-line about Philadelphia, art and community which we share below. In structure, our dialogue is a paean to the conversations effected with great elan and brio by Gail Collins and Bret Stephens in The New York Times. Our ramblings were wide-ranging and leavened with humor and baking, quite literally, and thus was born the Corona Baking Society – which found its way into the Expressions section at the back of this issue. We offer the following as food for thought.
Harris Steinberg (HMS): So, Susan, how strange has it been to be socially distant for what seems like an eternity? Susan Miller Davis (SMD): Thanks for asking, Harris. As strange as these times are, I know I am incredibly fortunate to have work, a great partner, home, technology to connect with friends and family, as well as working with you on this CONTEXT issue through these weeks. It’s been great to be in communication about a range of topics as well as encouraging our baking adventures. I believe we all are wondering how this current situation will develop over the next few months – not only in terms of what will be open and when, but what are the longterm effects of being isolated for weeks and months? Will we need to rediscover how to be together in the public realm? What will be the effects on the civic environment? I believe we have tried to reflect on these questions in this issue, without answers, but with more questions. HMS: This COVID-19 pandemic has upended life as we know it – particularly public life in the public realm – two essential ingredients to civilization as we know it. Ironically, this issue of CONTEXT is about the relationship between the public realm in its multitude of manifestations and the health and welfare of a city and its people. Being forced to unplug and become distant has changed our perspective about what makes a sidewalk, a street, a square and a park. The sociopetal has become the sociofugal. What is the crisis teaching us? Can we imagine changes in our landscape emerging post-pandemic just as the Fairmount Water Works famously grew from repeated yellow fever epidemics at the turn of the 18th century? What might new systems look like and how might they be manifested spatially through artful placemaking?
SMD: If more people continue to work from home, what does this mean for the public realm? Ironically, it may mean more attention to public spaces – possibly more spaces that are both functional and social, such as community gardens that can be created in almost any neighborhood. It may mean more creative thought given to the nature of accessible public space, where people can see others and feel part of a community like the front steps and front porches in traditional Philadelphia neighborhoods are great opportunities for being together, even when, as today, friends and family members must be apart. Perhaps there will be a resurgence in the use of these types of spaces, and greater attention paid to their value - especially in Philadelphia’s wealth of small and less-travelled streets, the street itself can be a welcoming gathering place.
“I agree that we are faced with difficult recovery [ahead], but all recoveries are difficult, and they are all opportunities…We are part of a vast ecology that we must educate ourselves to understand and help educate everyone to understand. This must be done with kindness and decency. Never give up." – Winifred Lutz, artist (Philadelphia, April 2020) AIA Philadelphia | context | SUMMER 2020 9
Sign of the times: The marquee at Philly's iconic Theater of Living Arts reminds Philadelphians to wash their hands.
My hope is that artists, in particular, will be involved in every aspect of conceiving the next phases of the urban landscape. Perhaps the practice of traditional urban planning will be broadened to include small-scale gestures such as open space designated for small parks for respite, community gardens and/or farms, and athletic areas. Importantly, how can a sense of community be encouraged in parts of Philadelphia that have not traditionally been included or shared public space? How does a city create and maintain safe uses for open space? We have been assertively reminded of the importance of being with others, both those we know and those we only see in passing. Today (April 2020), we go out wearing masks, so we are even more removed from each other. Technology, therefore, has become essential to daily life during the pandemic – enabling many to work from home, stay entertained, teach remotely, participate in family holidays, gatherings and religious services, and chat with friends and family members. But technology does not compensate for being physically and visually together in the urban (or any) community, on a sidewalk or public park, as well as in close community with those we love. HMS: We have talked a lot as we’ve put this issue together about how Philadelphia, at its core, is a place built on an idea. An idea of the individual, equality and inner light within a landmark metropolitan plan with Philadelphia at its center – reflective of both his religious experiment but also doing double duty as an audacious real estate sales tool. Does the legacy of Penn’s experiment still resonate? Are we equal measure pragmatism and idealism? And, has the Penn experiment succeeded or failed? SMD: The latter question has a thousand answers. Perhaps the postpandemic time is an opportunity to reacquaint us – we – the citizens of Philadelphia, with the founding principles of tolerance, acceptance, seeing the “inner light” in all. 10 SUMMER 2020 | context | AIA Philadelphia
It would be amazing if there were a concerted effort to mobilize creative individuals from a range of fields to address this question. Perhaps it could be a year-long manifestation, like “One Book, One Philadelphia,” with multi-faceted responses and opportunities for discussion, participation and reflection. It must include children who are the ones to carry this forward. And, it is imperative that artists and creative people with a wide range of backgrounds be involved in the planning. Philadelphia is still a city of makers, and as “the poorest of the large cities,” with its industrial history, can offer unique opportunities in physical space as well as a sense of community to artists, makers and newcomers. The combination of pragmatism, idealism and opportunity is manifested in a range of pre-pandemic well-established creative ventures, such as NextFab, LaColombe, and Metropolitan Bakery. The growing innovation community includes a wide assortment of fields, such as gene therapy, data analysis, graphic design, food, and technology, and communication. Post-pandemic times will require many previously established small businesses to essentially re-invent themselves. Perhaps creative thought and energy can be encouraged city-wide to generate new ideas and strategies as small businesses reestablish themselves in the new world. HMS: We are all rightfully enthralled by Philadelphia’s groundbreaking city plan which was called “A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania in America” when it was first published in London in 1683. Conceived in 1681, the plan became what is now Center City but which served as the actual City of Philadelphia (Think City of London) until the Act of Consolidation in 1854. Penn brilliantly willed a non-hierarchical grid of streets punctuated by five radical public squares into existence. It not only survives, but thrives today. It is, in essence, a kind of Quaker meeting house as city plan. What does that portrait look like today? How does art reflect place in Philadelphia today? SMD: Philadelphia has grown exponentially since Penn and his surveyor general, Thomas Holmes, printed the iconic plan for Philadelphia. Even more striking, perhaps, is the 1687 map of Philadelphia and the surrounding townships and counties produced by Holmes (and which graces the cover of this issue) which shows that tiny Enlightenment era plan of Philadelphia floating in a crazy quilt of lots designated for “First Purchasers.”
PHOTO : MORRIS LEVIN HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/4.0/
A masked John B. Kelly statue on Kelly Drive morning of 10 April 2020. Courtesy of Philadelphia Inquirer: https:// www.inquirer.com/photo/inq/coronavirus-covid-19-philadelphia-new-jersey-pictures-20200406.html
Public artwork, likewise, has developed both in type, form and location. In many instances, current public art projects reflect and celebrate their neighborhoods. Recent projects such as “El Gran Teatro de la Luna” (Rafael Ferrer, 4th and Lehigh Streets); “River of Life” (Masayuki Nagase, Venice Island Recreation Center), “Coordinates of Play,” (Ben Volta and students, AMY Northwest Middle School); “Object for Expression” (Warren Holzman, Hawthorne Park); “A Quest for Parity,” the memorial sculpture at City Hall honoring Augustus V. Catto (Branly Cadet), all honor and celebrate a range of aspects of Philadelphia’s collective community and history, connected to specific locales. The list is wonderfully long and varied, and is a celebration not only of the social diversity of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, but of artists’ responses (both permanent and temporary) to a wide range of physical and community circumstances HMS: We both view the term “creative placemaking” with a jaundiced eye – after all Philadelphia has a long and storied tradition of merging art and place – I think of Latrobe’s elegant pump house at Centre Square as just one manifestation of a rich and varied tradition where Philadelphia’s designers elevate the quotidian to art. Why do you think that creative placemaking has captured the public imagination today as a term of art and what does it say about the arc of Philadelphia’s development as a place that takes art and placemaking seriously over a long period of time? It’s not just about food trucks and pop-up beer gardens, after all. SMD: I agree that the concept of “creative placemaking” has captured the national public imagination in a wide range of manifestations. Perhaps the term represents a goal that is achievable, in ways that the broad public believe have an immediate social value to a community – from playgrounds and walking paths to pop-up beer gardens and performance opportunities. In my experience I understand that the concept of public art is outside the experience of many people, and is often perceived as an add-on, an additional cost to developers and governments, without broad benefits. The irony in this thinking is that artists are conceptual thought leaders, in whatever project may be conceived.
HMS: If you were to look back at Philadelphia from the year 2100, what would you hope to see in terms of our art and placemaking traditions. What is the best of them that we hope will survive the pandemic of 2020? What do we need to do to ensure that they do? SMD: It’s interesting – 2100 isn't that far away. I hope that having been in isolation for an extended period people will be hungry not only for activities where large numbers of people happen to be, such as athletic or performance events, but also that we will have increased interest, compassion, and openness to those around us, both those we love, those we tolerate and those we don’t know, and that the nature of public space will both encourage and support our revived appreciation. I hope there will be continuing successful efforts to create public spaces incorporating art, even in concept, both exterior and interior, that reflects Philadelphia’s unique landscape and history, such as the Rail Park, expansion of the River Trails, the Globe Dye Works as an art center, the new expanded NextFab, and the community garden at Bartram’s Garden. No matter how familiarly and matter-of-factly we view our City, with its grid of streets and magnificent City Hall, open space, our two very different and poetic rivers, our connection to the founding of the United States (a creative idea of the highest order), our industrial heritage – in some sense we should always be reminded of Philadelphia’s unique position, even with its many problems, concerns, and challenges, as a city of possibilities, if we can accept the challenges, we can use our creative forces, both collectively and individually, in a range of ways and scales, to meet shared goals and to reach out, to embrace our grittiness, and never give up. n Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA is the executive director of the LIndy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University and a leader in urban planning. Susan Miller Davis, AIA is a public art curator and consultant and former director of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority's Percent for Art Program.
John James Barralet. "Centre Square. Erected in 1800. Taken Down in 1828." Philadelphia: Public Ledger, 1860.. http://www.waterworkshistory.us/PA/Philadelphia/1860Barralet.jpg
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PHOTO: SUSAN MILLER DAVIS
A Quest for Parity: Memorial to Octavius V. Catto, Artist: Branly Cadet. Commissioned by City of Philadelphia.
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PUBLIC ART IN PHILADELPHIA: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD BY SUSAN MILLER DAVIS, AIA
PHOTO: "'CLOTHESPIN,' CLAES OLDENBURG, 1976" BY THOM WATSON IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” * When times are uncertain and precarious (as they are in March/April 2020, as we prepare this issue), why bother with public art? Of course, the same question can be asked as well when times are good: why should a city like Philadelphia impose requirements for the alleged well-meaning imposition of “art” that few people seem to agree upon, and that will require care and maintenance? And what do these questions have to do with Philadelphia’s heritage of public art, particularly at this anxious time? One may say that the legacy of public art in Philadelphia, particularly the initial concept that led to the first two publicly-mandated programs in the United States, was founded with an inherent realization of these questions. But more importantly, the foundation of Philadelphia’s public art tradition was and remains the premise that all citizens of Philadelphia deserve access to art as a basic right and benefit of citizenship. As William Penn expressed in his founding of the City of Philadelphia, citizens were not to be denied privileges based on beliefs or class, but that all were equal as “neighbors and friends.” In October 1958, Michael von Moschzisker, attorney and first chair of the then newly formed Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, decried what he perceived as the absence of art in the architecture of post-World War II Philadelphia, when many of the City’s older buildings were torn down and replaced with what he perceived as banal concrete boxes. His vision was to require public art as a component of new buildings, for the benefit of all citizens. He stated in an impassioned speech to a national conference of newspaper editors: “Too often in modern buildings the work of art is an afterthought—a piece of decoration added to fill a space that is felt to be too empty. Ideally the work of art should be a focus around which the harmony of the whole building and site evolves—inseparable from the design.” Von Moschzisker’s vision proposed a commitment from developers working with the Redevelopment Authority in all neighborhoods to spend 1% of construction costs for a work of public art. Over 60 years, this idea has grown and transformed into a range of public art projects and programs unimaginable and inconceivable in the mid-20th century. Among the notable Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority early projects, reflecting how even great works are vulnerable to the effects of time and changing human priorities, are the works commissioned
for Centre Square in the mid-70’s. The building owner, working with the PRA, commissioned sculptor Alexander Calder to design eight large colorful banners to be hung from the ceiling of Centre Square. On display for several years, the Calder banners, with sculpture ”Milord la Chamarre” (Jean Dubuffet) located prominently at the lobby’s center, and “Clothespin” (Claes Oldenburg) located at the building’s entrance, Centre Square established itself as a destination. Unfortunately, a few years later, a major lobby renovation at Centre Square resulted in the banners’ removal and storage, with the duBuffet relocated to an inappropriate, if visible, location outside the building on
Clothespin, Artist: Claes Oldenburg. Commissioned by Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and Jack Wolgin.
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PHOTO: KEVIN EDLING
Flow, Artist: Lyn Godley. Commissioned by SugarHouse Casino.
•
PHOTO: JEFF FUSCO
Market Street. In subsequent years, the banners, each in its own plastic container, were lost. Successive owners were not interested in searching for them, and the banners seemingly vanished forever. But perseverance prevailed, and the eight banners are now being conserved, and have been donated to the Free Library of Philadelphia where they will be soon permanently displayed, safe at last. Philadelphia’s sister Percent for Public Art program, based in the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, also celebrated its 60thanniversary in 2019. The program is responsible for public art projects in every neighborhood throughout Philadelphia, regardless of the neighborhood’s socio-economic status. Recent examples include Sturgis Playground (Oak Lane), Smith Playground (Fairmount Park), Venice Island (Manayunk), and the SWAT facility (Northeast). To support the Percent for Art program, Margot Berg, director, has succeeded in achieving uniform and complete enforcement of the Percent for Art requirement, which many cities do not require. Philadelphia’s tradition as a center for public art goes back to the 19th century, when the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) was founded by civic leaders with the intention of placing both commemorative and otherwise notable works of sculpture along what is now Kelly Drive, and in locations throughout the Park. Since then, the Association for Public Art has continued to broaden and enlarge its scope, bringing interactive public events and art projects throughout Fairmount Park, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the City. These events and projects include many diverse artworks and installations throughout Fairmount Park and the City, both temporary and permanent. Among other notable and ever-evolving public art programs that continue to contribute to Philadelphia’s national recognition as a center for public art include The Village of Arts and Humanities, Mural Arts Program, and the Asian Arts Initiative: The Village was an early arts organization to respond to the needs and realities of a particular neighborhood in North Philadelphia. The program not only creates public art projects, but provides art-making opportunities for youth and their families, based in their heritage and neighborhood. Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies, Artist: Cai Guo-Qiang. Commissioned by Association for Public Art with Fung Collaboratives.
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PHOTO: DAVID GUINN PHOTO: CONRAD BENNER
•
Mural Arts Program, which has made Philadelphia the “City of Murals,” grew out of the Anti-Graffiti Network established in the mid-1980’s to give graffiti artists a more productive way to utilize their creativity. Since those early days, MAP has grown and evolved into a multi-faceted program deeply rooted in social justice and community involvement. • Asian Arts Initiative, based in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, is a multi-disciplinary, community- based organization, with a deep belief in creating community through the power of art, connecting cultural expression to social change. All of these programs, and many others throughout the City, not only address issues of civic concern evolving over time utilizing the force of art and creativity, but also clearly illustrate the power of creative thought in on-going attempts to address difficult civic issues. A notable thread between the City’s long-standing programs and those self-generated in particular communities is often an effort to address a specific civic concern or issue, utilizing imaginative thought and art, and involving members of the community in this action. David Guinn, an artist living near Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia, became part of a community discussion in his neighborhood concerning late-night, disruptive gatherings on a small, dark nearby street. Utilizing grant money Mr. Guinn had received, the community’s discussion led to the creative and affirmative decision to enhance Percy Street as a positive destination by enlivening the previously dark and tucked-away street with light and color. Neighbors gathered on several occasions (and continue to do so) to plan events in the street, discuss other funding opportunities, and work together to create and maintain a light- and color-filled space that is now a destination for the best reasons. The scope, breadth and forms of expression of public art in Philadelphia continue to evolve as the City evolves, as neighborhoods develop, grow and change, and most significantly, as the concerns, challenges and issues of life in Philadelphia shift and change in both positive and negative ways. The force of creative thought is evident in a range of projects and programs, varying in size, type, execution, goals, and funding sources. Funding is a critical component of achieving anything in the arts, including public art projects of any size. As Philadelphia’s citizens we are fortunate to have major institutions such as the William Penn Foundation, which gives thoughtful attention, resources and support for the betterment of civic and communal life in our city. Even with the Foundation’s understated public presence, such programs as Reimagining the Civic Commons (a collaborative initiative with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation) have had a notable and lasting effect on various communities throughout the City. Working with the Fairmount Park Conservancy and several other public space leaders, five major public spaces (Bartram’s Mile, Discovery Center, Centennial Commons, Lovett Library, the Rail Park) have been created for the benefit of all citizens. In this time of concern and anxiety, when throughout Philadelphia (and around the world) citizens are on lockdown, and social distancing is the new normal, as humans seeking contact and expression we (of all ages) find creative opportunities for positive action. As the Philadelphia
BEFORE AFTER
Percy Street (before); Electric Street (Percy Street after), Artist: David Guinn. Funded by The Knight Foundation.
Inquirer reported in March 2020): “The rush of creative energy is coming from all angles: professional artists, shut out of museums and galleries, and families, stranded and stir-crazy at home.” From chalked rainbows on streets and sidewalks to socially-distant dancing for all ages in certain neighborhoods at agreed-upon times to the Mural Arts banners reminding everyone about handwashing, to Facebook groups such as One Philly Art, encouraging over 2,000 responders to enliven their front doors and windows with an array of drawings, paintings and crafts, to one person using her front door as a daily changing art gallery (responding to neighborhood requests), the types and forms of expression seem boundless, joyful and necessary. In these troubling times with no clear path ahead, artistic and creative expression supports and enhances community, both collectively and as individuals, and offers the important reminder that we are sharing this experience together. Creative expression in its many forms will encourage us not only to prevail, but to connect with each other in life-affirming, hopefully longlasting, ways. n *Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
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PRESERVATION AND PLACEMAKING ALONG PHILADELPHIA'S DELAWARE RIVER WATERFRONT BY HARRIS M. STEINBERG, FAIA
BY HARRIS M. STEINBERG, FAIA
PHOTO: JAMES ABBOTT
Cherry Street Pier Pre-Construction, (Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation.)
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Note: This article was originally published in the fall 2019 issue of PORTUS: The international on-line magazine of RETE, the Association for the Collaboration between Ports and Cities.
PHOTO: FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA
Abstract Cities around the world are discovering new uses for their waterfronts. Long viewed as dirty and disreputable vestiges of old economies, waterfronts are now the vanguards of 21st century urban design. Shining examples from Vancouver to Barcelona and Oslo demonstrate the power of a revitalized waterfront as an urban planning magnet. As changes in shipping and transportation, warehousing and the decline of river-dependent industries have remade the social, economic and environmental edges of our cities, many planners see existing portrelated building stock as a boon to developers and city leaders seeking to create amenities and environments that will attract and retain business, industry, and residents along with providing goods and services. Today’s planners also recognize the power of creative placemaking [1] as they seek to augment and enhance the authentic character of the water’s edge by interlacing contemporary art offerings, local food, programming and performances. In Philadelphia, historic preservation, adaptive re-use and creative placemaking are changing the way we think about waterfronts as public spaces designed to catalyze economic development along the central Delaware River waterfront. Preservation and Placemaking Along Philadelphia’s Delaware River Waterfront Philadelphia is a city of 1.58 million people located in the southeastern corner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania between the cities of New York and Washington, DC along the Eastern seaboard of the United States. As the principal city of one of the original 13-British North American colonies, Philadelphia and its Delaware River port played an important role in United States history despite being situated 100-miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean. With a deep and protected port and easy access to plentiful raw materials in the hinterland, Philadelphia was a major colonial economic hub before growing to become an industrial powerhouse in the period between the American Civil War (1861-65) up to the end of World War II (1945) - earning the sobriquet “Workshop of the World.” By mid-20th century, Philadelphia’s fortunes, like many formerlyindustrial Northeastern cities, began to fade. With the advent of the interstate highway system and the flight of industry to green fields in the South, Philadelphia entered a nearly-fifty-year period of depopulation, deindustrialization and disinvestment. The port, once Philadelphia’s
lifeline to the world, began to shrink in importance as many port-related industries and functions shuttered. The Penn’s Landing Corporation was created in 1970 to oversee the development of a revitalized Delaware River waterfront on 35-acres of public land adjacent to the city center. Despite repeated attempts to entice large-scale development such as residential and office towers, festival markets and entertainment complexes, the costs to build on river fill on a strip of land severed from downtown by both an interstate highway and a wide surface road required large government subsidies – making development of this scale nearly impossible. In 2004, portions of the riverfront itself were eyed by state legislators as the location for two gaming casinos. At the same time, Philadelphia was experiencing the first increase in population since 1950 [3] and the neighborhoods along the central Delaware riverfront [4] were seeing shifts in demographics from once ethnic working-class enclaves to ones now attracting artists, young adults (millennials) and returning retirees (baby boomers). Simultaneously, a real estate boom in neighborhoods along the river fueled by a city property tax-abatement and easy access to credit before the 2008 global market crash placed pressure on local officials to respond to a growing community backlash against gated communities and speculative and large-scale development – including casinos. At this time, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the Penn’s Landing Corporation had lost the public trust as there were no progressive plans to guide the development of the waterfront. PennPraxis [5], a non-profit arm of the University of Pennsylvania, was asked to lead a public planning effort in 2006 for 1,100-acres of former industrial land along a 7-mile stretch of largely privatized riverfront. [6] More than 200-public meetings were attended by over
“The Philadelphia of to-day, the world's greatest workshop: America's largest home city with more home owners than any other city in the world”, 1908, (Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/79695059/)
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PHOTOS: PMA ARCHIVES
“Master Plan for the Central Delaware”, 2011. Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
4000-Philadelphians across a 13-month period to inform the planning process. The resulting Civic Vision for the Central Delaware [7] put forth the recommendation to extend Philadelphia’s street grid across the waterfront post-industrial properties. Organized around a series of waterfront parks located every ½-mile connected by a continuous riverfront trail, the vision led with public space and public waterfront access. Thus, establishing a framework for development that would “tame” the large and inaccessible former-industrial properties that were separated from the city by the breach of Interstate 95 and reclaim the water’s edge for the citizens of Philadelphia. The plan was not met with universal acceptance. Developers felt that the imposition of a street grid was an illegal taking of private property and longshoreman viewed the plan as a threat to their way of life. Despite these obstacles, the plan moved from a civic vision based on shared values to an approved master plan [8] by the then-reformed Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) and it was officially adopted by the Philadelphia Planning Commission in 2012.
Adaptive Reuse and Creative Placemaking as a Catalyst for a New Waterfront Identity It is important to note that much of the historic building fabric along the central Delaware has been lost with the construction of Interstate 95 in the 1970s and 80s, the decline of industry and the relocation of former Delaware River port functions to other parts of the city. Still, enough historic fabric remained to inform an urban design identity for the new district and as a way to demonstrate the value of heritage preservation and adaptive reuse in placemaking. To show that change could come quickly to the central Delaware after decades of false starts dependent on mega-projects, DRWC now focused on a number of early action projects designed to express the planning principles of public access, identity and connectivity as the leading edge of change. Along with creating portions of the riverfront trail along with some new parks on the 7-mile stretch of river, the following three bellwether projects - the transformation of two former municipal piers (Piers 9 and 11) into public spaces and the repurposing of an outdated high-pressure fire water pumping station as an arts venue - serve as an exemplar for urban design excellence, adaptive
PHOTO: NEAL SANTOS PHOTO: MATT STANLEY
On the left: Race Street Pier, Pier 9 and Fringe Arts Building from Benjamin Franklin Bridge, (Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Photo credit: Matt Stanley). On the right: Race Street Pier Promenade, (Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Photo credit: Neal Santos)
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PHOTO: PEGGY WOOLSEY
Western Civilization, Paul Jennewein
PHOTO: JOHANNA AUSTIN
Interior of reclaimed pumping station as restaurant at FringeArts, 2014. Source: FringeArts
re-use of existing building fabric and sensitivity to context. They are clustered around the intersection of Columbus Boulevard and Race Street with an on-grade connection beneath the interstate to the adjoining neighborhood of Old City. Importantly, they help establish the case for creative placemaking defined by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as when “…artists, arts organization and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work…” [9] - as an integral part of city building. It should be noted that ArtPlace America [10], a ten-year (2010-20) creative placemaking initiative of the NEA in partnership with national philanthropic foundations including, locally, the William Penn and Knight Foundations, provided support, and national validation, for some of the early projects on the Delaware. Along with a 2013 grant to the FringeArts festival for the reclamation of the pumping station project, a 2013 ArtPlace America grant also enabled DRWC to create a river stage [11] on a formerly under-utilized central riverfront public space – becoming a highly successful public gathering place that continues to attract a diverse summer audience through a mixture of local food, fanciful hammocks and dynamic programming. Proof of Concept: Race Street Pier, FringeArts and Cherry Street Pier The first public space project to be realized as part of the waterfront corporation’s master plan was Race Street Pier [12] which opened in 2011. The pier, originally known as Municipal Pier 11, was constructed in 1896 and included a two-story building with shipping functions below and recreational uses above. Long derelict and devoid of its port-related superstructure at the time of the planning process, the landscape architects, Field Operations, and DRWC created an elegant promenade on the existing substructure and pilings. Rising 12-feet from street level across 540-feet to form a stunning overlook alongside the Benjamin Franklin Bridge with sweeping views onto the wide expanse of the Delaware River below. Generous amphitheater-style seating is used for sun bathing and as a performance venue. While planned before the ArtPlace America program began, Race Street Pier signaled the creation of well-designed public space as the way to attract the public to the river and thereby incentivize development. As such, it represented a welcome
Interior of reclaimed pumping station as restaurant at FringeArts, 2014, Source: FringeArts.
and noteworthy departure from the plethora of past attempts at largescale development as the catalyst for waterfront development over the preceding forty years – effectively declaring that the era of “Big Bang” economic development between the public and private sectors was effectively over along the Delaware. FringeArts, [13] a non-profit seasonal performing arts organization founded in 1997, had been purposely without a home base. The organization produces a highly-acclaimed fall festival utilizing unique and forgotten spaces across changing neighborhoods in the city as performance venues. In 2013, while maintaining its annual fall programming, the festival, along with architects from WRT, renovated a former high-pressure fire truck pumping station built in 1903 and located across the street from the Race Street Pier. In choosing to repurpose the pumping station into an adaptable theater space along with a restaurant and beer garden, the Fringe created a vibrant hub to “advance the global dialogue about art.” A 2013 ArtPlace America grant enabled the group to create and activate an outdoor performance space along the underutilized Delaware waterfront as part of their adaptive reuse of the pumping station. Events now include an open-air circus and movie nights along with avant-garde programming offered
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inside the new venue. While the festival is still staged across the city, the FringeArts building now brings people and culture to the waterfront throughout the year. In late-2018, the waterfront corporation opened Cherry Street Pier [14] in what was formerly known as Municipal Pier 9 – a massive enclosed shed that was completed in 1919 with an imposing poured concrete headhouse along Delaware Avenue. Located to the south of Race Street Pier and also across the street from Fringe Arts, Cherry Street Pier is a year-round, mixed-use public space designed by ISA within an existing 55,000-sf 100-year old shell. Along with public programming and serving as a venue for local arts it aims to help draw from a widerange of non-traditional audiences by supporting emerging artists and helping to create new and creative communities. Programming is designed to be flexible and diverse including markets and immersive installations. Funding for the project came from the William Penn and Knight Foundations – both national funders of ArtPlace America. Leading with Placemaking These three projects are emblematic of the use of historic fabric and placemaking in creating a new identity for the central Delaware. Clustering around an intersection alongside an historic suspension bridge, they signal that the waterfront is an adaptive and incremental environment (versus one created from whole cloth) where new ideas are explored, diversity and inclusion is valued, and the past is a potent part of the present. It is precisely this focus on the integration of the arts, public space and preservation (particularly in the FringeArts and Cherry Street Pier projects) as the leading edge of change that has upended the decades-old Philadelphia adage of “any development is good development.” The old way of thinking brought Philadelphia a waterfront Walmart surrounded by parking on former port land. The new way of thinking brings a plethora of new public spaces enlivened by cutting-edge programming and supported by local food and beverage purveyors. They place the public first as a driver of sustained change – before the development community - and in so doing is yielding dividends in how the waterfront is finally being perceived and realized. An exciting and vibrant public realm brings people, which helps to build a buzz and create an identity which in turn attracts developers’ attention. Indeed, arts, planning and preservation as an economic development tool is not a new idea. What is different in Philadelphia along the central Delaware waterfront and within the creative placemaking field as a whole, is the intentional manner in which arts and community development are positioned as key players in establishing an economic development agenda. These efforts are hyper-local, fine-grained and inexpensive compared to the traditional top-down arts district model that might include a new museum (think Bilbao) or concert hall (think Hamburg). In Philadelphia, along the Delaware, adaptive reuse and historic preservation are being used to create a new and authentic identity for the waterfront. Rather than cut and paste urban design solutions from other cities (think of how Manhattan’s enormously successful High Line Park is being replicated across the United States) or seek to attract national development teams, the early implementers of the waterfront plan for the central Delaware are leading with local community and local arts and working within existing building fabric. Importantly, these projects serve as proof-of-concept for the power of placemaking, laying the ground work for more ambitious public space projects such as an 20 SUMMER 2020 | context | AIA Philadelphia
$225 million, 8-acre park designed as a cap over the interstate highway – the site of previous large-scale development proposals. [15]. These projects of DRWC and Fringe Arts demonstrate the power of creative placemaking at the service of a broader economic development agenda. Recognizing that authenticity derives from the creation of an honest sense of place, the projects integrate public space and the arts using the preservation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings and structures as the starting point for a new future along Philadelphia’s waterfront. Postscript This article was written before the coronavirus pandemic radically refocused how we think about cites and public spaces in the spring of 2020. While the near-term portends continued reliance on social distancing to stem the spread of the disease until a vaccine is developed and deployed – perhaps 18-months from now - it is important for us to keep in mind that cities, including Philadelphia, have historically rebounded from great pandemics of the past. One hopes that the sensitive attention to place that has characterized the past decade’s development of the Central Delaware will continue once we return to “normal.” n
Garden at Cherry Street Pier, 2018, Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation.
PHOTO: MARIA YOUNG
Notes 1. [1] Markusen, A, Gadwa A, (2010) “Creative Placemaking”, Mayors’ Institute on City Design and the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC 2. [2] Evans, O, (1990), “Workshop of the World”, Chapter for the Study of Industrial Archeology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3. [3] https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/philadelphia-population-growthcensus-south-jersey-20190418.html 4. [4] An 1,100-acre acre bounded by Oregon Avenue at the south, Allegheny Avenue at the north, the river to the east and Interstate 95 to the north. 60,000 Philadelphians live within a ½-mile or 10-minute walk of this area. 5. [5] The author was the founding executive director of PennPraxis, the non-profit applied research arm of the School of Design of the University of Pennsylvania and led the 2006-07 planning process. Partners included the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and the planning firm of WRT. 6. 7. Above, Cherry Street Pier Headhouse, 2018. Source: Delaware River Waterfront Corporation.
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
[6] The process was authorized by executive order of the mayor of Philadelphia and funded by the William Penn Foundation. [7] See PennPraxis, WRT, Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the William Penn Foundation at https://issuu.com/pennpraxis/docs/civic-visionfor-the-central-delaware [8] https://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/planning/masterplan-for-thecentral-delaware/full-plan [9] https://www.arts.gov/artistic-fields/creative-placemaking [10] https://www.artplaceamerica.org/ [11] https://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/places/spruce-street-harborpark [12] https://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/places/race-street-pier [13] https://fringearts.com/ [14] https://www.cherrystreetpier.com/ [15] https://www.inquirer.com/news/i95-park-cap-delaware-river-curiousphilly-20190624.html
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PUBLIC ART AS CULTURAL REPRESENTATION BY ANDREW ZITCER AND SALINA M. ALMANZAR NOTE: The authors wish to acknowledge Susan M. Davis, Patricia Phillips, Paul Farber, Laurie Allen, Jack Becker and Jen Krava for their feedback on earlier versions of the paper.
Public art is an enormously consequential form of cultural representation. The placement or removal of a public artwork bears the weight of the memories, culture, and associations of individuals who may feel represented (or not represented) by it. Public artworks are not, and arguably cannot be, neutral objects. Two examples help to make our case. A recent flashpoint around public art occurred in August 2017 as White supremacists marched on Charlottesville VA to violently stake their claim in a national debate about the fate of Confederate Civil War monuments. Regardless of the alt-right’s true intentions for gathering in protest, they used the backdrop of long-dead Confederate generals as a visual cue for their values and politics. A rejoinder of sorts came in the Fall of 2019, when artist Kehinde Wiley’s installation of Rumors of War was officially installed at the entrance of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Wiley’s sculpture depicts a Black man with long locs leaning backward on a horse. It borrows the aesthetic of traditional war monuments. Much like Wiley’s acclaimed paintings, Rumors of War re-imagines and re-appropriates artistic traditions that place White elites and White bodies on a pedestal. Rumors of War confronts current debates around the appropriateness of Confederate monuments and what to do with them. The act of placing the likeness of a Black man on horseback, in a position typically reserved for White historical figures, reaffirms public space for Black folks. In both examples, culture serves as a proxy for other forms of political and social representation. Public artworks reflect a specific group of people with a shared sense of values and practices based on their geographic location or their identity, according to planning scholar Carl Grodach. And yet, not all spaces are hospitable to those who seek to gather there, or even to pass through. These spaces and the works they contain have the potential to alienate members of society, based on their different experiences of time and place in the city. Differential experiences of the city are byproducts of persistent
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historical inequities reinforced by systems like segregation, redlining, and disproportionate policing. As urban planning researcher Jana Carp explains, “Places...represent divergent but true lived experiences that involve different core values that may or may not be recognized by those residents who do not share them” (Carp, 2008, p. 136). Because public spaces should welcome and affirm all residents, we argue that works of public cultural representation deserve to be more widely understood as relevant to architecture, urban planning and local governance. Roberto Bedoya, a leading thinker on placemaking and cultural policy, warns of a “politics of dis-belonging,” where designers and planners have intervened in ways that fail to fully regard the social dynamics of a place. Bedoya expresses a necessity to understand the historical underpinnings of inequity, while also uplifting the ways historically marginalized groups have creatively defined their own spaces. This includes creating alternative ways to traverse and thrive in spaces that have historically been sites of oppression. These forms of adaptation are healthy and inspiring, but it should be possible to advance vibrant and diverse acts of culture without them being birthed in the forge of racial oppression. At the same time, our aim is to affirm the importance of including many voices in the deliberation. Ultimately, it will be a coalition of voices that make possible the just city. Inspired by recent events like the ones in Virginia and a series of conversations in a graduate seminar on placemaking taught at Drexel University in 2017, we have crafted a rubric designed to help guide decision making around public art. We seek to enhance, rather than sanitize public discourse and embrace generative conflict as an opportunity to do just that. Based on conversations with working artists and public art leaders, we created a rubric that has three elements: place, time, and voice. These are fitted together in a Venn diagram where place and time are represented as intersecting circles while voice is more complex and thus represented as a gear.
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TIME
I AMPLIFY YOUR VOICE
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PL AC E
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PHOTO COURTSEY OF DEREK GILLMAN
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WE SPEAK IN A SHARED VOICE
I SPEAK ABOUT YOU
YOU SPEAK FOR YOURSELF
VOIC E
I STEAL YOUR VOICE
I SPEAK FOR YOU
Public Art Decision Making Rubric, created by the authors and rendered by Salina M. Alminazar.
PLACE Place represents the spectrum between and around public and private place/space. Some spaces are simultaneously public and private (museums, facades of private property, virtual spaces etc.) while others are more explicitly public or private. Place is also informed by historical and current politicization. It is the grounds on which power structures enact a sense of ownership or its lack, a sense of belonging or disbelonging. Places are racialized, gendered, and classed in overt and covert ways. Thinking about place deeply informs and provides context for the ways a work of public art is perceived and received. TIME Time should be understood as both the era when a work of public art was created and when potential conflict arises around that work. A work might have been well-received in its founding social context and may also age poorly over time. Additionally, a work or action may need to be tabled mid-creation or pre-installation because there may be a dramatic shift in a short period of time. Such planning requires a geographic sensitivity and deep awareness of what is happening in a particular place at any given time on both a local and national level.
VOICE Voice is the final piece of the rubric and is broken down into six key positions. The positions range from “I silence your voice” to “You speak for yourself”. While six positions are highlighted, we also understand Voice as a spectrum where many cases may not cleanly fit into a given position or may evolve as a project moves from inception to completion. Voice intersects with time and place and engages or exemplifies how power or lack thereof inform urban environments. Power or lack thereof is reflected in whose voices are silenced, whose are elevated, and whose histories are privileged over others. Using all points of the rubric together helps us engage critical questions that should drive the creation, reclamation, or rectification of art in the public realm. These questions evaluate: Is this the right space, and the right time for this cultural expression? Is the right voice being heard? How do all these elements intersect? Philadelphia is ripe to be a site for experimentation around questions of time, place and voice. Historically, it was among the first cities to initiate a civic organization for public art in 1872, to institute a percent for art program, and we are home to the world-renowned Mural Arts Philadelphia. With over a century of support for public art, Philadelphia has also faced controversy and dissent regarding works of public art. AIA Philadelphia | context | SUMMER 2020 23
PHOTO: DAVID TAVANNI
Flores de Libertad, Artist: Michelle Angela Ortiz. Commissioned by the Mural Arts Program and Monument Lab.
Today, the organization doing the most advanced thinking about time, place and voice is Monument Lab, a project of curators Ken Lum, Paul Farber, and Laurie Allen (a project now affiliated with Penn’s Weitzman School of Design). Monument Lab is doing exemplary work exploring and publicly questioning the nature of monuments. In 2015 and 2017, Monument Lab installed a pilot project at City Hall that inspired a partnership with Mural Arts for a large-scale, citywide conversation about monuments, power, and collective memory. While public works were on view around the city, Monument Lab collected over four-thousand proposals from visitors that included creative monuments, ideas for public spaces, and new visions for old monuments. In 2018, Monument Lab launched the Monument Lab podcast where they engage with artists and urban planners around the question “What is a monument?” While they are not a decision-making entity and the works commissioned are temporary, we believe that Monument Lab is actively engaging with the critical questions around place, time, and voice in public art. When it comes to considerations of time, place and voice, we want to spotlight the work of artist Michelle Angela Ortiz who participated in the 2017 installations hosted by Monument Lab. Ortiz created a multi-part installation and performance. The main piece, Seguimos Caminando (We Keep Walking), was a meditation on the realities of immigration detention centers, specifically the women held in Berks Detention Center near Philadelphia. It featured animated projections on the façade of Philadelphia’s City Hall that featured the writings of detained women. A complementary project, Flores de Libertad (Flowers of Freedom), was co-created by participants from all over Philadelphia who dropped in at one of the flower-making sessions Ortiz conducted. The flowers included messages to the mothers at Berks, words of
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advocacy and allyship, and messages of solidarity. The flowers were dyed and assembled to create the word “LIBERTAD” and displayed in a performance at City Hall. Her work exemplifies how a public work amplifies the voices of the people it represents. Using recordings from women held in detention, Michelle also allows those her work represents to speak for themselves. By placing the voices of victims of an unjust system alongside and literally on top of a symbol of state power, Ortiz forces the viewer to engage City Hall as a character in the piece. Michelle's work exemplifies how an artist can maintain a signature aesthetic while ensuring that the community she is cocreating with maintains their voice and drives the narrative of the work. As we write this, the city of Philadelphia is determining how to address the controversial sculpture and mural depicting former mayor Frank Rizzo. The public artwork in his likeness divides the city and reminds the Black and LGBT+ community of the ways their voices were and still are silenced. We imagine that our rubric can be deployed to help have a more nuanced conversation and guide decision making toward more inclusive and thoughtful remedies. This case is just one of many and likely growing cases wherein city planners and public officials will have to reconcile issues of power, privilege, and representation. As historically marginalized communities practice their rights to demand representation, we must continue to address power. We must do so by employing thoughtful tools like our rubric to address and redress power and assure that all voices have an opportunity to be authentically heard. We hope that through the usage of our rubric, we might move discussions of public art away from closed door conversations and into a space where all are welcome. n
PHOTO: DAVID TAVANNI
Flores de Libertad, Artist: Michelle Angela Ortiz. Commissioned by the Mural Arts Program and Monument Lab.
Andrew Zitcer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture, Design & Urbanism at Drexel University, where he directs the Urban Strategy graduate program. His research explores economic and cultural democracy through the study of cooperative practices and the use of arts as a tool for community revitalization. His work has been published in Journal of Planning Education and Research, Planning Theory & Practice, Urban Affairs Review, and Urban Geography. Salina M. Almanzar is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Drexel University, Salina is an artist, scholar and activist. Her research explores creative placemaking in the Lancaster Latinx community, and documents the ways that the Latinx community has created spaces for cultural preservation. Salina connects to her community through the collection of stories, collective art making and mural work as well as through continued research on the
PHOTO: JOEPIETTE2 IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
intersections of social justice and place.
Take Down Rizzo Rally. Frank Rizzo, Artist: Zenos Frudakis. Privately Commissioned.
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SUSAN’S OEUVRE 1 Biscotti / source unknown
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2 Honey Wheat Berry Bread / New Vegetarian Epicure, Anna Thomas, Alfred Knopf, 1991 highlighted recipe
A MELANGE OF DELICACIES
3 Marbleized Meringues / Dona Miller (mother)
n our epic quarantine-calls over the course of “baking” this issue of CONTEXT, our conversations, not surprisingly, drifted often to what we were actually baking.
4 Mexican Chocolate Shortbread / Shortbread, Jann Johnson 5 Italian Easter Pie / New York Times, a long time ago (modified)
Initially to celebrate Passover and Easter, we quickly moved on to “Covid care packages” sent both within the city and to far-away friends and family, as well as for fun.
HARRIS’S OEUVRE
Birdcage Cafe, Lord & Taylor, Bala Cynwyd, designed by Raymond Lowey."Gottscho-
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Remarkably, we were able to remain stocked in yeast and flour as those staples literally flew off shelves nationwide. Americans were baking their way through the pandemic and we were no different.
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8 Coconut Macaroons / My Most Favorite Dessert Company Cookbook, Doris Schechter 9 Julia Child’s Berry Clafoutis / New York Times Cooking, Julia Moleskin
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10 Passover Brownies / My Most Favorite Dessert Company Cookbook, Doris Schechter
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Perhaps it’s that aromatic piquancy furtively wafting from oven to nose or that burst of flavor and crush of texture upon first bite, but baking is subliminal, primordial, Proustian you might say. We all retreated to our culinary comfort zones to get us to the other side. Our musings took us to Raymond Loewy’s mid-century Bird Cage restaurant at Lord and Taylor’s on City Avenue where Susan would sup with her mother while on shopping trips, and Harris did the same in Jenkintown. It seems that the mid-century Saul Steinberg-inspired Cubist sensibility of Loewy’s whimsical wallcoverings had quite the influence on these budding baking architects.
7 Chocolate Babka / Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook highlighted recipe
Schleisner Collection" https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/res.104.gott
Hence, we realized, that the Corona Baking Society had been born. Thus encouraged, we continued in our efforts, sharing photos and stories, until it became evident that we wanted to share the fruits of our endeavors with you, dear readers.
11 Pizza Margherita / New York Times Cooking, Sam Sifton
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14 Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler / adapted from The New Basics, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
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15 Strawberry Rhubarb Pie / New York Times Cooking, Florence Fabricant
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Enjoy. The Editors (who welcome your questions and comments) While we’ve each highlighted one baked good with an accompanying recipe, the full “Corona Baking Society collection” is presented as well.
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12 Raisin Scones / Biscuits and Scones / Elizabeth Alston 13 Rugelach with Apricot Jam and Pistachio Filling / Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook
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Herewith, we offer you the inaugural efforts of the Corona Baking Society, informally known as “Taste Buds.”
6 Backyard Pizza / New York Times, Molly O’Neil
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16 Tehina Shortbread Cookies / Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook
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SUSAN'S HONEY WHEAT BERRY BREAD
From Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook ½ C. dry wheat berries water as needed 1 2/3 cups scalded and cooled milk 1 tablespoon dry yeast 1/3 cup honey 2 tablespoons melted butter 2 teaspoons salt 5 ½ to 6 ½ cups whole wheat or pastry whole wheat flour ½ cup wheat germ or oat bran, toasted
EXPRESSION
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Simmer the wheat berries in about 2 cups water for 2 1/2 to 3 hours while you start the bread. Add more water if necessary. Scald the milk and let it cool to room temperature. In ¼ cup warm water (110-115 degrees—I recommend using a thermometer), dissolve the yeast. Put it in a large mixing bowl and add in this order: the milk, the honey, the melted butter, and the salt. Stir in 4 cups of the flour and beat with a wooden spoon until the dough is very smooth and elastic. Add another 1 ½ cups flour and the wheat germ or oat bran, and stir as well as you can, for now you will have a very stiff dough. Sprinkle some flour on a large board and turn the dough out to knead. Add a little more flour if necessary, but don’t let the dough get too stiff. When the dough is satiny smooth and pulls together well, put it in a large greased bowl, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 ½ hours. Then punch it down, put it back on the board, and knead in the wheat berries.
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Divide the dough into two parts, form into loaves or rounds, and place in greased loaf pans or on a greased cookie sheet (they will hold their shape). Cover them again with a towel and let rise again in a warm place until almost double (about 45 minutes this time). Bake in a preheated over at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!
HARRIS'S CHOCOLATE BABKA RECIPE From Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook
Filling 2/3 cup sugar ¼ cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder Pinch salt 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed 1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (at least 60% caca0)
Dough 2 tablespoons active dry yeast 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed 6 tablespoons sugar Pinch salt 6 tablespoons milk ½ teaspoon vanilla ¼ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
For the Filling
Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt in a food processor. Pulse until evenly mixed. Add the butter and chocolate and pulse until a crumbly, coarse mixture forms. (It should be chunky, not powdery.) Set aside.
For the Dough
Combine the yeast with 6 tablespoons warm water in a small bowl and let stand until frothy, about 5 minutes. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or use a hand mixer and a big bowl) and mix to combine. Add the yeast mixture, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix on low speed until combined. Add one of the eggs, the yolk, and the butter. Mix until a dough comes together, about 8 minutes. (If the dough seems too wet and resists forming a ball, add a little extra flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Turn the dough out into a AIA Philadelphia | context | SUMMER greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap,2020 and 27 let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
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