30th Street Station Porch Swings - Philadelphia, PA, USA

Location Philadelphia, PA

Client University City District

Gehl team Blaine Merker, Ghigo DiTommaso

Year 2015

Gehl re-invigorated the long neglected public space in front of Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, by designing and deploying “social furniture.” This small-scale intervention had a large impact: it fostered social interaction, invited people to stay, and generated joy and excitement.

Vision

30th St Porch Swings

Social furniture at the porch

Philadelphia’s monumental 30th Street Station is one of the busiest rail system hubs in the US, but the public space in front of it is no match, left desolate and stark for decades. Gehl worked with the University City District to design flexible urban furniture that could both activate the space, and act as an evaluation tool to gauge new spatial configurations for the site.

The transformation of the open space in front of 30th Street Station was at the heart of a series of innovative strategies and visionary projects to transform University City District into a new epicenter of cultural and economic life.

The resulting intervention that the Gehl team developed was The Porch Swings: a set of fourteen lush mahogany plywood swings hanging

from colorful canopies made of steel and translucent polycarbonate. Inspired by the classical American porch swing, the team modernized the image to make it suited to a public space. The swings introduce an element of playfulness and delight to the plaza, bringing people together to share the simple pleasure of swinging and people watching. Thecanopies can be easily moved with a pallet jack and scattered across the site or assembled together to form macrostructures, supporting the changing needs of the place and allowing for the testing of endless configurations.

Moments after the units were deployed onsite, Philadelphians reacted to their presence via social media. Photos show hundreds of people sharing the thrill of gentle rocking in public space.

Three different types of swings —a playground swing, a porch swing, and a swinging lounger—provide intimate, dynamic seating along 30th Street.

1. Translucent polycarbonate canopies provide shade and create a procession of vibrant shadows along The Porch’s main corridor.

2. The swings were designed by Gehl and manufactured locally by Bill Curran Design.

3. Shared photos of the Porch Swings via Instagram hashtags: #30thstreetstation #theporchswings.