Zoo, and HSR in Philadelphia County

Zoo Interlocking is the junction between the Keystone Corridor and Northeast Corridor and one of the most complex interlockings in the nation, shifting passenger trains from two distinct main lines to two distinct station throats, and freight trains three ways.

In the past it was even more complex, with a fourth major direction for freight as well as two different paths for each major movement (that is, two different ways to get from the Northeast Corridor to Suburban Station, two different ways to get from the Main Line to the lower level of 30th St. Station, two different freight bypasses of 30th St. Station, etc.) Much of this redundancy has been stripped out by warring organizations over the years, leading to massive backups when any part of this intricate network fails.

However, Zoo has a key failure: although two of the main wye's three branches are able to handle high-speed interlocking, the third is not. This is not because of a failure of interlocking design, per se, but rather because the best engineering available at the time the interlocking was initially set up forced the third direction to run through a significantly tighter-radius curve than the other two.

As you may have guessed, the tightest-radius connection is the Northeast Corridor side, the east side closest to the zoo Zoo was named after. This connection was built the way it was because it had to simultaneously do two things: (1) elevate from the freight yards along the Schuylkill floodplain--now 30th St. Station, its two leads, and the Powelton Coach Yards--to the level of the river crossing, about 75 feet above the waterline, in only about a mile, while at the same time (2) accommodating the junction between this route and the Pennsylvania's mainline about halfway between.

No matter why it was built, however, it is obsolete if one wants to bring 200 mph trains into 30th Street Station. Since I have it on good authority that that atrocious tunnel proposal is dead even at Amtrak (and was always a consultant's dream to begin with), we have to look at smaller-scale (and cheaper) interventions to accomplish what we want.

Assuming an Airport routing is still desirable--it is certainly feasible--three major interventions are necessary to convert the NEC to a 200 mph + (250 kph +) route through Philadelphia County. They are:
1) Bypass Frankford Jct., which has to be traversed at ~75 mph,
2) Bypass Zoo Interlocking into 30th St. Station's north lead, and
3) Convert the former Reading's Chester Branch into an Airport routing.

See map here.

Bypassing Frankford Jct. is technically the easiest, and the least expensive: the path of Torresdale Avenue, which turns into Erie Avenue at Kensington Avenue is a natural bypass route, and a couple of takings in industrial properties--possibly little more than air-rights takings, as the HSR main would likely have to clear at least one local track before rejoining its own track--would be all the property acquisition needed. Takings would be exclusively industrial.

The trains can traverse Erie (Torresdale) either via an aerial structure or a cut-and-cover tunnel. All types of tunnels are somewhat more expensive than bridges; however, the aerial would have to clear the El at Erie-Torresdale Station, meaning it would have to be ~50 feet off the ground at its apex, rendering it somewhat more expensive than it would otherwise be (e.g. if the aerial could remain at ~30 feet off the ground). So both modes approach cost parity.

Since you can recruit DOT engineers to design an aerial (it's essentially a highway exit overpass, but for trains) whereas even the most basic cut-and-cover tunnel will likely require weaving through underground infrastructure, and since I prefer bridges over tunnels, I'll go with an aerial in this instance. Price tag's probably $250 million, once value-engineered.

Technically the most complex is the Airport routing. Its complexity has nothing to do with attempting an inner-city greenfield routing--it has everything to do with rail uses along the routing. Other than SEPTA's Airport Line, the principal use of the current line is a freight routing to (unsurprisingly enough) Marcus Hook. It is also the routing closest to the river, and thus the one with the most port-related spurs and traffic.

In order to close the Chester Branch east of Essington, CSX will almost certainly require a bypass. My proposed routing, the "Hog Island Freight Bypass", would utilize the former Pennsylvania R.R. 60th Street Branch, most of which is intact (ROW unused for freight is currently used for Auto Mall junk car storage). However, unlike the historical 60th St. Branch, the Hog Island Bypass would meet the CSX main through the former Brill property in Southwest Philly. The connection between the 60th St. Branch and the Chester Branch built for the Airport Line would remain in use as a freight spur for any traffic generated along this alignment (though I don't remember Eastwick's industries having freight rail access).

Now that we've dealt with the freight rail, the next step is to provide the optimal ROW for the passenger service. The Airport Line currently uses the 60th St. Branch to the Chester Branch, but this forces the train through a pair of slow and inefficient corners; a true high-speed routing would continue along the dead-straight Chester Branch until it meets the Northeast Corridor.

The problem with this is that this routing has a surface interchange with the CSX line across the Schuylkill; in addition, the Chester Branch between this interchange and the NEC junction is currently used by CSX as its High Line access line. However, because we moved the freight route for Marcus Hook trains from the Chester Branch to the Hog Island Cutoff, we can go ahead and run passenger trains under the High Line access line, coming out onto the Northeast Corridor. (This routing also allows Airport Line trains to stop at Bartram's Gardens.)

Next, we move to the Airport. The first look we have at the Airport is that we can add a new through cutoff between the Chester Branch and Airport termini, with a somewhat sharp curve by the station. However, this would likely be the more expensive option. A better proposal would be to instead have the through-train Airport station along the Chester Branch, due to the superior curvature (i.e. none). But this is on the wrong side of I-95. So, if this routing is the option decided upon, it will likely become necessary to convert the current Airport Line terminal access to an AirTrain-style light metro. (Fortunately, most of the infrastructure is in place for this; the primary expense would be acquisition of the proper equipment.)

While the Chester Branch has been grade-separated in Philadelphia, such is not the case in Essington, where the small town is hard against the rails. Grade separation, needless to say, is essential here; since we are close to the water line, this will likely take the form of an aerial about 20 feet above the existing freight line (i.e. Plate H double-stack clearance). As the fast passenger line being discussed would allow rerouting the Regional Rail line as well, this local will want a stop in downtown Essington--that is, where the line crosses Wanamaker Avenue. This aerial structure would thence continue across the mouth of Darby Creek and then parallel the Industrial Highway (on top of a disused rail line, possibly PRR, between the road and the Chester Branch) until it returns to the NEC, just south of Eddystone.

What kinds of expenses can be expected for such an undertaking?

1. New track installation (but no re-alignment) between the 60th St. Branch-Chester Branch junction, to the north, and the Penrose Avenue bridge (Penrose Ferry Road) to the south. This may need to be done with grade separation, as it appears to have historically been a grade junction. Assuming prior easement claims can be asserted... $300 million, most of it sunk into the grade separation at the Hog Island-Chester Branch junction.
2. Cut-and cover tunnel under the freight Chester Branch between the NEC and CSX mains... $500 million.
3. New east cutoff between Eastwick and Airport. / New Airport station, conversion of terminal network into AirTrain system... $300 million (whichever way).
4. 3-mile aerial structure from the 4th St.-Chester Branch level crossing west to new NEC junction... $700 million.
5. ~5 miles of new constant-tension electrification... $100 million.

All of these add up to an estimated price tag of... $1.9 billion. (This compares favorably with the asinine tunnel, whose initial cost estimate would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.5 billion and work its way up from there.)

It will cost at least $2 billion to bring HSR to PHI. This cost also includes a SEPTA expansion. (The cost of this expansion alone would be about half that, as it wouldn't need to worry about the extended aerial through Essington or grade-separating the junction between the 60th St. and Chester Branches, or restoration of the 60th St. Branch through the Auto Mall, but it would need to worry about a new alignment into the NEC on the east end, dealing with the Airport network, and extending electrification. And without the HSR line, the west-end return to the NEC isn't viable, making the line's natural terminus Essington.)

Station stops on this Airport Line would be: Bartram's Gardens, Elmwood (63rd St.), 70th St., Eastwick (84th St.), Airport (somewhat west of 90th and Bartram), Tinicum (4th Ave.), and Essington (Wanamaker Avenue). Service frequency would likely have to be half-hourly, due to the lack of slots on the SEPTA Main Line.

Let's return, then, to where we started: bypassing Zoo. Zoo sits between the Frankford Jct. bypass and Airport extension in terms of complexity and hence expense. One one hand, the Zoo bypass will be more complex than a Frankford Jct. bypass, due to the fact it has to deal with the Schuylkill; on the other, it has nowhere near as many moving parts as the Airport project.

Because of Lemon Hill, the only sensible place to diverge the bypass is where the NEC and Schuylkill Expressway split, just north of Spring Garden; a narrow easement opportunity is available between the Schuylkill and 34th St.

There are two ways of approaching this bypass: a bridge or a tunnel. Both have their challenges. The tunnel would be an immersed-tube (it's shallower) but the east approach would need to be drilled out of solid schist. On the other hand, the bridge would likely require a very steep west approach--it would have to clear the Schuylkill and the, er, Schuylkill--and it would also need a new easement through Fairmount Park. However, unlike the tunnel, the bridge would rejoin the existing line more quickly, and hence be quite a bit cheaper.

The tunnel offers superior engineering. The bridge offers advertising...but it would also attract NIMBYs who wouldn't want to change so much as a tree in the park.

My estimate is that the tunnel would cost about $1.5 billion and the bridge $750 million. In either event, however, both junctions would have to be squeezed between current infrastructure.

It is also my estimation that it is infeasible to attempt to bring 30th St. Station's north throat to speeds greater than about 120 mph (which would still lose the 1.5 minutes currently expended traversing Zoo). Both the bridge and tunnel routings I offer are likely going to have to be that speed.

The Architecture of Wissahickon: Urban, Suburban, Midcentury, Victorian

The controversial Roxborough development proposal that caused quite a stir last week is at the edge of one of the city’s more remarkable neighborhoods. Staunchly middle-class, this neighborhood hangs tenaciously onto the slope between Ridge Avenue and the beginning of the Wissahickon Gorge, like a mining town halfway up a mountain.

It is also remarkable in that it has been continuously developed and filled out over the last century and a half, with a housing mix ranging all the way ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

South Jersey Rail Assets

Now entering the third part of this series, I'd like to focus on South Jersey's underutilized rail assets. Where I am going is looking at what it will take to provide a complete commuter rail network throughout the Philadelphia area, and unlike Pennsylvania, South Jersey is woefully underserved, home to only the Atlantic City Line, which is an intercity service; the PATCO Speedline, which provides local service to Lindenwold; and the River Line, a light-rail commuter-rail thingamabob utilizing Stadler GTWs (a diesel variant of the Flirt). A substantial amount of South Jersey is thus rendered car-dependent.

It wasn't always like this. Like the rest of the Northeast, South Jersey was once thick with rails. It still is. Most of those rails have, however, long been converted to freight spurs, and routes which weren't but have passenger potential rail-trails. In a few cases rails were removed entirely, but the easements remain. At one point, a large commuter rail network converged on Camden, across the river, much like it still does in Hoboken today.

So the point of this post is, like the past two, to survey South Jersey's available rail assets.

We begin with the River Line and work our way, again, clockwise inasmuch is possible.

1. The River Line extends along the Delaware between Camden and Trenton, and is, as referenced, a cross between a light rail line and commuter rail. (Call it Dallas-style light rail.) It currently functions with an FRA waiver. In the long term, as other commuter rail resources fill in around Camden, it may need to be broken up, with the core line running as commuter rail and the edges light rail in Camden and Trenton.

2. A Trenton Branch of the Reading appears to wind along the path shown on the map between Trenton and West Trenton railroad stations. Conversion of this route into light rail would be welcomed.

3. At Bordentown the former Camden & Amboy main splits off from the River Line, which utilizes its Trenton Branch. Like the former Pennsylvania and Reading (Central of New Jersey) mains further to the north, can it be cross-utilized between the three commute markets? If so, the fare union should extend between Burlington and South Amboy.

4. The Atlantic Division is a former division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, running from Camden through Mt. Holly due east. It originally extended to Bay Head; the former right-of-way east of Ocean Gate--thankfully, a natural terminus--has been wiped out.

On the New York end of things, a service restoration should be considered along the former CNJ line from Red Bank to Toms River--possibly even as far as Barnegat.

5. What I am calling the Fort Dix Branch is the remnants of a cutoff between the Camden & Amboy main and the Atlantic Division; the route in use extends north from Pemberton to Ft. Dix and New Egypt.

6. The Clementon Branch is one of two lines between Camden and Atlantic City. The former Atlantic City R.R. main line, it was phased out in favor of the more northerly line. However, seeing as that line is occupied by heavy rail and intercity service, a Camden-Hammonton commuter service would be better off using this line.

7. The PATCO Speedline follows the former Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL) main line to Lindenwold; the Atlantic City Line (ACL) follows it from Atlantic City to the Delair Cutoff (which takes it across the river). Service from Philadelphia to the various Shore towns should be considered intercity, however, and unlike the commuter services, which can terminate in Camden with a PATCO transfer at Walter Rand, these lines extend to 30th St. in a grand fishhook approach along the NEC and across the single-track Delair Bridge. (ACL service, however, can be twice as frequent--hourly.) In addition, a separate, peak-hour commuter service from Atlantic City to Egg Harbor City may be implemented.

8. The Newfield Branch originally extended from Newfield to Atlantic City. While the services of the whole branch obviously aren't needed, part of it is marked as a commuter line from Atlantic City to Mays Landing.

9. The Somers Point Branch was a branch from Atlantic City to Somers Point. Old PRSL maps show either a bridge or a ferry from it to Ocean City; this is one of the two new commuter lines suggested from Atlantic City.

10. The Cape May Branch ran from the Main Line at Winslow Jct. south to Cape May, crossing the Newfield Branch at Richland. It is a primarily intercity line, although a local dinky service may be put into place between Cape May Court House and Cape May.

11. The Ocean City Branch ran from a connection with the Cape May Branch in Tuckahoe to Ocean City. Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Cape May are the three primary intercity destinations down the Shore.

12. The Marmora Branch is a freight right-of-way that extends to a large facility at Beesley's Point. There may be justification for a dinky service along this line.

13. The Wildwood Branch runs from Wildwood Jct. on the Cape May Branch to Wildwood. Like the Princeton Branch, a dinky service would be appropriate here.

14. The Grenloch Branch is a short branch from Gloucester City to Grenloch. Despite its shortness, however, it sits halfway between the Clementon and Millville Branches in the core South Jersey suburbs. As a consequence, it would likely get ridership--if service patterns are right--on the order of the Norristown Line. In addition, this line would be targeted for heavy rail conversion if the conditions are right (generating Speedline-order ridership); this would allow for potential extensions to Turnersville and Monroe.

15. The Millville Branch was at one point the PRSL's Camden commuter operations' spine. At one point electrified, it extends between Camden and Millville, with a freight operation from there south to Leesburg, and a former passenger operation east to Woodbine Jct. via Woodbine proper. It crosses the CNJ main at-grade in downtown Vineland, and was recently the subject of a River Line-type extension as far as Glassboro. Glassboro is the natural local terminus on this line, and Millville the general.

16. The Southern Division, originally of the CNJ, between Winslow Jct. and Bridgeton may offer useful expansion possibilities. East of Landisville, however, it closely follows the Cape May Branch through a relatively sparsely-populated area.

17. The Bridgeton branch, originally of the PRSL, largely exists only as an abandoned easement north to Glassboro. Bridgeton can't handle being the terminus of two lines, but both offer tradeoffs.

The PRSL's direct alignment, straight north, takes it to Camden fastest. But it passes through a relatively unpopulated section of the state, and its peak ridership thus stunted.

The CNJ alignment through Winslow Jct. would pass through Vineland, and potentially directly access Philadelphia, rather than Camden; however, as a commuter line, it would be low on the totem pole of Delair crossings, and it would be routed by the most circuitous of all routes.

In between is the option to utilize the CNJ line from Bridgeport to Vineland, but the Millville Branch after. While it would not be as fast (or direct) as the PRSL alignment, it would pass through the most populated areas and offer reasonably direct commuter service to Camden.

Of course, a large part of this discussion depends on the ridership a Bridgeton alignment vs. a Millville one would generate. If Bridgeton does not generate as much ridership as Millville (or inadequate ridership, period), it may make sense to just operate a dinky to it, if anything at all, from Vineland--the same also applying to Millville in the case of the obverse.

18. The Salem Branch runs through the heart of Salem County, to, well, Salem. While the country is generally rural, a series of larger towns dot this line--Woodstown, Swedesboro, and Mt. Royal--suggesting that, if properly implemented, ridership may well exceed implementations. (A market in Camden wouldn't hurt matters either.)

19. The Pennsgrove Branch runs along the shore of the Delaware between Woodbury and Carney's Point. With multiple industries and larger communities along this line, it would draw some of the Camden network's highest ridership--probably second only to the Millville Branch.

Now that we know what rail assets we have in South Jersey, we can start on the next step: understanding how to use them in such a way as to maximize ridership and accessibility. Two obvious next steps for our program come out of the sheer act of surveying potential assets: (1) splitting the routes into intercity routes utilizing the Delair Bridge (as I'd intimated before), and (2) using a Camden terminus to catalyze transit-oriented development and growth--growth which would, hopefully, finally offer the city a stable fiscal base.

Some more SEPTA thoughts

In compiling my thoughts from the last post into a map, I realized that a couple of possibilities I hadn't included should be, mostly for the sake of completeness. These are two (relatively) minor spurs, one in the city and the other waaaaay at the edge of the boonies, and consideration of where Mercer Co. fits into all this.

1. The Colebrookdale Spur is the line waaaaaaaay out at the edge of the boonies, running from Pottstown to Bally. North of Boyertown its rails have been ripped up. I hadn't included it in the original compilation because it is just too far to be viable for the Philadelphia commuter market (although it may be more so for Reading). Nevertheless, the Gilbertsville-Boyertown area is sizable--in European markets, it would be large enough to demand at least daily rail service.

2. The Greenwich Extension is the ex-PRR route that extends from the Northeast Corridor through South Philadelphia to Greenwich Yard. Heavily used by freight and constrained by the single-track Arsenal Bridge across the Schuylkill, it is a poor fit for commuter rail. Nevertheless, it is for most of its length carried over 25th St. on a massive viaduct, a structure built for far more capacity than it today handles. I have in the past suggested a heavy rail line to take advantage of this excess capacity.

3. Mercer Co., N.J., is...complicated. There is a major job market in and around Princeton, the dominant local commute pattern; the remainder is about evenly divided between the Philadelphia and North Jersey/New York commute markets. (In fact, the New York and Philadelphia urban areas are divided by an extremely narrow impromptu greenbelt running about halfway through the county.) Because of this, organizational competence is absolutely essential for providing good mass transit. This would instantiate with two things: rational transfers and a local fare union between SEPTA and NJ Transit, potentially between Cornwells Heights on the Trenton Line and Trevose on the West Trenton Line, and to Princeton, New Brunswick, and Bound Brook on the NJT side. A new spur of the Raritan Line from Bound Brook to West Trenton would also be essential. Operations can be done via co-routing of SEPTA and NJT trains (terminating SEPTA trains at New Brunswick, for example, or NJT trains at Cornwells Heights); in either case, however, cross-platform, or at worst, timed transfers absolutely must be implemented. (The timed transfers between the Trenton Line and the Northeast Corridor Line are one of the few artifacts of organizational competence to be found anywhere in U.S. railroading; too bad it is neither furthered nor backed up.)

4. Speaking of intercity transit, down in Maryland, MARC's terminus in Perryville is essentially nowhere: too far to be useful for the Baltimore commute market, but too close to be useful as an intercity to Wilmington. Extend it to a natural terminus in Wilmington.

In Roxborough, Will Land Use Mistakes Follow Ethics Violations?

Current "Kingsley Court" site plan

The former Ivy Ridge Personal Care Center, ground zero of a Villanova socialite’s bilking of disabled citizens to finance her lavish lifestyle, may soon be redeveloped. The atrocious treatment there only ended in 2009. Since then the site has seen multiple arson fires. It is today a blight on the neighborhood, and it will certainly be torn down.

The most advanced redevelopment plan for the site, rejected for now ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Looking at SEPTA

Lately, Alon Levy of Pedestrian Observations has been taking a long, hard look at the MBTA commuter rail operation and came to the conclusion that most of the MBTA's plans to expand the physical scope of its operations were misguided. Instead, his suggestions were to maximize the efficiency of the existing operations, primarily with the use of electrification and infill stations, likely with a long look toward uniting the disparate networks operating out of North and South Stations (although the long-term aftereffects of the Big Dig boondoggle will make that unlikely for a generation or more). SEPTA took the same approach with its Regional Rail network thirty years ago, as I pointed out in the comments, and there is no clear evidence it worked better or worse. In any event, however, I want to undertake the same kind of analysis as Alon's, looking mostly at PA (NJ is another story altogether).

This analysis will start along the lower Delaware and work more-or-less clockwise.

1. The Wilmington-Newark Line happens to be one of the three commuter rail lines that also utilizes high-speed designated lines. Since SEPTA has not relocated its stations to park-and-rides on the urban fringe, and since the Marcus Hook local works together with the local and express trains to Wilmington and Newark as well as the express Northeast Regional and Acela trains (which stop at Wilmington), service on this line is adequate--1 tph at the worst; 4 tph at rush hour. Wilmington is intercity, however; a little dinky service between Marcus Hook and Newark may be called for to handle local service there. East of Island Avenue this line operates exactly halfway between the two closest-together branches of the Subway-Surface trolley network.

2. The Airport Line, SEPTA's newest line, suffers from underridership (as do most airport lines that only serve airports). Not helping this one bit is the Airport approach this line takes, a massive fishhook. A new Airport approach would be useful, shortening and speeding up the line; commuter service would return to the line at Eastwick (and if high-speed rail is desired along an Airport routing, a little further to the east as well). Service would be returned to the original routing (IIRC the Reading Chester Branch) via a viaduct over PA 291 (Governor Printz Bvld./Industrial Hwy.) with a stop in Essington before interlocking with the NEC just west of Eddystone.

This also offers a new service paradigm for expresses, and also creates a problem with two local services both heading toward a natural terminus in Chester; one of these (the Airport one, it would have fewer stops and thus reach Chester faster) can be valved up the Chester Creek Branch--which has just begun a rail-trail conversion--to about Aston; any further would overlap with the West Chester Line (etc.: see below) complex. Bringing heavy rail to the Airport would be a wise idea--it's an employment hub. If this happens, heavy rail can use the existing Airport stations and the current I-95 viaduct for end-of-line storage (if desired) while commuter rail--and possibly high-speed rail--would have a concentrated stop at one station as close to the middle of the concourse as possible.

Finally, the current Airport Line junction with the NEC is inferior, and particularly so if a high-speed routing is desired; the technically superior routing would go straight up the Chester Branch past the interlocking with the CSX main and (under, most probably) the CSX cutoff between its main and the High Line. Infill stations would be desirable--at the Post Office, 63rd St., and Bartram's Gardens would offer the greatest balance between distance, jobs access, and residential access.

3. The Media/Elwyn Line displays the core problem with SEPTA Regional Rail: it has lost service since 1980, when the diesel lines were all shed, with one exception. Current service terminates at Elwyn, which is in the middle of nowhere (technically on the outskirts of Media) and has no park-and-ride. As you can expect, the ridership there is low.

This is not, however, the historical state of things. This line is known as the West Chester Branch, and for good reason: it goes to West Chester. Rails still exist all the way to West Chester. The West Chester Railroad serves freight customers along this line. It was electrified all the way to West Chester; the catenary poles still exist.

Of course, at the end, service was highly infrequent, and the lack of maintenance along the line made for a bumpy ride. SEPTA terminated commuter service to West Chester and beyond Paoli in the late '80s, and then offered a choice to Chester County, so the story goes, which to reopen.

However, West Chester is a natural terminus, and would draw reasonable ridership. The line passes by two schools (West Chester and Cheyney Universities), and the area this extension covers is still a core Philadelphia commuter market. Service on such a line should be hourly at the least (although service on all existing SEPTA lines is hourly at minimum already).

4. The Octoraro Branch refers to a disused route splitting off from the West Chester Branch around Lima and heading west to Kennett Square and eventually Nottingham via Oxford. The line east of the Brandywine Creek was apparently washed out in 1977 and has lain abandoned since; to the west, it is operated by the East Penn Rwy., a short line running several spur operations within the Philadelphia area and Lehigh Valley. Freight traffic runs all the way to the Herr's snack food plant in Nottingham, close to the Maryland border; at one point, this route connected into the Northeast Corridor via a Susquehanna River sub, and would have functioned as an alternative freight gateway for the PRR.

Kennett Square is an agricultural job center, and Lincoln University, a bit further on, offers a ridership draw. Additionally, the route passes Chadds Ford, a major regional draw (the home of Longwood Gardens and the Brandywine Museum). Finally, there is no direct highway route from the Chadds Ford area to the city. A good case can be made for hourly trains to Kennett Square, with bihourly trains to Oxford (Lincoln University).

5. The Newtown Square Branch is an old PRR branch serviced by diesels; service beyond Grassland (Eagle Road, perhaps? If anybody knows anything more, can they fill me in?) stopped in 1963, and all service terminated in 1981. Commuter traffic on this line was light for much of its history; it competed with a rather more direct trolley line running down West Chester Pike. Reinstating this trolley service (now Rt. 104) should be prioritized. However, this does not mean that this route should be allowed to decay away (as has been happening); it needs to be banked for the long term, and those parts that have already been lost returned to it. A rail-trail would be the most beneficial option here--the banking is a just-in-case if light rail along West Chester Pike ever reached saturation.

6. The Paoli/Thorndale Line is the second of the three Philadelphia-area commuter lines along high-speed designated corridors; the fastest express service is the Keystone Service, a push-pull utilizing AEM7s, Amfleet coaches, and ex-Metroliner EMUs converted into cab cars. Service right now terminates at Thorndale, which, like Elwyn, is in the middle of nowhere; the natural terminus for this line would be Coatesville (Thorn Interlocking allows turning; a Coatesville or Parkesburg terminus would need to turn all the way out at Lancaster. IIRC, there is a project to improve Parke Interlocking; if this allows for turning, this would make Parkesburg the natural operations terminus of this line).

One of the issues of this line, however, is that it's starting to venture into intercity territory. Lancaster is the main commuter market beyond Coatesville; the least frequent of all trains are the ones beyond Malvern (the "Paoli Local" terminus), the only ones on SEPTA's system which have bihourly frequency.

7. The Cynwyd Line is too damn short. Service needs to be extended to at least a park-and-ride off the Schuylkill Expressway, or possibly Ivy Ridge (where it was in 1986). If extended to Ivy Ridge, a connection could be made with the Manayunk/Norristown Line, thereby increasing service flexibility upstream.

8. The Manayunk/Norristown Line has much higher ridership today than in 1986, when it split riders with the Ivy Ridge line. Extensions of this line to Reading have been on and off the drawing boards for the past twenty years; the Schuylkill Valley Metro disaster basically sunk all of SEPTA's expansion plans for the past decade. Such a route to Reading would, however, be intercity; the natural termini beyond Norristown are Phoenixville and Pottstown, to which extensions can come in that order. Add to that that the line has plenty of capacity, while its primary competitor (the Schuylkill Expressway) is famously ever over-capacity, and this route has some of the region's better potential. This is also the passenger line that comes closest to King of Prussia; unfortunately, it does so in the middle of a giant office park. Perhaps shuttle services can help alleviate the problems that come with that.


9. The Perkiomen Branch saw its last service way back in the 1950s but suburban growth (sprawl) since means that service to Collegeville, with the built-in ridership boost its name suggests is there, and eventually the East Greenville-Pennsburg-Red Hill area. The major problem with this is that this line has been broken in numerous places, including in one place for a golf course (!). That area, however, is much more a part of the Allentown commuter market; a Collegeville spur would make for a better rail restart option.

10. The Chestnut Hill East and West Lines are two semi-overlapping commuter rail lines entirely within the Philadelphia commuter market. Their major problems stem from their infrastructural heritage; Chestnut Hill West has a queerly roundabout routing from North Philadelphia into Center City courtesy of its PRR heritage.

The best fix would be maintain one as commuter rail and convert the other into heavy rail. The usual proposal would be to maintain Chestnut Hill East as commuter rail because it enters the SEPTA Main Line at Wayne Jct., while converting Chestnut Hill West into heavy rail, entering the Broad Street Line around the North Broad/North Philadelphia transit node.

However, this has some major disadvantages: (1) while CHW has that roundabout Center City gateway, its routing north of that is straighter and therefore preferable for commuter rail, and its corollary, (2) CHE is much curvier, and (3) CHW passes mainly through residential areas while CHE comes quite close to Germantown--a major commercial artery--several times.

Combining this with my proposal that my Society Hill-Mt. Airy Line conception, we get a different idea, however. With a 19th St. subway to Wayne Jct., we can use Chestnut Hill East as a heavy rail routing and, with a Swampoodle Connection linking Chestnut Hill West into the SEPTA Main Line, give that line much more direct Center City service. Converting CHE to heavy rail furthermore has the advantage of giving us equipment that can better handle, and in the long run, a superior technical framework for eliminating the sharpest of, that line's curves (Wister Woods and Germantown). This routing also gives us a route that is better equipped to be extended--to Chestnut Hill College, another natural ridership generator a mile away--say. Note: Stenton and Ivy Hill are both definitely underserved by the current options. I may have more ink to spill on that later.

11. The Lansdale/Doylestown Line is the core route of the SEPTA Main Line, and one of the busiest on the Reading side. However, Lansdale, while a major North Penn area center and a natural terminus, is not the natural terminus. Service originally extended to Bethlehem and occasionally Allentown; were local service extended up to the North Penn area's other natural termini (Perkasie and Quakertown) and Bethlehem service extended, (service extension to Perkasie is currently being studied; the relatively bare-bones idea is upgrading the tracks to ridable condition and electrifying the line while utilizing existing infrastructure for stations (to be upgraded later), and extending Lansdale locals) Lansdale would be quite a busy rail junction, leading us to...

12. The Stony Creek Branch, a freight cutoff between Lansdale and Norristown. The primary attraction of this line is service to Merck, which lies right on it; with a busier Bethlehem Branch beyond Lansdale, it would also function as an express cutoff avoiding traffic snarls downstream (particularly in the busy two-track section between Jenkintown and Wayne Jct.)

13. The Warminster Line is the line that currently best accesses the part of Philadelphia's northern commuter market with the worst highway access, and hence has high ridership. Beyond Warminster the line continued as the New Hope Branch, today the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad. This route should be extended to a natural terminus at Ivyland; the next one up is New Hope, which, while a regional draw, would require too extensive an electrification to be viable until better routes are dealt with.

14. The Newtown Branch (part of which is the Fox Chase Line) was the last diesel commuter rail line SEPTA operated, ceasing service in 1983, after SEPTA had run its RDCs into the ground. While the Warminster Line passes Willow Grove, the Newtown Branch has, in aggregate, the best rail route in the northern suburbs' commuter rail market. Warminster Line saturation also suggests it's time to invest in it once again. PA-TEC has an ingenious (if rather park-and-ride heavy) plan to extend service to Huntingdon Valley, a key foot in the door for actual Newtown Branch line restoration--the line's natural terminus is Newtown itself. The Newtown Branch crosses the New York Branch at Ayres Interlocking in Beth Ayres.

15. The West Trenton Line follows the New York Branch from Jenkintown east. At Beth Ayres it crosses the Newtown Branch; it terminates at West Trenton in Ewing Township, another of those stations with nothing around it. For whatever reason, the Reading chose to terminate its Philadelphia commuter service here, and the infrastructure needed for it hence still exists. It is an operational terminus: Yardley is the more natural terminus. Since it's already in New Jersey, two possibilities can be considered: extend it to NJ Transit, or extend NJ Transit down to it, with a shared terminus at Yardley. Such a route would be considered part of the Raritan Valley Line (and short of its electrification there is no good reason to extend SEPTA service to Bound Brook).

16. The New York Short Line is a freight cutoff between the Newtown Branch and the New York Branch with some useful passenger rail possibilities. West Trenton trains using the NYSL would eliminate the need to go through Jenkintown, thus saving time; it would also avoid needing to reinstate the level interlocking at Ayres and send potential Newtown Branch trains through Jenkintown. An unfortunate byproduct of this idea, however, is that it would eliminate service to Philmont, Forest Hills, and Somerton stations. However, an NYSL express cutoff is still a useful idea: West Trenton express trains run local beyond Trevose (which is where the NYSL-West Trenton Line interlocking is).

17. The North Penn Sub, as I recall its name, is the route extending from Fern Rock south, principally along American Street. It was originally the North Penn R.R.'s mainline--hence its name. The entirety of the ROW still exists; a smart move may be to bring light rail service up it, especially if new light rail service is to go along Delaware Avenue (although that is not the smartest proposition right now).

18. The Bustleton Branch is a short branch between Holmesburg Jct. and the Bustleton area. While the section north of Roosevelt Bvld. has been obliterated, the portion south is still intact, and a spur heads from it to Northeast Philadelphia Airport. This is minor expansion written all over it, and would make a good terminus area for a local service from the interior of the Trenton Line. It would also be helpful to extend a spur from the NYSL to this branch, as the current setup forces the not-inconsiderable amount of freight traffic generated here onto the NEC.

19. The Trenton Line--at last!--is the NEC's route north from Philadelphia and is hence the third high-speed designated line in the city. It has sharp curves at Zoo Interlocking and Frankford Jct.; as I've noted before, there is no cost-effective way to do something other than put up with Zoo as the junction between the NEC and Keystone Corridor; for true high-speed service, a Frankford Jct. cutoff along Torresdale Ave. can be arranged. (A little concrete is better than a lot.) Trenton trains are reasonably frequent, and timetables for this line also include a section of the connecting NJT Penn Line timetable to New York--a rare manifestation of organizational competence in the passenger experience. So rare is it that the two can't even be bothered to time their trains for cross-platform transfers! Or accept one another's tickets!

Infill stations should be considered along the Trenton Line, particularly at Brewerytown, Fairhill, and Juniata Park.

Commuter rail in Philadelphia is a different animal than in Boston. Where in Boston concentrating on optimizing existing service would be more useful than less and less tenuous greenfield extensions, in Philadelphia, development and larger towns tend to exist beyond the edges of existing lines. I hope to get a map of these ideas going; additionally, I would like to see what kinds of service patterns would optimize our resources.

Behind Victorians

Parkside is at once one of the city’s most visible and most enigmatic neighborhoods. There are major regional attractions like the Mann Center and Please Touch Museum, the Japanese Tea Garden and Carousel House, and most especially the Zoo. Parkside and Belmont Avenues are critical commuter links into the city; thousands of cars pass by this neighborhood every day.

The part they pass by–the great row of Victorian mansions that feel like ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Embrace and Enliven

Credit drexelmasterplan. The dream--and the reality.

The announcement last month of Drexel University’s draft master plan (by the Boston firm Goody Clancy) was a purposely subdued event, a presentation only to interested parties, with documents only later released publicly on the master plan blog.

What a treasure trove of documents they are! Three PowerPoints–a vision, a strategy, and implementation–show ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

South Philly Crosstown Bus Is a Mistake

Courtesy The Transit Pass

Last month, SEPTA proposed a new South Philadelphia Crosstown bus service, which would link South Philly east of Broad with Market West, with 10- to 15-minute frequency. SEPTA has put quite a bit of thought into this proposal, with an online survey and open house (from half a month ago). My best knowledge is that the proposal would be a 57 spur down Market, which is much better than the initial rumors, but still falls prey to the critique below.

The Crosstown sounds ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Subdued Christmas in Center City

It’s Christmastime in Center City! And you would hardly know that from looking at the papers. The city’s best light shows this year, declared the Metro last week, are in Franklin Square, Chestnut Hill, and Lower Moyamensing (so spectacular it merited its own article).

But what about, y’know, Walnut Street? Or Market? Aren’t the best Christmas decorations in the city supposed to be in its commercial core? Shouldn’t they? After all, is there any better way to encourage people to buy something than to be festive about it?

So I took my camera, and I observed ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Make No Small Plans

Jacques Gréber's Parkway Plan. Wikipedia

This will be a start–but that’s all it will be: a start.

The architect and city planner Horace Trumbauer is credited with one of the classic lines of city planning: “Make no small plans.” Trumbauer’s approach to the discipline, combined with the dominant influence of Paris’ Ecole des Beaux-Arts, led to one of America’s first major homegrown urban traditions: the City Beautiful. It was in this City Beautiful spirit that the Frenchman Jacques Gréber designed the Ben Franklin (née Fairmount) Parkway.

It was to be many things. A boulevard linking ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

At Drexel, Knocking Down the Fortress Door

Papadakis Building. drexelmasterplan

Take a look at Drexel’s three newest buildings: the recently-opened Papadakis Integrated Sciences Center, and the forthcoming LeBow and American Campus Communities buildings. All three share common characteristics: white stone façades, combined with strongly formal Modernism; Papadakis and LeBow also share vertical windows and accents.

These are elements associated with a late 1950s through 1970s design style ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Temple University Station Development Sister of New York “Legacy Project” Via Verde

Paseo Verde, looking south from 9th and Norris. Image: WRT

The Asociación de Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM) has partnered with the Jonathan Rose Companies, of New York, and Wallace, Roberts, and Todd to develop Paseo Verde. Meaning “green way” in Spanish, Paseo Verde is to be a major new mixed-use development at 9th and Berks, in Lower North Philadelphia. The property was acquired by the development partnership last week. Groundbreaking is to be early next year.

Both affordable housing and design advocates ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

When Caesar's Palace Meets Publisher's Clearing House

Photo credit: Peter Woodall

Last week, a sort of miniature gaming den tried to open on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown. This was supposedly an Internet café, but it really was a pop-up casino, offering games and cash prizes.

Thankfully, the property owner ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Drexel's Master Plan Moving Forward

Drexel Master Plan "In Progress" Image: drexelmasterplan

Last Friday morning, Drexel University presented its nearly-complete master plan, developed by the Boston architecture and urban planning firm Goody Clancy, to members of the university community. We've been following the planning through the master plan's blog, which you can access HERE.

Among the first projects to break ground ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

Hidden City Philadelphia

I am a regular contributor on Hidden City Philadelphia now! Yay!

Going forward, expect link posts the way Steve Smith manages Market Urbanism now that he posts at Forbes for the most part.

Occupy Philly As Spontaneous Urbanism, Part III

As we watch the bulldozer and trash trucks arrive this morning at Dilworth Plaza, and read of a 5AM face off between Occupiers and police on North 15th Street, let’s wander through Occupy during a more bucolic time–last week, in fact.

In the beginning, the encampment had features ... Continue reading at Hidden City Philadelphia.

The Great Plains of North Philadelphia

(aka the Logan Triangle)

Philaphilia's GroJLart has on Naked Philly a feature about the ruins of the Logan Triangle, a region of subsiding land due to poor fill over the now-turned-into-a-sewer Wingohocking Creek. This area came to be because the dwellings there were simply made uninhabitable--which, of course, means that all but the most marginal uses of the site would have to deal with the sheer expense of environmental remediation.

Uses discussed on the comments include (1) a park, (2) a tree farm, (3) urban agriculture, (4) a golf course, and (5) a solar farm. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages.

The park sounds good in concept, but rapidly runs into a slight problem: it would be immediately across the street from the similar-size Hunting Park, which already has maintenance issues of its own. If we can't afford to maintain Hunting Park, why on earth should we put another Hunting Park right next to it?

The tree farm would not be yielding foodstuffs, so it can use the land as-is.

Urban agriculture would be yielding foodstuffs. The ground is contaminated. However, similar conditions don't stop Greensgrow. Like operations could certainly be set up throughout the area.

The golf course sounds like a pretty decent idea--but what about the contamination? And a larger issue--how would you market it? It seems like only an Arnold Palmer-designed course or something along that vein would be able to attract the golf-club set to that neighborhood.

The solar farm doesn't need to worry about contamination, but will still need to worry about subsidence. Industrial-scale solar panels are very delicate.

--And all of these have to sort out the ownership situation. The original subdivision was for residential properties; since, however, the conditions of the Logan Triangle prevent residential development, a core need is thus to ensure all the properties in the Triangle are consolidated before they are re-subdivided for whatever future use(s) will exist on this site. This will likely take the form of block conferral. Consolidating all these blocks into superblocks would still be detrimental to the long-term access of the site, and should not be considered short of a use necessitating a superblock (like a golf course).

The most likely result should be a variety of agrarian uses springing up on each block--tree farms, food farms, and solar farms--with perhaps a narrow band of commercial fronting the Boulevard (depending, of course, on the viability of the ground conditions). This could be done as a farmer's market--a wholesale space for each of the ten-to-fifteen or so potential properties within this site. Furthermore, the site can be developed through a collaboration between successful urban ag operations (Greensgrow, the Mill Creek Farm, etc.)--particularly those dealing with raised-bed operations--and the Logan neighborhood, so that these farms are not just some outside operation, but an important source of revenue and foodstuffs for the neighborhood itself. This, of course, provides work and ownership in one of the poorest parts of the city, and so catalyzes a local reinvestment cycle.

Decline and Decay; Planning for Revitalization on Market East

Strawbridge's in better times. Courtesy Labelscar.

As has been reported, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News are moving, from their historical home at 400 North Broad (over former Reading tracks, across from Terminal Commerce, and next to its former printing press) to 801 Market.

8th & Market back when it was bordered by half of the city's major department stores. Courtesy the Hagley Archives.

801 Market is, of course, the Strawbridge's building. At its peak, it had eight floors of retail, a bargain basement, and four floors or so of corporate offices on top; when Strawbridge & Clothier was sold to the May Company, these top floors were sold to a separate company and Strawbridge's continued operating in its space below.

The Gallery in its prime: Black Friday, 1980. Source: Temple University Urban Archives

In the '70s, Strawbridge's and Gimbels partnered with the RDA and mall developer the Rouse Company to build the Gallery, then conceived as the first element of a then-decade-old Market East redevelopment framework. The first section was completed in 1977; the second section, with J.C. Penney as lead tenant, in 1983. For the first decade or so, the mall was a major Philadelphia retail center; the high-end stores, such as Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue clustered along the Golden Mile of City Line Avenue, but no mall could yet beat the great retail core of Market East.

Redevelopment is badly needed at the Gallery. This is the panorama one is treated to from Burlington Coat Factory's 3rd floor entrance.

This began to change in the mid '80s, though, as Simon brought King of Prussia upscale. Even if a major push had been made to bring these stores downtown, the zeitgeist was all in the suburbs. And so King of Prussia added the Court, anchored by Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and a short-lived Abraham & Straus (which was in short order replaced by Strawbridge's, which in 1995 moved to the former Wanamaker's); added to that, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom--then the only ones in the region (Neiman Marcus still is)--and Lord & Taylor signed on to buttress Sears, Gimbels/Penney's, and Wanamaker's in the Plaza. The Gallery remained more or less stable, with the most change happening in the center anchor: after Gimbels' liquidation, it was replaced with Stern's, which, when it decided to pull out of the Philadelphia market, was replaced by Strawbridge's discount brand, Clover, which was then replaced by Kmart (now the Gallery's oldest anchor).

Kmart's Gallery II entrance. The shut, mural-clad third floor entrance (closed off ca. 1990) leads to converted--and vacant--office space. Reactivating it for retail may be a possibility.

2003 seems to have been a catalytic year for the Gallery, when Penney's pulled out and was replaced by Burlington Coat Factory; this seems to have set the stage for its 2000s tailspin. However, this increasingly downmarket perception was buttressed by its east end anchor--the last flagship department store left in Philadelphia.

Taken from the upper Kmart entrance to Gallery I. Vacancy and marginal stores rule the roost on the upper floors. The largest storefront--"How Philly Moves"--is a public mural studio.

It was in 2006 that Macy's merged with the May Company (now, recall, Strawbridge's anchor). Initially, it seemed that Macy's would retain the Strawbridge's and thereby maintain the Gallery's east end; however, some random proviso or another managed to work its way in and Macy's wound up occupying the former Center City Lord & Taylor--an undersized (for it) space in the Wanamaker Building--instead. The full 520k square foot girth of Strawbridge's fell vacant.

The Strawbridge's atrium. The uppermost level would be the entrance into the floor now to be occupied by Philadelphia Media Holdings. The upper floors of this whole atrium are largely vacant, with just four open stores: Dr. Denim, Foot Locker, and a new Mural Arts visitor center on the top floor, and an orphan Wet Seal on the second floor.

This was not the first Macy's Gallery near miss, either. Indeed, the first really major one* was when Stern's entered the Philadelphia market in 1986, by opening up a bunch of stores in former Gimbels locations (much as Boscov's attempted to enter the Maryland market exactly two decades later). During Stern's relatively brief tenure in the Philadelphia market, its parent company acquired Macy's', and over the next decade slowly merged operations together. (Stern's ceased existing in 2001.) 

An entrance never again to be used by retail.

However, while Stern's, during 1988-9, decided to leave the Philadelphia market, an opportunity was present--although never seized on--for Macy's, already established here through its acquisition of Bamberger's, to strengthen its own local market position by acquiring stores Stern's was vacating, e.g. at the Gallery, or for mall leasers to bring Macy's on. (Macy's did not go bankrupt until 1992; it emerged out of it mainly by merging with Federated in '94, one of whose nameplates was...Stern's.) They also had a chance in 1995-7 to locate in the then-former Clover, before it was leased by Kmart**; a plausible case can then be made that the third was when Penney's left, offering a large anchor position in Center City; this would make Macy's snubbing of the Strawbridge's space no less than the fourth chance, and near miss, the Gallery had to bring them onboard.

The new Mural Arts visitor center/store--the lone new addition in this part of the Gallery.

PREIT--by now, the Gallery's owner--responded first by trying to lure an uninterested Nordstrom. Nordstrom preferred Cherry Hill. Until 2007, in fact, nearly all national-level retail openings were outside the City proper, much less on Market East; the very urban-oriented recovery from the housing market crash is forcing reconsideration of store planning policies by those retailers who plan on surviving the recession***. Nevertheless--and despite the fact 2011 showed significant recovery, and 2012 is poised to, too--PREIT has not been able to find a retail tenant for Strawbridge's. Instead, it leased the top three floors of its ownership to the Commonwealth in 2007, and, what started this article, the third, and top concourse-accessed floor, to Philadephia Media Holdings, the parent company of the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com.

Vacancies around the former Strawbridge's.

The master narrative of this move is that PMH wants to take part in Market East's "renaissance", spurred by the passage of a sign bill that allows more (and hopefully better) signs along this traditional retail center. Retail needs signs--always has. But, whatever the merits of the sign bill, it is not in itself a cause of Market East's revitalization: there could very well be billboards atop vacant ground floors.

Too many vacancies to be good...

No: it is an instrument, and (hopefully) a fairly good one^. Furthermore, it is an instrument primarily created in order to usher along a renovation and (mid- to upmarket) repositioning of the Gallery, as well as the development of more large urban commercial and retail, particularly above the Gallery and on the south side. This will all take time.

The Wet Seal that is--unbelievably--still holding on.

But PMH is right in that there appears to have been some progress in improving Market East over the past year. SSH has presented exciting plans for Girard Square, replacing the downtrodden tumorous toadstool sprouting out of what was once Snellenburg's with a large DC USA-esque development anchored by a (rumored) Target. If this is indeed true, then what about the remaining portion of the former Strawbridge's space?

At the Gallery--we accept food stamps. Is there any better a symbol for hard times?

Only three floors of Strawbridge's remain as leasable retail space: the basement, first, and second floor. These can be utilized in the same pattern as e.g. the Macy's in the former Jordan Marsh flagship, downtown Boston, or the generic three-story mall anchor, for that matter. The large size of the facility nevertheless allows it to be considered a "flagship" (Dillard's Norfolk flagship--a much younger store--has a comparable square footage to what's left), particularly when combined with the unique architectural class of the first-floor great hall, comparable with New York examples. All accounts agree that the bottom two (at the very least) must remain in retail use, but conversion of the second story to office use greatly endangers further viability of the Gallery's Strawbridge's atrium's upper half. Three options present themselves for this redevelopment.

What is Walgreen's missing? A mall concourse entrance, of course! Also, that Walgreen's is really grubby and skuzzy inside--much like the Rite Aid by the subway station--and it occupies a choice spot for much more upmarket options, like casual dining. Repositioning the Gallery will likely involve kicking them out.

1. Conversion of the entire site into a single anchor.
2. Conversion of part of the site into a main anchor, and the remainder into a sub-anchor.
3. Conversion of the great hall into a mall sub-court, e.g. the Pavilion at King of Prussia, flanked by basement and second story sub-anchors.

For both (1) and (2) a dominant department store must be found. Primary options are Boscov's, now healthy and expanding again; Bon-Ton, assuming they capitalize on current macroeconomic dynamics; J.C. Penney, whose new CEO was the former Apple Store kingpin; Sears, with Bon-Ton's caveat; Kohl's, which has no mall anchor stores in the Philadelphia market, or even penetration in the Center City market; Century 21, although its merchandising style (roughly equivalent to Daffy's and on-way-out Filene's Basement may not make it amenible to being a keystone in a strong branding strategy; and (less likely) Bloomingdale's or Lord & Taylor, both of who would likely favor space west of Broad (if available), or Dillard's or Belk, neither of whom have so far entered or even expressed interest in the Philadelphia market. Secondary anchors include Daffy's, T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, Kohl's (in its current Philadelphia-market format), Toys "R" Us, and any big-box anchor in the 50k sf range one can name. (Furniture showrooms are popular at the Pavilion).

The Black Friday view from higher in the post--today.

Option (3) includes the secondary anchors, and adds inverted inline through Strawbridge's main hall, possibly bounded by another secondary anchor. This formation, however, relegates anchorage to the Mellon Independence Center's retail--essentially, the Ross. (A later post hopefully treats this). It also loses the largest potential salable space in Center City--even if you were to empty out all the inline shops in the Shops at Liberty Place (again, later post) and replace them with a full-scale full-line department store, the total retail space would still be smaller (although perfect for a higher-end anchor, like Bloomingdale's or Neiman Marcus). It loses, in other words, one of the best department store sites in the City.

Mural Arts installs one of the first major examples of large signage on Market East. Another is 801 Market's leasing signs. Are any ads up on 1234 Market?

For these reasons, I favor attempting Options (1) and (2) before attempting (3); (3) is, in some ways, a sign of defeat. To me, the best option would be bringing Boscov's to the entire space, which is now down to a large full-line department store in size; with the Strawbridge's building fully occupied and Girard Square built, development attention would then focus on 800 Market (the original Gimbels, aka the Disney Hole) and 1301 Market. It may take some time for this--the Manhattan Mall is useful as a case study. For nearly a decade, from 2001 (when Stern's was folded into Macy's), to 2009 (when J.C. Penney moved in), the Manhattan Mall's primary anchor space lay vacant. And this was in New York--just off Herald Square, where Macy's flagship is!

This three-level skybridge links the Strawbridge's building with a large parking garage (facing Arch). It was originally built for both Strawbridge's and Lit's. Nowadays--assuming they are open at all--the top level enters the State offices, and next summer the middle level will link into the Inky offices. This will leave just the lower level to be linked into the retail mall. (As an aside, the former Lit's entrances all likely link into either hallways or office suites--if they are open at all.)

The Gallery could also stand to reposition its upper floors. For one thing, the current food court, down in the basement, is badly placed. Moving the food court to the top of the complex, and giving the dining area(s) great big south-facing windows would be a wise idea. With the conversion of Strawbridge's third floor to office space--why not put this in the top floor of the atrium at its concourse entrance?

Underutilized space in the Reading Terminal Headhouse.

The other major underutilized features are the parking garage entrances. One exists for each half of the Gallery, and the entrance to each is next to the west anchor. Gallery II's also features a rather serpentine pathway linking it with the concourse while bypassing said anchor (originally Penney's, now Burlington Coat Factory). This is a very odd layout by any standard; it would be much better to have the west parking garage skybridge entrance directly access the anchor instead, and utilize the serpentine corridor connecting the garage with the main concourse for either (a) an inline store (taking advantage of the available view, perhaps?), or (b) an anchor extension, possibly in terms of an in-store café or related amenity.

Bland blank walls fill this lower atrium. A service door, out of sight left, may be all that's left of a former subway access path.

Finally, we have to consider the third level of the former Gimbels anchor and its relation to Gallery II's uppermost floor. Between Stern's and Clover's usage of the space, the top three floors were all converted to office use; the only tenant there today is a large methadone clinic occupying the topmost floor and half the fourth. The third is entirely vacant. Part of the leasing problem likely arises from two facts: (1) The upper three floors were converted from retail to office use ca. 1990, and seem to have been untouched since, and (2) the property is the sole Vornado property in the city. Vornado, being a New York firm, is likely trying to market this property at New York or Boston-type rent levels--no wonder, then, it is in a state of perpetual vacancy!

The Market East Station entrance from the Headhouse atrium appears to be the least-utilized of the three, despite its also being the cleanest, in an atrium surrounded by blank walls rather than commercial offerings.

901 Market (confusingly, both this building and the Gallery bear the address 901 Market) has a basement and five floors. With a strong Gallery, two anchors could be stacked on one another (an semi-example would be the way the Nordstrom in Westfield San Francisco is stacked on top of inline stores) or perhaps Westfield's own solution. Another key to this structure is how the fifth floor is used--this is the space currently filled by the methadone clinic (a very marginal use, by the way); it could be offices (Gallery offices? doctors' offices?), storage, a third floor of an upper anchor (either paired with a lower anchor, or with the current anchor floors converted to inline mall space, preferably with a new atrium hollowed out)--but all this assumes a retail conversion of the top half of the structure. What if an office tenant is found instead?

A strange door.  An old subway entrance? The Reading certainly once would have maintained a subway entrance to its station. One possibility to pursue would be (re)connecting it to the subway concourse, and enlivening the concourse along with the atrium. In the long term, closing the 11th and 13th street subway platforms and opening a new one at 12th needs to be considered (keeping the free transfer to the trolley platform open, of course); this would also strengthen what is a quiet little nook.

Enter Plan B. Finding an anchor, or anchor series, for the top half of that structure would strengthen Gallery II's top floor's position vis-à-vis inline retail; if none is forthcoming, however, the inline option should just be abandoned and the whole top floor converted to either a big-box sub-anchor or perhaps office space with an atrium view. This may be done by preserving the parking garage connection already discussed, and having it used to access the sub-anchor directly; office space conversion of the top level should also come with a sealing-off of the west anchor's topmost mall concourse entrance. (Office conversion should also make use of the built-in lobby space for the as-yet-unbuilt tower.) In all cases, however, having a direct entrance from the parking garage to the west anchor (currently Burlington Coat Factory) remains--or seems to--a good idea.

Closeup of the sign.

Final Gallery thoughts. The narrow serpentine mall corridor that parallels 10th St. should be eliminated; the newstand and, er, jewelry store along it moved to elsewhere in the mall. The corner parcel(s) so created can then be marketed to a casual diners: casual, chain eateries, particularly those with al fresco seating would have the triple purposes of (a) enlivening the Market Street streetscape, (b) catering to tourists' taste buds, and (c) encouraging people (tourists) to tarry (and therefore spend money at the Gallery). Halfway down the block, however, a new grand midblock entrance to Gallery II from Market should be called for; this will necessitate the closure of the Gallery II Payless as well as (probably) the wig shop above it. And if the Gallery is to be successful, it must link with the Marriot, Reading Terminal Market, and Convention Center in the Headhouse in such a way as to strengthen the links between all three--the opposite of the case today.

The Field House bar presents a certain quandry. For positives, it is an active use in an otherwise relatively moribund Headhouse; but for negatives, its space would be much better used bringing the Reading Terminal Market to the Convention Center and Gallery. The Headhouse could be a gate, a unique connector; today, it dispels everything from it at least as much as it connects.

Moving west to the Reading Headhouse, we have the problem of an underutilized and devoid space. The Headhouse is characterized by a large atrium, with each of its levels offering front-door access to major Market East features: the basement for Market East Station, basement and ground floors for the Gallery (ground via the concourse behind the Aramark Building lobby), ground floor for the Reading Terminal Market, and second floor for the Convention Center and Marriot hotel. But this atrium does not knit these attractions together, as it should; instead, poor design decisions and lethargic leasing actually repel them somewhat. Wayfinding is a bit of a problem; however, the key move to be made is to bring the Terminal into the Headhouse.

The current passage between the Headhouse and the Reading Terminal Market. A walk of pure boredom, followed by dodging traffic on Filbert. Certainly not a very inviting entrance to one of Center City's great destinations!

This would be done by a very simple move: move the Field House to wherever they so please, and open their space up as an expansion of the space-strapped Terminal. This would net them as much space as their current expansion project. (Closure of the 1100 block of Filbert may well also be desirable.) And let the Terminal Market flow down into the atrium and out the front door--perhaps as rotating display installations, punctuated by a weekly farmer's market (inside in the winter and inclement weather, outside otherwise). Such displays could be flowers for the Flower Show; buggies for the Car Show; festive Advent and Christkindl Nacht displays for the holidays; and so forth. Possibly even move key Terminal Market institutions into spaces surrounding the atrium. In other words, the Headhouse becomes the front door for the Terminal Market, which picks up the slack generated by the fact that none of the other institutions' front doors are in this building. It also better publicizes the Terminal Market and makes it effectively a Gallery anchor.

How much traffic does Filbert get here? Closure of the street and making the Reading Terminal Market one continuous facility may not be a bad move. A Market that extends from the Headhouse atrium to Arch would be larger and able to handle more stalls; it would also be more visible from Market, especially if it's allowed to spill out from the building.

Been talking too long. (This post took me four days to write!) I'll stop yapping now.

Filbert behind the Gallery. No fewer than three large parking garages, and a very low-slung bus terminal. Moving the bus terminal to a space off of the Gallery's service drive was an idea kicked around in the most recent Market East plan, filled with generally good ideas despite (or perhaps because of?) its being kludged together when Foxwoods-to-the-Gallery seemed imminent. If this is done, however, access to the bus bays from likely waiting areas becomes a major problem. On the plus side, it also opens up land the current depot sits on for development.

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* Stern's seems to have snapped the Gimbels lease right up.
** Had this happened, it is likely that the former Gimbels (whose retail space was curtailed to its bottom three floors, two of which were occupied by Clover and later Kmart, ca. 1990) would have either (a) been converted into a Men's or Furniture store (there are examples of both), or (b) lain vacant much as Strawbridge's has for the past five years.
*** This also makes Bon-Ton's shedding of its (historic) Carson's and Younker's downtown locations seem particularly short-sighted. Bon-Ton did develop a bad habit of vacating the downtown stores it acquired, starting(?) with Allentown's Hess's.
^ Which is partly why I helped found, and continue to maintain, the Concerned Citizens for Market East. The sign bill offered a useful instrument for reinvestment, and the policy line being held by SCRUB was definitely not going to do the job. Indeed, over the past two years they had made themselves look silly by protesting what was entirely reasonable large signage at 1234 Market and on the Thomas Lofts' party wall.