Time to transform City Hall into Phila.'s civic meeting place

So what if you can practically wallpaper the Philadelphia mayor's office with all the federal indictments that were issued to John Street's staff, associates and relatives? The former mayor will still go down in the history books as the crusading politician who cleaned up City Hall.

The building, that is.

Way back in 2000, long before Center City was dotted with construction sites, Street bit hard on the financial bullet and authorized spending $130 million to give the structure's thoroughly blackened facade a good scrub. For eight years, workers under the supervision of Vitetta architects toiled like Michelangelo, patching, painting, pointing and washing every square inch of the public chateau's massive outer walls.

That epic undertaking, almost medieval in its duration, is finally nearing an end. By August, City Hall should be a worksite no more. Crews are already breaking down the last of the scaffolding on the south side, revealing an incandescent expanse of marble skin. Given that City Hall's complexion was already sallowed by coal dust when its 30-year-long construction ended in 1901, it seems safe to say that its facade never looked so good.

Now, what do we do with the place?

If Street was the mayor who buffed up Philadelphia's most regal building, Michael Nutter could be the one who finally opens it up to the people.

Nutter made a good start by unlocking the north portal's soaring stair hall for his opening-day reception, allowing thousands of citizens to ascend to the second-floor Conversation Hall in the grand style that architect John McArthur Jr. intended. Unfortunately, the stairs were closed as soon as the event was over. But the enthusiastic response inspired the administration to look for other opportunities to turn City Hall into Philadelphia's civic meeting ground.

This is the perfect moment for action. The expansion of the Convention Center is shifting Center City's weight northward up Broad Street, as new hotels and restaurants repopulate the dowdy area. The charred hulk of One Meridian Plaza, which stood untended for nine years, has been relegated to deep memory as the shiny Residences at the Ritz-Carlton takes its spot on South Penn Square. More people than ever will encounter City Hall in their daily perambulations.

Nutter's staff has already instituted several symbolic changes aimed at making people welcome: The administration ordered the portal gates left open until 10 p.m., instead of 7 p.m. It illuminated those arcades with brighter bulbs and got rid of the disgraceful Dumpsters. Now, if you fancy a romantic after-dinner stroll through City Hall's portals, you can actually see Alexander Milne Calder's sculpted human capitals and sly bestiary of carvings.

Being able to admire the lavish Second Empire-style architecture is a nice improvement. But being able to use City Hall for more than staid bureaucratic functions would be a whole lot better.

In only a matter of days, there will be another sign of progress. Nutter's staff invited the group Farm to City to organize a weekly produce market in the courtyard. The first five vendors make their debut Wednesday, from noon to 6 p.m. As the growing season progresses, the market will expand to 10 tables.

Which makes us wonder: What would it take to install an outdoor cafe with some tables and a wireless router?

Because none of City Hall's ground-floor rooms open onto the courtyard or Dilworth Plaza, officials have long maintained that it's impossible to run an outdoor food operation. But it's hard to accept that excuse when you can easily get a bacon, egg, gorgonzola and frisee sandwich on a ciabatta roll at a freestanding kiosk in Manhattan's Bryant Park.

Since at least the mid-1980s, civic leaders have been floating schemes to bring such amenities to City Hall's ground-floor spaces. The courtyard is among the city's greatest outdoor rooms, an instant trip to the Loire Valley. Yet, except for the produce market, nothing encourages Philadelphians to linger. Meanwhile, Dilworth Plaza, the apron on the west side, is so junked up with cold-hearted granite, overgrown trees, and broken benches, no one wants to hang around.

Last spring, the Center City District's Paul Levy became the latest to offer a vision for those spaces. He debuted a plan by Olin Partnership to reconstruct the apron. Out with the granite and the dense forest. In with a sun-splashed grassy lawn and a portable ice rink.

Levy's proposal could be a smaller version of the wildly successful Millennium Park in Chicago, which includes diverse spaces and postcard-ready public art. That project cost almost half a billion dollars. But much of it came from private sources, and the investment jump-started $6 billion in real estate development nearby, its director, Edward K. Uhlir, boasted during in a recent talk to the Fairmount Park Art Association.

Whether Levy's ideas move further than earlier visions for City Hall's outdoor spaces depends on the Nutter administration's commitment. Unlike earlier proposals, this one could succeed because SEPTA is about to renovate City Hall station - a massive, technologically challenging project. The city could fold the plaza improvements into the budget. But it needs to start seeking federal and private funding now.

The project also requires a culture shift at City Hall, where some of the most breathtaking ground-floor spaces are devoted to the most banal uses.

At the same time the Street administration polished the exterior facade to perfection, it designated the glorious, freshly renovated Room 153 for its 911 operators. Located next to the south portal, and fronting on the courtyard, that room deserves a more public use. Although it's being wired now, it's not too late to reconsider. "They need to think big," said one-time mayoral candidate Sam Katz, who wants Nutter to give city museums gallery space on the ground floor.

City Hall is so big - 700 rooms, give or take - and so old that as soon as one renovation ends, the next begins. Once the exterior scaffolding comes down, it will go up in the courtyard soon after. That lovely space could be inaccessible for more than a year, and it could be tempting to put plans for enlivening City Hall on the back burner.

We'll have to hope the new brilliance of the luminous exterior will be a constant reminder of the possibilities.

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