Inga Saffron

Inga Saffron is the Architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Read Inga's blog Changing Skyline
Latest post: Developer unveils $100M plan for Spectrum land - 07/21/2009
Email Inga at isaffron@phillynews.com

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Changing Skyline: Powering down - 11/06/2009: The art deco steam plant and soaring smokestack near 30th Street Station soon will be gone, yet another emblem of industrial might vanished.

By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

There comes a point in the life of our workhorse industrial buildings when we stop seeing them for the marvels they perform, and soon after that, we stop seeing them altogether. In Philadelphia, which abounds with the unused relics of a mighty industrial past, it's all too easy to forget that these are the structures that made the city modern.
Changing Skyline: Pedaling in a lane that's their own - 10/30/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

I was idling at a red light on 17th Street the other afternoon, at ease on my nameless, burgundy-colored three-speed as I enjoyed the gentle fall sun, when a taxi driver pulled up in the left lane and barked: "Do you always stop at lights?"
Changing Skyline: A design that's a teaching tool - 10/23/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

How to instill moral values in America's youth is one topics that is guaranteed to start a spirited conversation. Religious groups, of course, have always been big on teaching the difference between right and wrong. Others argue that you can't have the discussion without talking about ethical behavior, compassion, or economic justice.
Changing Skyline: Perking up the Parkway - 10/16/2009: Even before the Barnes arrives, major landscaping projects will transform the area to make it more pleasing to pedestrians.

By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

From the moment that the Barnes Foundation decided to move to Philadelphia, the arrangement was cast as a perfect marriage of interests. The Barnes would become financially sustainable in a new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The city would finally get a lively cultural attraction to occupy a primo spot on that great boulevard of dead space.
Changing Skyline: Phila. architects offer some homegrown ideas - 10/09/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

It's not a new story, but the biggest and best architectural projects in Philadelphia always seem to end up in the hands of out-of-towners. The Barnes Foundation has a New York firm designing its new home. The Art Museum went to Los Angeles to snare Frank Gehry for its underground expansion. Even Drexel University chose a Minneapolis outfit to retrofit Market Street's iconic decorated shed, the ISI Building, one of Robert Venturi's important early works.
Changing Skyline Changing Skyline: Proving green can be gorgeous - 10/02/2009: City's soon-to-open Hotel Palomar is luxe and stylish - without the toxic fumes.

By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

You can be pretty sure that the smell you smell in most fancy new hotels in America is not the scent of money. More likely, it's a gassy brew of glue, formaldehyde, and ethylene, sublimating off the walls, floors, and furniture and into the guest-room air.
Changing Skyline: Erdy McHenry's new Drexel dorm ambitious, flawed - 09/25/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

The rap in Philadelphia on Erdy McHenry Architects is that their buildings are show-offs. They're too stylish, too trendy. They lack real depth. You don't want to look too closely at the details, either.
Changing Skyline: Subtle subterfuge - 09/18/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

Philadelphia has not been lucky with parking garages. Architects are always promising to dress up these concrete monsters so they're indistinguishable from the other buildings on the city's streets. Has anyone ever been fooled?
Changing Skyline: Time to play hardball on site for Foxwoods - 09/11/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

The old-boys club known as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (yes, they're all men) hardly seems equipped to be making crucial decisions about land use in Philadelphia.
Changing Skyline: Getting a bird's-eye view of the trees - 08/28/2009: By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic

Some structures change the way you look at architecture. Others make you see the world in a new way. A recent example of the latter is New York's High Line park. A large part of the attraction of the newly landscaped railroad viaduct is that it offers us a fresh vantage for viewing the urban jungle. You're above the fray, but not by much. Closer to home,