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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
A rendering of the Urban Umbrella, intended to replace traditional pipe-and-wood sidewalk sheds. Young-Hwan Choi´s concept won a New York-sponsored design competition.
Changing Skyline: An umbrella for pedestrians
An elegant, functional sidewalk shed has won a prize for a Penn architecture student.
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Posted 02/05/2010
Young-Hwan Choi arrived in Philadelphia from his native South Korea in August. By October, the University of Pennsylvania architecture student had devised an elegant new design for the sidewalk sheds that protect pedestrians during construction. And he was barely into his second semester when New York announced it was adopting his innovative system as its official prototype.
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Fred Tooks sweeps water away from a curb area across Broad Street from Progress Plaza. The area has been revitalized by the growth of Temple University, the construction of the Avenue North complex, and Center City´s expansion northward.
Changing Skyline: Fresh food amid a stale design
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Posted 01/29/2010
During the last decade, America's supermarket chains made a startling discovery: City residents have to eat, too. The chains went into expansion mode, erecting spacious, modern stores in Philadelphia neighborhoods that hadn't seen a fresh apple in decades.
 
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Peacedale Preserve gains 33 acres in Chesco
 
Developer unveils $100M plan for Spectrum land
 
Changing Skyline: Rittenhouse Square's traditionalist pretender - 01/22/2010
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Let's cut to the chase on the architectural merits of 10 Rittenhouse, the poshly proper apartment house that has lately assumed its place on Rittenhouse Square's northeast corner, as if the location were its birthright:
 
Changing Skyline: The sensuous city - 01/08/2010
They used to be the mean streets. For the past decade, good things have been happening in cities, Philadelphia included.
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
The television series Sex and the City debuted in 1998, the same year I began writing about architecture and cities for The Inquirer. Little did I guess back then that Carrie Bradshaw's glamorous gallivanting through the streets of Gotham signaled a major image update for America's cities, from lawless jungles to middle-class playgrounds. It's the city that's sexy now.
 
Changing Skyline: Let the master planners decide how to get to the Delaware waterfront - 11/20/2009
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Philadelphia's new Delaware waterfront manager isn't supposed to choose a master planner until its Monday meeting, but in characteristic fashion, the politicians are laying the dynamite to sabotage the effort.
 
Changing Skyline: Struggle to make season bright on the square - 11/13/2009
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
In this winter of our discontent, when Philadelphia's City Hall is too broke to fund parades, keep libraries open on weekends, or even scoop up curbside piles of raked leaves, you can't help longing for a little brightness during the holiday season. Just don't count on finding that old seasonal twinkle in Rittenhouse Square.
 
A bridge too far - 03/06/2008
Designed for vehicles, not pedestrians, a rebuilt South Street Bridge could widen the psychological divide between West Philadelphia and Center City.
By Inga Saffron , INQUIRER ARCHITECTURE CRITIC
A good bridge should connect people as well as places, but Philadelphia has been saddled with too many bridges that separate them both.
 
Changing Skyline | South Street Bridge: Phila. deserves better - 03/06/2008
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
You can give Philadelphia's traffic engineers this much credit: Their design for a rebuilt South Street Bridge is a big improvement over its scary, interstate-strength Walnut Street cousin. But then, wooden huts were an advance over cave living.
 
Architecture Review
An art palace well suited to Philadelphia - 09/07/2007
The Perelman addition, meant to relieve the pressure on the museum’s overstuffed main building, takes modesty and restraint to a level rarely seen in major art venues.
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
In the Art Museum's new Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, Philadelphia has at last acquired a modern civic building that is a true Philadelphian.
 
Changing Skyline | A slots barn, herding them in - 05/11/2007
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
Given the proximity of the state prison across from Harrah's new Route 291 racino in Chester, the inmates probably enjoy the best views of the hall's dazzling neon marquee, with its oversized simulated slot machine. And given the cheerless design of Harrah's gaming floor, the state inmates are probably no less confined than the slots slaves tethered to their electronic consoles.
 
Changing Skyline | Zoning board thumbs its nose at laws - 01/12/2007
By Inga Saffron, Inquirer Architecture Critic
In the marbled corridors of Philadelphia's government, he is often invoked by nickname, sotto voce, with a touch of grievance: Lord Auspitz. In the sunny hearing room, however, it's always Mr. Chairman.


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