Chris Satullo: Steel, concrete and input make a city rise

Some topics are just divisive.

Gun control.

Mac vs. PC.

Eagles vs. Cowboys.

The Cira Centre lights.

A week or so ago, I offered my capsule reviews on a roster of the major building projects around our region in this decade, and sought readers' opinions on them.

That list was headed by the Cira Centre, and its ever-changing nighttime displays of colored lights.

Verdicts on the skyscraper by 30th Street Station, whose angled glass walls seem to reflect Philadelphia's moods, were mostly glowing (darkened only by some wistfulness that the building could work better at ground level).

But those lights?

Might as well seek to resolve the Middle East as try to find consensus among Philadelphians on that point.

The Cira lights are one of those controversies where people who hold one view have a hard time imagining that any sane, sentient human beings could hold the opposite one.

Robyn Langston summed up the views of the happy faction:

"Awesome, and really fun, those lights are! Each time my husband and I drive on the Parkway in the evening, I always tell him how those lights are such a bonus for just living in the city."

Denise LeMelledo saw this debate as evidence of a flaw in the city's soul: "People in this city are so negative and nasty, so I am not surprised that Philadelphians criticize something so beautiful . . . and wonderful."

Well, Denise, they surely do. Other readers said the lights are "cheesy," "tragically done," and an "overwhelmingly harsh display of poor design."

Now, what about the public verdict on the other projects?

Comcast Center:

The enthusiasts aren't all that enthusiastic ("elegant," "sophisticated") about the city's new tallest building. What they like more than the austere icicle rising 945 feet on Market Street is the building's great connection to Suburban Station and its green design. The critics, by the same token, aren't that critical: "Boring" was the harshest term used. I can report that I'm not the only person mystified by the huge, dark indentations near the top of the north and south faces.

Penn's Landing:

Several readers were grateful for my explanation of the site's mysterious "Stonehenge," the concrete pillars built for the now-moribund cross-river tram. Tom Halterman, while opining that "everything the city has done at Penn's Landing is completely wrong-headed," makes the good point that the tram might have made sense had its Philly terminal been at Front and Market Streets, truly linking Camden and Center City. I know that suggestion was once made to the tram's sponsor, the Delaware River Port Authority, because I was at the meeting where it was made.

Independence Mall:

The Constitution Center and Liberty Bell Pavilion ("open and airy," "relates well to Independence Hall") both got good marks, but several said they just can't figure out why the Visitors Center throws up a long, inert wall on Sixth Street, seeming to bar visitors, not invite them.

Condo towers:

The St. James ("well done") and the Murano ("iconic design") have their fans. Symphony House does not.

The stadiums:

Citizens Bank Park gets raves ("I love it!"); Lincoln Financial Field gets an "ehhh." Mike McKay, while liking the Phillies' ballpark, notes, "Sometimes when I am sitting there, it almost feels like the game is incidental to everything else that is going on." Mike Robinson also likes the park, but thinks it was a typically morose Philadelphia decision to have put too few seats in it.

Rich Urbani notes that things fall apart quickly once you depart the emerald magic of the ballyard: "That walk from the Broad Street Subway, along Pattison Ave, egad, could it be any worse? It's a landscape-free, not-even-new concrete hell that is occasionally interrupted by parking lot access. Would a promenade of any variety have killed them?"

Something, perhaps, for Comcast-Spectacor to remedy, now that it's planning a retail-entertainment complex across Pattison near the Spectrum.

Garden State Park:

No controversy here. Every reader who wrote in about the big-box center rising on the site of the racetrack hated, hated, hated it.

"This is the most disturbing development of all," Halterman said, "a totally wasted opportunity to develop a real, transit-oriented town center. I can't believe how the development totally ignores the adjacent New Jersey Transit rail station. . . . Unbelievable!"

Two themes ran throughout the comments: People care about design; they feel a stake in any project that affects their daily views or commute - and feel it urgently when public money is involved.

And people really relish being asked what they think, even when it's too late to fix a mistake made in steel and concrete. There's always hope that input will make the next project a little better.