Deadline extended for bridge design

After declaring last week that they were ending an effort to design architectural elements for the new South Street Bridge, Philadelphia officials reversed course and will extend the design deadline until September, Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler said yesterday.

A pared-down bridge design was scheduled to be submitted to the Art Commission yesterday for final approval. But Cutler, the city's top transportation official, said she had decided to pull the $67.5 million project from the agenda once she had seen how the span would look without any architectural embellishment.

At the same time, Cutler conceded, it was becoming clear that the Art Commission might reject the rendering of the stripped-down version, which showed a standard highway-style bridge, much like the Walnut Street Bridge. The only notable embellishments were four concrete towers, which would have masked the bridge piers and created surface-level overlooks for pedestrians.

By delaying the Art Commission hearing, Cutler gave the architectural consultant, H2L2, more time to work out an acceptable design for the pier covers, the overlooks, and an iconic lighting scheme. The bridge's contours were engineered by Gannett Fleming Inc., which specializes in highways.

"We will take from now through the summer to not only try to identify some designs to bring back to the community, but also to vet them according to their constructability and their maintenance capacity and their cost," Cutler said.

She also has asked the city planning director, Alan Greenberger, to advise her on the design issues. Until now, the bridge project has been managed by the Streets Department, without regular input from any city planners or architects.

It is unclear how much influence Greenberger can exert on the design at this point. The city has already demolished the old South Street Bridge, which linked Center City to the University of Pennsylvania and its growing medical campus. Construction of the new span is supposed to begin imminently so work can finish by November 2010.

"There is only a small window," Greenberger acknowledged. His goal is to develop "real clarity" about what the city wants from the project. "Then there might be a better opportunity to get a scheme that works," he said.

The Streets Department started planning a replacement bridge in 1996, but it has always been at odds with area residents and design advocates over the span's harsh appearance. In the first major concession from the city, Mayor Nutter agreed last spring to allow a citizens' group to negotiate design improvements.

The group, led by architect James Campbell and Democratic ward leader Marcia Wilkof, had been making significant progress, and won concessions that made the bridge safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. But finding a strategy to improve the aesthetics of the major city gateway proved more difficult.

The Streets Department held meetings to discuss possible designs with residents. Then, at an April 27 meeting, a department representative announced the city was halting work by H2L2 because the project had run out of time. The official then said the city needed to obtain Art Commission approval by May 6 or the project would fall behind schedule.

Sometime after the April 27 meeting, Cutler began to reconsider the decision, she said. She redid the calculations and determined that the city could delay the Art Commission approval until September without adding significantly to the cost of construction.

Natalia Olson de Savyckyj, a transportation planner with H2L2, said the firm was relieved by the decision to extend the design process.

De Savyckyj, who also serves on the city Planning Commission, said she had met with Cutler on Friday to try to persuade her to reverse her position.

"Everyone had a different idea of what it should look like," she said. "We're going to come up with something magnificent that everyone will love."