What influences the public's perception of Market East more: The mobs of rampaging teens who have descended on the Gallery mall over the last few weeks? Or the building's gloomy fortress walls, which have weighed down Philadelphia's traditional shopping street for well over three decades?
»Read story: Changing Skyline: Putting pizzazz into Market East
»Read story: Changing Skyline: Putting pizzazz into Market East
Comments (66)
DO NOT invest a single penny into this property, as they will just ruin it anyway and all the money will be wasted.— ArabianGoggles
Market St East has been a problem, so much so, that it took years of effort to redo it get the to the point where the Gallery is an improvement of what was there. Now, I miss Jerry's records, Horn and Hardarts automat not to mention the Philly's answer to Kmart, before there was one, John's Bargain Stores. And Steve Wynn is coming to town. But that does not mean we need to learn from Las Vegas with the neon thing. The convergence of city transit with regional and coastal rail, linked to an international airport means a reuse that transcends the original concept of Ed Bacon. No longer a central shopping district, no longer pre expressway pre interstate auto America, trying to keep shoppers downtown is functionally obsolete. Retail development would do more good in West, North and SWest Philly, grocery stores and home improvement anchored shopping centers would be welcome for jobs and the goods they offer. Center City has a competitive advantage as a Global Office district in the service economy. High density office development, hotels and the convention center are the features to bring business to area, not sneakers and plastic housewares. Some stores deserve to remain to supply the growing downtown homeowners, but trying to make it an urban retail center like it was up until the 1960's is to be in denial. We can be the N American HQ for foreign business expanding from the Eurozone, the Pacific Rim, etc. The highest and best use of downtown sitting on top of the transit hub that get you to NYC or DC is now, business and not retail.
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- You can have blank walls and still have a civilized place to shop. Take a look around. Rap music blasting out of the shops across the street, self-proclaimed ministers preaching/screaming who-knows-what on the sidewalks dressed in their Sunday-best costumes, bands(?) marching up the sidewalks, muggings in the restrooms, murders on the adjacent subway platforms . . . Until you de-ghetto-ize the neighborhood, things won't improve and you won't find me there.— FATink
- Filbert is not contiguous, (there is no Filbert between 7th Street to about halfway between 2d and 3rd). It is narrow and some blocks do not align. Other blocks are clogged with trucks delivering to Reading Terminal Market and people using the Greyhound depot. Add bus stops to Filbert and any moving traffic will freeze, making the bus routes impossible. Also Filbert is between Reading Terminal and Market Street. If the "wall of buses" is relocated to Filbert Street, Reading Terminal still won't have "frontage" on Market Street because there will be a wall of buses on Filbert. The Reading Terminal Headhouse sits Reading Terminal Market and Market Street. Gonna tear that down for "frontage?" We already fought to keep it. Take a minute to visualize: it won't work.— litarider
Inga you came to fork in your premise and you took the easy road, the wrong road, the dead end. Installing digital lights on The Gallery, eliminating buses from Market street is like putting lipstick on a pig. Maybe city dwellers like Inga/City Council are too personally attached to see the big picture. The key to this story is that you need to de-ghettoize Market East first everything else will then fall into place.Tourists,center cityites,business travelers, conventioneers,suburbanites,office workers dont want anything to do with these angels from the Philadlephia Public Schools. You could build the Taj Majal and fill it with KOP's retail at the Gallery and nobody with means is going to go there if it is filled with ill- mannered,obnoxious,sometimes violent people of the poorer ares of Philadelphia. Its not rocket science.— argonne- Just don't put the signs above Billy Penn's hat— cogs_bars
- The mob of kids rampaging is the perception of the Gallery most people care about. While I love good architecture as much as the next person, Ms. Saffron is consumed by it but does not realize most people don't care all that much.— borncynic
it was the classic modern architecture mistake, "industrial bruatalism". At the street level these stores needed windows and entrances, not blank concrete walls. All of the entrances to the gallery are dark and imposing, and don't really convey what's inside. The real problem though is the Girard Estate across the street. Terrible strip mall architecture and low end urban retail. Then at the other end is the disneyhole parking lot. One thing this city needs is more movie theatres. Seems like 8th and Market would be a great place for something like that.— Pelti- Transportation is the Gallery's most important function. The stores dominate but they're extra, even if the shops are actually providing useful goods or services. Most visitors to the Gallery are passing through on their way to the trains. But the trains are in the basement and rushing to make a train means navigating the throngs of wanderers, I mean relaxed shoppers, and it's aggravating. So, the shopping experience is depressing and the transit experience is aggravating. I think the problem is the Gallery's design itself which is structured with forced meandering pathways. I recall this was once regarded as innovative because it entrapped shoppers and transit riders alike into browsing which was claimed to increase sales. But instead, like a rat that figured out the maze, over time you figure out the dead ends and just don't go there. Even if there's a store in there somewhere that might have something I'm shopping for, I'll think twice about it because I've been forced to back track, up/down, too many times. The walls on Market St are barriers to access, that's why they're obstacles. The department stores used to create works of merchandising art in their store windows, and that worked. But that activity now seems like a burden to them so they're not even trying with the windows that still exist so the whole thing is depressing (even the Macy's windows). I think they should break it up and make a clear distinction between shopping and transit. Focus on efficient pathways that offer a choice for convenient access to shopping or transit, depending on your need or interest. It has amazing potential. But it's just so unappealing. The billboards will not help. Just like plastic slipcovers don't help ugly furniture be less ugly.— MB6
Market East needs Pizzazz? No! Market East needs a better quality of patronage. Less homeless,less beggars,less proseltyzing Black Israelites,less hoodrats. More well mannered tax paying people with disposable incomes.Less young thugs.More Young Professionals.Less stores selling oversized white T-shirts.More Stores selling white dress shirts. Less stores selling Timberlands.More stores selling Executive Imperials. Putting L.E.D. lights on The Gallery is like putting a band-aid on a 2"x2" flesh wound.- Why do the convention organizers bus the attendees to KoP when we have world class shopping on Walnut St West of Broad? Malls are dead and have no place in a City Center. Raze it. And for God's sake get rid of the tourist signs and brochures that advertise The Gallery as a shopping destination, it's embarrassing.— BarryG
- Complex undertaking? Get rid of the sneaker stores, check cashing buildings, K-Mart, gold chain stores, etc, and replace with more useful stores and you'll be a long way along....you have to rid the area of the current clients with a better class of shoppers. Racism? No, it's not racism, it's Classism, get the lower classes out of that area of the city, keep them in their neighborhoods, then people that actually have money to spend won't mind coming to that part of the city, knowing that a wolf pack isn't going to run them down...— Anthony Palmer
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