First of 600 new digital bus shelters en route to Philly

A few weeks from now, Philadelphians will see the beginnings of 600 new bus shelters, a project that will transform sidewalks and double the number of places where riders can escape the elements.

Over the next five years, 318 shelters will be replaced and 282 new ones will sprout. Instead of posters, each will be built to potentially display digital advertising.

Glass-paneled walls, wood benches, and a lattice design supporting flat tinted roofs will give the new structures a digital-age feel.

A 20-year contract authorizes the Intersection advertising firm to pay to build and maintain them, while sharing up to $100 million in ad revenue with the city.

While meant to be easy on the eye, none will display up-to-the-minute updates of when the next SEPTA bus will roll by.

"We're building state-of-the-art shelters," groused Center City Residents Association president Charles Goodwin, "for 2005."

That limitation is one of a few concerns expressed about the otherwise welcome project.

Arts and culture groups will no longer have exclusive access to low-cost advertising on bus stops along Walnut Streetv under the contract approved by City Council and Mayor Nutter. This privilege, which dates to a 1983 agreement struck by the city, has been revoked to help the ad firms capitalize on what has become one of the most lucrative avenues in Center City.

In addition to the 600 shelters, 100 freestanding advertising kiosks will be added, raising concerns about overcrowding.

Art Commission members approved four shelter design sizes in September and this month approved the first 12 proposed locations, all of which should be built by year's end.

A prototype at Broad and Arch Streets gives a preview.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for the city to get new, fresh infrastructure at zero cost to the city and to the taxpayers," said Jon Roche, vice president and general manager for Intersection in Philadelphia.

The city has used private advertisers to build or manage its bus shelters since 1979. The contract replaces one that expired in 2001 but was renewed each year, said Denise Goren, director of the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities.

Respective mayoral administrations struggled to secure new contracts. One reason: The global economic crisis scared away ad firms for years, said Andrew Stober, who was chief of staff at MOTU before launching a City Council run this year.

As architect of the current contract, Stober described the city's goal in practical terms.

"What we were really trying to do was to both earn the city more revenue but also to really increase the number of shelters we have in Philadelphia," Stober said.

The Art Commission expressed interest in having the shelters show real-time bus data, said chairman Emmanuel Kelly, as did some residents.

But "SEPTA's development of systems are not that up-to-date," Kelly said. "There is a potential to accommodate that in the future."

SEPTA uses a 20-year-old radio system that won't work on the new shelters, said William Zebrowski, its chief information officer. A new cellular system could be up and running within three years to fix that, Zebrowski said. But adding infromation to shelters is not automatic.

"There would be additional costs," Roche said.

Intersection will spend at least $12.4 million to install the shelters, just shy of $21,000 per site.

The project also calls for the installation of 100 two-sided "arts information kiosks" for arts and cultural institutions no longer able to claim permanent spots on Walnut between Seventh and 23d Streets.

No decisions have yet been made on where the kiosks may be located.

"Our priority is the bus shelters," said Angela Dixon, who is overseeing the project for the city. She encouraged residents to suggest locations for new bus shelters early next week, when a city website will go live for that sole purpose at http://www.phillytransitshelters.com.

"If they fulfill what they've committed to do, it should be an acceptable option," said John McInerney, vice president of marketing and communications for the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. "The goal here is that that does happen."

But what will those ad kiosks do to walkable Center City? Nancy A. Goldenberg, an official at Center City District, expressed concerns in a letter to the Art Commission in July.

"Given all the other street furniture and fixtures on our sidewalks," Goldenberg said, "we doubt that there are sufficient acceptable locations for new free-standing kiosks."

mpanaritis@phillynews.com

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@Panaritism