Greenfield Lawn is officially opened

What was once City Hall's largely stone and concrete Dilworth Plaza now has a bright swath of green.

With a pair of garden shears, city officials snipped a grass ribbon Friday to officially open the Albert M. Greenfield Lawn at the newly renovated Dilworth Park.

The green space is named in honor of the former chairman of the city Planning Commission, who was dubbed "Mr. Philadelphia" for his contributions to city planning and revitalization in the 1950s and '60s.

The lawn, christened by Temple University gymnasts who back-flipped across it following a trumpet salute, will be open to the public year-round for lounging, recreation, or as an events stage, said Paul Levy, president and chief executive of the Center City District, which completed the project.

The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation contributed $225,000 for construction of the lawn and pledged an additional $500,000 over the next 10 years for upkeep of the park.

Greenfield, a Russian Jewish immigrant who started as an office boy, built a network of department stores, banks, hotels, newspapers, and transportation companies beginning in the 1920s. In 1956 he was named Philadelphia's first chairman of city planning under Mayor Richardson Dilworth, for whom the park is named. Greenfield led revitalization projects at Independence Hall and in Society Hill.

"The Dilworth-Greenfield team represented one of the great public-private partnerships in American history," Albert "Moose" Greenfield III said at Friday's event.

Greenfield said his grandfather could get U.S. presidents from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon B. Johnson on the phone "in mere moments to discuss a matter of importance to the city of Philadelphia."

The lawn, he noted, is just a block north of Greenfield's first real estate business at 15th and Chestnut Streets.

With the overhaul of the plaza mostly complete, the Center City District held a ribbon-cutting last month and redubbed it as Dilworth Park. It features fountains, an eatery, and curving SEPTA entrances made of five-ply glass. Next spring, a light installation timed with the subway schedule is scheduled to illuminate the plaza. An ice-skating rink is slated to open Nov. 14.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, who held a massive cleanup of City Hall during his first term as mayor, called the lawn a fitting tribute to the historic building and Greenfield.

"He was a true citizen of Philadelphia," Rendell said, "and a true part of the urban revitalization."