A waterfront area located in Philadelphia, known as Penn’s Landing, has become a central area of redevelopment over many decades. What used to be trees and shrubs has transformed into an area of hotels, museums, restaurants, casinos, stadiums, and much more. This 35-acre site has so much to offer and has become an important area of public space for anyone to visit and enjoy. Penn’s Landing is a public space that benefits the public by containing a mixture of residential life, entertainment, and retail that is supported by a long history of creation and redevelopment.
Imagine docking your boat on the Philadelphia Waterfront and being completely surrounded by trees and greenery with little to no human life for miles. William Penn discovered
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this area, later named Penn’s Landing, in 1682 as he was sailing up the Delaware River. Penn wrote, “the creek adorned with every grace of shrubbery and foliage, and beyond it…a few of the natives’ wigwams, intermixed among the shadowy trees” (“Penn’s Landing”). Centuries ago, this area was filled with Swedes, Dutch, and Indians, and that was about it for people. The area was so isolated that William Penn and his fellow acquaintances had to use caves to live in while their houses were being built. Today, this is certainly not what you would see. It took some 300 years, but Penn’s dream of a tree-lined waterfront filled with recreation and entertainment finally came true. Penn’s Landing stretches along the Delaware River for ten blocks from Vine Street to South Street. Although there was more around compared to the 1960s, it was still an area of dense forest that would soon be transformed into Penn’s Landing. This was an area that would be changed into public space for anyone to enjoy. Unfortunately, during the time of World War II, Philadelphia was suffering from the flight of manufacturing jobs and middle-class residents. This was shortly after World War II, so there was a steady decline in public services as well. This made William Penn’s goal of transforming the Philadelphia Waterfront into something new and exciting very challenging. However, but thankfully, William Penn eventually got what he had hoped for and his vision came to life. The first plan in creating Penn’s Landing was called the Geddes plan.
Robert Geddes was from the architectural and planning firm Geddes, Brecher, Qualls and Cunningham. They envisioned an $85 million, two-phased development over fifteen years to be created that would celebrate the history of Philadelphia. In 1956, the city purchased piers to place along the waterfront with the intention of raising them to create a landfill that would be 300 to 400 feet into the river stretching from the base of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Geddes believed that, “the most distinct feature of the site is its direct and extensive identification with the River” (McGovern 302). He wanted people to be able to harbor sightsee and enjoy all the vantage points of the river. This plan also included 2,150 vehicle parking spots and a boat basin that would include historical ships such as the ship named Welcome, used by William Penn when he founded Penn’s Landing. Unfortunately, this plan fell through and a new Penn’s Landing Corporation was created, with a new plan called the Penn’s Landing project. The Geddes plan had to be updated because the space at Penn’s Landing was primarily being used for museums and historical ships. The new plan included creating an exciting and vital waterfront activity center that also included historical landmarks and attractions to make it an even more popular destination for residents and visitors. The new plan under the firm of Murphy, Levy and Wurman would leave the …show more content…
boat basin and some space for museum activity, but also include 300-unit hotel, 250 apartment units, and 1,500 (mostly indoor) parking spaces. This total price was expected to be between $30 and $50 million with additional investment for walkways and plazas totaling $7.7 million (McGovern 305). By 1976, two million people flocked to Penn’s Landing to see the historical ships, go to concerts, and watch firework displays. Commerce Director Richard Doran remarked, “I remember vividly going to City Council [in late 1980] and saying…Penn’s Landing should be for the people…And the fascinating thing about it, even when it was totally undeveloped people would go down there and walk along the quay and they would just look at it. And I’d say these are the Philadelphians…they were really enjoying the idea of strolling down the waterfront” (McGovern 306). This shows that the preservation of public space was a priority. There is an incredibly long history of Philadelphia’s efforts to redevelop Penn’s Landing. This only captures a few of the beginning phases and plans to develop and enhance what Penn’s Landing has to offer. More recently, Penn’s Landing continues to be transformed and developed with new and exciting ideas. The problem with Penn’s Landing is that it did not have the vibrant environment and commercial activity that would draw the public from Center City. There were several decades of large-scale redevelopment proposals that emerged and failed. This happened a number of times. Eventually, Penn’s Landing got support from the William Penn Foundation, Penn Pravis, and research from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania (River Runs Through 40). In 2009, Mayor Michael Nutter established the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC), a non-profit organization that would continue to help transform the Philadelphia Waterfront into a vibrant destination. DRWC has fifteen full-time workers who work on planning, development, and public programming. They are mainly funded by parking and concession revenue. DRWC used their expertise and resources to make Penn’s Landing a public space that was attractive, interesting, and beneficial for the public. A variety of new things to do has been added to Penn’s Landing.
The Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing is one of the most well known spots in the city. At this area, people can attend outdoor festivals and concerts while enjoying food and music. It also offers a panoramic view of the Philadelphia skyline, Delaware River, and Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Spruce Street Harbor Park is also very popular, especially for teenagers. They have Hammock Park, which is located around the Columbus Monument. The monument was completed in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage. They have hammocks and fountains hung throughout the area, with lighting by more than 300-meter-long LED tube lights (“Delaware River Waterfront”). It is a beautiful sight during the day and night. They also have an outdoor roller skating rink, which transforms into an ice skating rink in the winter, which gives people something fun, different, and affordable to do. Firework shows are also something entertaining that goes on at Penn’s Landing. The Camden and Philadelphia waterfronts come together to create a marvelous show on New Year’s Eve and Fourth of July weekend. In 2010 a study was conducted by Urban Partners that said, “New Years Eve fireworks directly motivated visitors to come to Philadelphia, and these visitors utilized an estimated 1,720 hotel rooms and expended nearly $1.25 million beyond what would have occurred in the absence of the Fireworks program” (Corcoran 42). The
Fireworks program was something else that was added to benefit the public and make Penn’s Landing more pleasing. As far as transportation goes, the RiverLink ferry service and PATCO line was created to make Penn’s Landing more accessible. Penn’s Landing was not always completely reachable, and this was one of the reasons that people did not stray from Center City. The RiverLink provides transportation between Penn’s Landing and the Camden Waterfront, while the PATCO travels between Center City and South Jersey. This helped solve the problem of Penn’s Landing not being reachable by the public since it is in an area farther away from Center City. Now people could get to and from Penn’s Landing easily (Corcoran 43). Penn’s Landing is not done development yet. Today, they are continuously thinking of new ideas to acquire more land to continue to add on to Penn’s Landing. Right now, they are thinking of creating PhillyWalk, which is a $98 million shopping and entertainment project that would be filled just north of Penn’s Landing. South of Penn’s Landing, a $62 million dollar residential project by the DePaul group hopes to create 220 luxury apartments (McCalla). Penn’s Landing is far from being done, and the hope is to keep creating to have an increase in public appeal. Some people may believe that the incredible amount of money spent over the past decades was a waste. Is this true? Penn’s Landing has definitely come a long way from being nothing but a harbor with trees and greenery, to a bustling area where people want to visit. The road to developing Penn’s Landing into the place it is today was not without challenges. Over time, the developers havE learned to handle their money and secure funding in a way that is not wasteful. The process of creating a solid business plan that outlined a good return on investment was what they needed to make William Penn’s vision a reality. The goal is to make Penn’s Landing a place where people can go any day. DRWC President Tom Corcoran believes that showing investors that the investment in Penn’s Landing will have a ripple effect on the city and that development will create taxes. This $250 million plan developed in 2014 will try to unite I-95, Columbus Boulevard, and the waterfront to use the space for private redevelopment (Gates). With intense planning and a steady plan, this could certainly happen and create an economic growth that puts the money to good use. It is obvious that Penn’s Landing was not developed in a few years. It took a few centuries for Penn’s Landing to get to where it is today. Today it can be enjoyed by people of all ages to attend a festival, see a museum, and especially enjoy the pride of the history of Philadelphia. Penn’s Landing often failed to come to fruition because of economic downturns, tight credit, scandals in local government, and even trying to find the perfect way to make this area beneficial to the public. Luckily, city leaders continued to return with new development proposals that eventually led to the long development of Penn’s Landing to make William Penn’s vision come true.
A thousand people are being chosen for a new democracy on the moon in the year 2066. A citizenship is the status of a person who under the law is a legal member of a country. When people have a citizenship they are granted more privileges and are given more rights to them. If a person is not from a country they could be naturalized in order to get their hands on a citizenship. For this new unique civilization there would be a jurisdiction which would help when choosing people to join the civilization. In order to have a balance, six hundred and sixty responsible responsible citizens, one hundred and ninety participatory citizens, and one hundred and fifty justice oriented citizens will be admitted.
During the 1920’s, Atlantic City was famous for gambling and drinking. People all over would visit for entertainment and to get rich. After world war two crime and corruption took over the streets causing the city to enter an economic decline. Also following the war, cars became more available which led to the decrease of time spent at the city, people no longer had to wait for a train, they can now visit for a little and leave whenever. Less people staying at the hotels for longer, took away more of the cities money. In 1972, “ The New Yorker” published an article called the The Search for Marvin Garden’s by John McPhee who was smart and talented monopoly player. In the article, McPhee persuades Americans to be weary of what trying to become rich in order to be happy can produce and instead search for happiness in
...ine’s, also still stands today and can be visited along with the rest of the American Revolution sites in New Jersey!
Taste of Chicago festival is probably of Chicago’s great cultural events it is often imitated but never duplicated this event have tremendous assortment of culinary delights also located in Grant Park the ten-day lakefront festival runs June 25 – July 4th food choices range from ethnic to exotic to Chicago specialties. Millions of people local and nationwide attend this event. Enjoy 319 acres of food from fried alligator tails to fried zucchini during the day grab some food be sure to bring a blanket cause as the sun sets relax enjoy a free concerts that fit your musical genre even fireworks. Let your nose be your guide. Other attractions on the lakefront includes the Art Institute it has one of the largest most extensive collections of impressionist and post-impressionist painting in the world, Adler Planetarium, Museum of Natural history, Navy Pier is home to the 15-story Ferris it was model after the 1893, Ferris wh...
William Penn and his accomplishments changed the way we think about the early colonization of America. Penn founded Pennsylvania as well as Philadelphia, which became the greatest city in the new world. Penn was devoted to religious freedom. Most early settlers only wanted to convert people but Penn wanted tolerance for all religions. Penn also developed important legislature, for that time. William Penn was a great Quaker advocate, colonial proprietor, and a very influential politician.
McCullough explains how Johnstown became an example of ‘The Gilded Age’ industrialization prior to the 1889 disaster. The canal made Johnstown the busiest place in Cambria County in the 1820s. By the 1850s the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Company began, and the population increased. There were about 30,000 people in the area before the flood. The Western Reservoir was built in the 1840s, but became generally known as the South Fork dam. It was designed to supply extra water for the Main Line canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. By saving the spring floods, water could be released during the dry summers. When the dam was completed in 1852, the Pennsylvania Railroad completed the track from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the canal business began its decline. The state offered to sell the canal, the railroad company bought it for the right of ways yet had no need to maintain the dam, which due to neglect, broke for the first time in 1862. McCullough stresses that man was responsible for the...
Pennsylvania had initially rocky relationships with several of its neighboring colonies early in its history due to disputes over vague boundaries and overlapping colonial charters. Most notably was with Maryland to the south over a disagreement as to where the border between the two colonies actually laid. However once these disputes were settled, Pennsylvania saw peaceful relations amongst the surrounding colonies. Due to William Penn’s pacifist philosophy, he also ensured fair and friendly interactions with the local Native Americans, and did not allow land to be colonized without first being purchased from Native Americans. This behavior was not the norm throughout the history of North America (Kashatus
William Penn was a great human being who went through tremendous hurdles in life, went against his family’s views but had a strong vision and a will to accomplish pacifism in a colony. Creating Philadelphia was a great accomplishment for the years he spent there and the belief of religious tolerance attracted many individuals to practice freely. I am overwhelmed by his actions he took at a young age and his strong will power to accomplish his goal. Even though, his colony negatively transformed after his departure, his vision was to care for the people and to eliminate differences based on ones’ skin, color, gender, or religious beliefs. To conclude, William Penn was a great human being who envisioned something different and tried his utmost best to create a peaceful colony for one to dwell in and allowing religious tolerance.
The climate of the Pennsylvanian period is very different from that of ours today. The climate can best be described as being similar to a rainforest. “The Pennsylvanian was the time of the great ‘Coal Swamp Forests’ which dominated the equatorial regions of the planet.” (Kazlev) There were extensive swampy regions that stretched across countries. Much of the world was underwater and is what allowed some of the species that emerged to be so successful. Even though ...
Tolles, F.B. (1957). The Culture of Early Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 81(2), 119-137.
In the case study, CEO Eisner have idea of American history theme park within area of battlefield in Prince William County, Virginia. Eisner’s idea of building historical theme over property that already made its mark within American would be redundant. Disney’s conceptual plan was to use 650 million and authorized $130 million in local roads to serve it (Argenti, 2013, p.234). The first vulnerable would be the public opinion for and against the proposal land usage. When news first come out of a theme park being place near DC there was fifty anti-Disney rallied in protest while several hundred children was dressed to simulate as 101 Dalmatians in ...
In this article William Penn is looked at as a legend. He was born on October 14, 1644. His father was an Admiral who was close friends with King Charles II. The King constantly borrowed money from the Admiral. Penn was kicked out of Oxford then sent by his father to Paris to study abroad. When Penn returned he had adopted the lifestyle of a Quaker. He believed that every man was equal. Being well educated and smarter then most he began to write pamphlets and publish them. Penn was ridiculed in the pamphlet, which in turn started verbal attacks. This led to Penn’s incarceration. He was imprisoned in a tower for nine months. Threatened by life in prison, Penn refused to back down. He was released from jail due to his father’s connection to the King. In 1672 Penn married Gulielma Springett and had seven children. In the 1670’s Penn switched his attention to the New World.
William Penn, an English entrepreneur, had an unforeseen impact on the history of the United States of America. In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, Penn was already a champion for democracy, religious freedom, and anti-slavery movements. Through his good relations both the nobility of England, and the Indians of Pennsylvania, Penn was able to secure an entire state for many years to come. Credited with establishing the city of Philadelphia, name after his ideal of ‘brotherly love’, William Penn left a lasting impression on the United States of America. He was one of the first to propose a unification of the American English colonies into one State. Though he is not often remembered today, Penn is often honored as a man ahead of his time. French philosopher Voltaire credited many times, saying:
A new phenomenon happening in our city is the rebirth of many of our older and rundown areas. One of the best examples of this is the "Soulard" area of town, which now has an established nightlife as well as exquisite historical antique homes. Lafayette Square has also enjoyed the same type of success as Soulard. It is still in the middle of a high crime area, but is populated by upper-class people with beautiful homes with elaborate wrought iron fences and intricate security systems. This trend of fixing up old flats is spreading out from the areas of Soulard and Lafayette Square to neighboring communities at a rapid pace. The Compton Heights area is coming back with rebuilt old Victorian styled houses and private gated streets that contrast the French styled flats of Soulard. The Shaw and Tower Grove area are also following the lead of revitalization similar to these charming old neighborhoods.
The Great Transformation From A Casino City To a Resort Destination Atlantic City is the place to gamble on the East Coast. Although this may initially seem to be a positive characteristic, it is evident that this destination has the capability to be so much more than it already is. This point of interest has the world’s first boardwalk, which opened in 1881, has 4 miles of hotels, amusements, and casinos. Atlantic City was originally a resort town, until 1978, when it changed into a gaming city. This popular day-trip destination had over 34 million visitors in 1998 alone. Despite this amazing statistic, along with the revenue that gambling brings in, many steps are being taken in order to further promote the expansion of this great city. The renovations and improvements being made to the Atlantic City Convention Center are already increasing the amount of money coming in. There is a great deal of other things to focus on in the Atlantic City region. In endorsing local attractions in this scenic area, and in shifting the target market of this spot, this city would change back into a resort destination. When most people think of Atlantic City, the first thing that comes to mind is the casino attractions that are available. With the city’s constant shuffle and excitement, gamblers from all over go there dreaming of a big win. Many people consider Atlantic City to be the “Las Vegas of the East Coast”. There are over 12 casinos, with one building as magnificent as the next. At any given second of the day, these hopefuls may have their lives changed in an instant with just one win. These casino hotels gain most of their income from gamblers. Casinos employ almost 49,000 people every year. This number should actually jump when the Marina District opens. Although Atlantic City prospers as a gambler’s paradise, many would love to show others just how much more Atlantic City really has to offer its tourists. The Atlantic City Convention Center, built in 1929, was renovated with $72 million in 1997. With the world’s largest pipe organ, everyone from the Beatles to Pavarotti has played there. It was designated a historic landmark in 1987. Conventions, trade shows, meetings, and public events of the greater Atlantic City area all take place here. When the renovation is finally completed, it will seat up to 12,000 people for special events.