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Old Posted Mar 12, 2014, 5:30 PM
Kidphilly Kidphilly is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Insoluble View Post
There's plenty of great retail along Walnut west of 7th street. The one bible shop is a bit strange, but next to it you have some great restaurants, a nice children's store, Nuts to You, etc. It's a nice retail mix, I'm not sure what you mean by "more serious". There's plenty of foot traffic along Walnut and things are pretty cohesive West of the square at least.

The thing with Washington Square is that it's ringed by large buildings that don't have convenient retail floor plates for various reasons (Curtis Building and Penn Mutual are unlikely to alter the historic facade for many reasons. Hopkinson House has retail, but it's set back behind a driveway and doesn't really add much to the vibe.) The Talutia's Garden Cafe which recently opened up in the Aria Building is a nice little addition, but aside from that you're not likely to get much retail facing the square. Given the federal grass lot collection along the north side of Walnut to the east of Washington Square, I don't think there's ever going to be a humming retail district there. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, the area is very nice as it is.

Yes is an alternative to Rittenhouse - actually all 4 squares have sort of a different flair which is fine


The proposed restaurants on the Love Park footprint should actually be in Wash Sq. Closer to the the NE corner could be more casual for tourists integration and something more NW more stately could work well as more a great brunch/early dinner outdoor spot