Posted Apr 16, 2018, 7:43 AM
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Philly -> Osaka -> Tokyo
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The biggest city on earth. Literally
Posts: 5,863
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I too have been underwhelmed by the renovation, but the thing that keeps really picking at me isn't the exterior aesthetics but the fact that circulation was given a surface-level refit but nothing really deeper. As soon as we saw that 2nd level circulation was fixed in Gallery 1, we breathed a sigh of relief, but from my observations, that's clearly all they did. To me, leaving the walkway between the new BCF and the el stop open reeks of oversight -- why not let BCF just take the entire 800 block basement? There's no particular reason I can think of that a public walkway needs to connect between the main concourse and the el stop, and by claiming that bit of walkway, BCF also gets to claim the escalators down to the basement in front of the old Strawbridge's main entrance for its own main entrance, a rather more dramatic entrance, I'd add, than the corner store they're using now. Allowing them to take the full basement would also allow them to take as much basement space as they needed -- all the way out to the beginning of the 901 Market concourse. And on that note, what about the dinky little concourse between the old Strawbridge's and 9th? That's just so ... not useful, as a mall concourse. Much better would have been to enclose it, expand C21 on the second level (again, to the beginning of the 901 Market concourse), and convert the first level into sales space. Possibly even the leasing office, given how much of a nook it's in. And there's that other ridiculously redundant side concourse right next to the sidewalk by 10th Street! It's obvious that concourse is getting retained, instead of the logical thing -- a new midblock mall entrance enhancing permeability between Market and the main concourse, and conversion of the old side concourse there into useful selling space, space that you can conveniently see into from 10th Street!
Oh, and that balcony with the too-small escalators you needed to use to access either the 2nd or 3rd concourse floors in Gallery I from the Kmart? If you look closely, you'll see ... It's still there! (Granted, that one is a slightly harder nut to crack, but still...)
There's been a lot of mostly fair ballyhooing about aesthetics but so far I think the main way this renovation is coming up short is that it offered an opportunity to completely rethink circulation and access needs throughout the complex, and time and again it's coming up completely short.
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