Foot Friendly

by Liz Harris

What is now known as Logan Circle was one of William Penn's five squares in his original design for Philadelphia. In the centuries since, it's served as a burial ground and the site of a public hanging in1923. Today, it remains a prime tourist destination for those who seek to explore the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the museum district.

One of the main attractions along the Parkway -- it essentially connects City Hall and Love Park to the Philadelphia Museum of Art -- is Swann Fountain. Built in 1920, it was designed by Alexander Stirling Calder, whose father, Alexander Milne Calder, was responsible for the statue of William Penn that stands atop of City Hall. To get up close to the fountain, one must cross the Parkway at Logan Circle. There, the white lines marking legal crosswalks face due north and south but they're not the most direct routes to the fountain. So, many people prefer to dash frantically across the several lanes of traffic on a street that is really more of a highway than a pedestrian-friendly roadway. This makes for a rather treacherous voyage toward the elegant landmark.

To help remedy the problem, the Center City District is reconfiguring the vehicle- and pedestrian-traffic situation at Logan Circle. CCD officials hope the changes will make Swann Fountain more accessible.

"This will enable people to make safe, legal crossings. If you'll observe [foot traffic in the area], people make [those same] crossings anyway, they just take their life into their hands," says Paul Levy, executive director of the CCD, a private-sector organization that aims to make Center City as safe and attractive as possible.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway attracts more than 2 million visitors per year, and CCD is currently engaged in several projects to make the area more hospitable to pedestrians. In addition to the Logan Circle project, the CCD aims to light the facades of a number of civic buildings and statues along the Parkway. All of the CCD's projects in its two-year program -- from streetlights to the crosswalks -- are scheduled for completion in June, so the spattering of orange cones and yellow cranes around Logan Circle should soon disappear, making the Parkway more walker-friendly.

"The Parkway has always had the promise of being a great pedestrian parkway," Levy says. "This is part of an effort to create a great pedestrian experience in the city without hindering cars on the Parkway."

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