Not capping 95 presents many new design opportunities though.  Wait and see what happens to the link to Race Street Pier.  I think that will inspire other creative ways to link the neighborhoods to the waterfront.  Each with their own distinct identity.

I also don’t like the idea about low rise neighborhoods. That limits the city’s growth and wastes an opportunity to use the wide roads and mass-transit to its fullest potential. They predict that Philadelphia won’t have enough demand for lots of waterfront highrises over the next 30 years, as if dozens of highrises haven’t been built here in the last 30 years and as if several highrises haven’t already been built on the waterfront, before the public improvements that they propose. And the downtown waterfront neighborhoods are so popular and running out of room to build. If there isn’t enough demand to build dozens of highrises along the Delaware waterfront in the next 30 years, then this plan would be a failure.

The idea is to mix in mid-rises with the occasional high-rise to go along with the 3 story townhomes.  Hopefully the “occasional” means a good amount. 

I don’t know how long or how much capping I-95 would cost, but I imagine it’s in the hundreds of millions and in the 10 year range. Basically it calls for the vine street expressway, complicated by working on land right by a deep river. Doesn’t sound cheap. Or convenient – it all woulld have to spill onto Delaware Avenue. Meanwhile, the waterfront would stagnate yet again. And not to be too negadelphian, but that few hundred mill could go to better things like extending subway lines.

I wish the waterfront could be the Chicago lakefront, but can we really find 15-20k affluent people to buy up condos? A street grid with townhouaes and some apartments is doable and could create a real, new neighborhood feel that towers Just don’t do as well.

The focus of detractors on the capping of 95, or lack thereof, is so “other city envy” it’s pathetic. The Big Dig cost billions of dollars and guess what? While that area of Boston is much more attractive, it is completely dead. It did not leverage the development supporters promised it would, by any means. Instead of focusing so much on burying 95, let’s focus on making the waterfront itself better. I’d rather ten more race street piers and the extension of the BSL than I would capping 95. And for those who want skyscrapers skyscrapers skyscrapers, again I say, why? What’s wrong with nice mid- and low-rise clusters of development? Some of these skyscraper fanatics are just compensating for something else, IMO.  Philly is a slow growth city. Would you rather siphon demand for housing from the core simply to satiate some misplaced oedipal obsession for large buildings, or repopulate the core? I’d rather we reinvent North Philadelphia before building a bunch of huge buildings on the waterfront, which, last I checked, were some of the least in demand buildings in the city. How are sales going at Dockside and Waterfront Square? That’s what I thought.

The discussion around capping i-95 is a major distraction from the significance of this plan.  and its obvious that people don’t understand the time frame that this involves.

download the presentation, and scroll to the end of the document : http://www.plancentraldelaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/110613_FinalPresentation_DRWC.pdf

theres a 40 year plan being developed here.

On top of that, PennDOT, and the Federal DOT are going to start discussions about I-95 in the next 10 years, about how to overhaul it at the mid century mark.

This plan represents an oppourtunity for the city to grow, develop, and do better things, and most importantly, its not going to happen over night.  Theres plenty of time to address the things that could be improved, and implement the excellent ideas that are suggested in the plan.

Additionally, all of the large high rise waterfront developments on the Delaware are half full.  There is no demand for high density high rise living on the water front now, or any time soon.  

[...] Nakedphilly.com has got their own take on the story(let’s say it’s less than favorable). But I was able to get some more details about the project. The plans will add green space, low-rise housing, but eliminating concerts on the Festival Pier. The other big issue is that the stretch of I-95 between South Street and Market Street, which will remain uncovered. Although the writer’s at nakedphilly.com strongly oppose this aspect of the proposed plan, the debate continues on the comments thread, with many posters offering insightful takes as to why capping I-95 is the wrong move. At this point it’s hard to tell what would be the right move. Few would be against the adding of green space to the Waterfront, as well as making the river more accessible, but the question is what is the best way to make it happen. [...]

[...] may think that the new plan for the Delaware Waterfront is not so great, but it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do your best to enjoy what we’ve got [...]

[...] the only easy, pleasant access points for to the Delaware River for Center City residents. Come on, Master Plan, take us to the river already! 0 COMMENTS Posted in Old City | Tagged drwc, first [...]

See Philadelphia’s Lost Waterfront, just published by The History Press,  for more on the I-95 problem. The book gives a short history of how the highway was heartlessly routed though of the central Philadelphia waterfront some 40 years ago.