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Just in time for the wave of visitors expected for this summer’s celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the main roadway through Philadelphia’s historic district has gotten a major makeover.
The eastern end of Market Street between 2nd and 6th streets now has a new pedestrian plaza, wider sidewalks, elevated bike lanes, and 44 new trees and other plantings. There are new road surfaces, shorter crosswalks, curb ramps, traffic signals, and bike racks.
The $16 million project originated in a pre-Semiquincentennial visioning effort by the Old City District business organization that began more than a decade ago, executive director Job Itzkowitz said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.
In a survey of residents, “they said, we want to walk, bike, take public transit more, and we want to drive less,” he said. “That type of community feedback gives the professionals, the people around me, the opportunity to design an outcome that suits the aspirations for the neighbors.”
The completion of the project comes as a relief to businesses along Market Street, some of whom struggled with reduced foot traffic at times over the past year and a half.
The work is also finishing up as attention shifts to the blocks just west of Old City, where the city hopes to revitalize the historic Market East retail corridor. In the coming months planners start putting together ideas for potentially similar roadway improvements along that stretch, between 6th Street and City Hall.
“You’ve heard me talk about a Market Street revival from City Hall to the river, and I am so proud that this is a part of it,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said during the ceremony, which was held on the new plaza at 2nd Street. “It’s our turn to invest in the next chapter of Market Street, and that’s exactly what we’ve done through this $16 million investment.”
A curbless edge and high bike lanes
City Councilman Mark Squilla recalled that when Itzkowitz first came to him with the idea of “reinventing” Market Street, Squilla suggested extending the project all the way to City Hall.
It was an idea for “how we can pedestrianize and make it safer for all modes of transportation — the auto, the bicycling, the pedestrian. How do we make it used by everyone, but allow it to be a place where we could have a plaza, where we could have events, where we could have parties, where people feel safe?”
The plan was scaled back to just Old City and presented to city officials, who embraced the opportunity to spruce up the heavily visited tourism destination. They also wanted to improve conditions on Market Street, which is part of the city’s “high injury network” of crash-prone roads.
“The section of Market Street here has long been an area with a lot of problems in terms of traffic safety,” said Michael Carroll, the city’s deputy managing director overseeing the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. “We’re always fighting to make our neighborhoods safer, and this is a prime example of how to do that.”
He noted that the plaza, which is between two sections of roadway, has a partly “curbless” edge that allows easy access for people with mobility issues. The city reconfigured parking along Market, added loading zones and new traffic signals, installed 36 new ADA-compliant curb ramps and four concrete sidewalk “bumpouts” for easier bus boarding, and replaced two bus shelters.
The sidewalk-level bike lanes, among the first such lanes in the city, keep bikes out of traffic and separated from pedestrians, he said. The city installed 55 bike racks along the four-block stretch, along with a new Indego bikeshare station with 25 docks.
With the 44 new street trees and 69 new shrubs and other plantings, Market Street in Old City is now one of the road’s “greenest” areas, in keeping with Parker’s vision for the East Market as a whole, Carroll said.
SEPTA separately rebuilt subway headhouses near the plaza, some with new exterior finishings that match the gray Belgian block of the plaza, and replaced two elevator towers on the sidewalk with shorter structures, which “opens up the visibility” of the intersection, Itzkowitz said.
Early signs of business growth
As a business improvement district or BID, Old City District undertook the project both to improve the neighborhood for residents and visitors and to boost economic activity for its restaurants and shops, Itzkowitz said.
Since construction began about 18 months ago, 10 new businesses have opened on Market Street in the district or announced plans to open, he said. They include two on the 200 block: Monto, a planned new pub from Fergie’s Pub owner Fergus Carey, and Liberty Scoops, a new ice cream shop from the owners of Coffee Tea & Company a block away.
At the same time, Itzkowitz acknowledged that a number of businesses saw drops in customers and suffered financially during the project, because fencing erected on the sidewalk made it difficult for potential shoppers to reach their front doors.
Coffee Tea & Company was heavily impacted, but was able to access grant assistance from the Merchants Fund, a charitable program for businesses.
“Not only, in the middle of construction, did they survive that, they said, ‘You know what? Let’s open another business,’” Itzkowitz said.
He thanked the Commerce Department for aiding businesses while the work was underway, and noted the key role in the project played by the nonprofit Independence Historical Trust, which helped raise private funds and commissioned preliminary design concepts.
Bill Marazzo, IHT’s board chair and CEO of WHYY, said the project showed how the area’s nonprofit organizations can collaborate to make good use of limited resources to enhance the historic district.
“Old City is home to the most significant volume of assets that shape our understanding of our country’s founding, and the Market Street Old City Improvement Project brings better access and wayfinding for residents and tourists alike,” he said.
City officials noted that Squilla’s vision of a larger revamp reaching City Hall could be in the cards sometime in the next few years.
Kelley Yemen, OTIS’s director of complete streets, said the city just signed a grant agreement with the Federal Highway Administration that will unlock $2.5 million in planning and design funding to study potential improvements to Market Street from 6th to Juniper streets.
The work will integrate public input the city has received for its Market East Stakeholders Advisory Group, as well as popup community engagement that will take place this summer, traffic counts, crash analyses, and eventually more public input on possible design concepts, she said.
“It will take what we’ve learned on [the Old City] section and what is happening with the entire Market East project, and work over the next few months and years to really lift up all of those different voices we’re hearing… to come up with a plan for that section,” she said.
