“Philadelphia’s reinvention of Dilworth Park elevates and untangles a 1960s-era sunken hardscape into a more usable, sustainable, and equitable public space— appropriate as the democratic front porch of City Hall—that links three major transit networks into a single, multilayered node. Spanning four acres, yet wrapped on three sides by busy thoroughfares, the park succeeds in offering workday respite for downtown commuters as well as a central gathering and recreation space for weekend visitors. On-site rainwater collection irrigates refreshed park boundary greenery and serves a programmed seasonal fountain that becomes a public ice rink in winter. Unpretentious glass entry pavilions offer access and daylight to the complex transit hub beneath the street-level park and mark the entry to a city center its people are proud tore-occupy.”

The urgency to revitalize the long-neglected plaza was clear. The site not only needed to be a safe and accessible hub for 70,000 daily transit users, but its location meant that it also had the potential to be reinvented as a vibrant and vital civic space, the true heart of the city. William Penn envisioned this when he originally planned Philadelphia with five main public squares distributed throughout the city. This site, known then as Centre Square, served as the location for the city’s innovative steam-driven waterworks and first public fountain. The vision for the revitalized plaza, now fittingly rebranded as Dilworth Park, emerged at the confluence of these needs and ideals: a celebration of the civic enterprise, life, movement, and evolution of the city as a welcoming place for all.

As one of the most significant civic spaces in Philadelphia, the public, civic organizations, and city and state agencies needed a voice in the future of the new park space. The vision that arose focused on the need to create an accessible, democratic space that could live up to the historic character of Philadelphia City Hall without competing with it. The new park would also require financial support to provide activities and robust maintenance throughout the year. This was made more challenging as Philadelphia endured the Great Recession of 2008. Ultimately, one of the city’s Business Improvement Districts was selected to lead the redevelopment. The project began by developing a long-term lease management agreement with the city, identifying funding sources, and coordinating a complex web of interagency meetings and approvals. Collaboration and an integrated design process was essential for the success of this project. The client assembled a team of landscape architects, architects, fountain and lighting designers, structural, civil, and mechanical engineers, and even an internationally acclaimed artist to realize the public ambitions of the park. The collaboration process was not limited to the expertise of consultants; an extensive public engagement process helped to fundamentally shape the design, with nearly 60 public engagement meetings held over the project’s six-year duration. A hallmark of this effort was a public exhibition at City Hall designed by the team, which followed the history of the site and its place in the history of Philadelphia’s social and economic life.

The design of Dilworth Park is deceptively simple, but it is shaped by the difficulties of understanding human needs and scale for physical comfort, secure surroundings and the design of flexible space that does not lose its charm when hosting a crowd or during quite moments when only occupied by a few. The new park needed to be vibrant and flexible without competing with the sculpted façade of City Hall. The technical engineering was another considerable feat, given that the park that is the ‘roof’ of the transit system below. In many places the requirements for the fountain, paving, and planting needed to be sandwiched within a structural slab depth of a mere three feet or less.

Today, Dilworth Park serves as the central square it was always intended to be, with over a million residents and visitors enjoying a newly beloved park befitting its iconic location. It is a place where Philadelphians and visitors converge to share in the vitality of the city. It’s a uniquely Philadelphian experience—one that recalls the city’s history and is designed to last far into the future.