It's been more than a year since Philadelphia's
Department of Commerce announced its intention to spend $2.2 million to redevelop and re-imagine Germantown's
Maplewood Mall, a narrow historic retail pathway located near the neighborhood's two main business districts, Germantown Avenue and West Chelten Avenue.
Following months of planning by the design team of
Whitman, Requardt & Associates, in partnership with a slew of city agencies ranging from
Parks and Recreation to the
Streets Department, the very first public meeting to discuss the Mall's reconstruction was held recently at Germantown's
First Presbyterian Church.
Approximately 60 members of the community filled the church's sanctuary. The
City Planning Commission's Matt Wysong and 8th District
Councilwoman Cindy Bass expressed their hope that the Mall will look more like a creative placemaking project than a traditional reconstruction of a municipal street.
As a flyer advertising the meeting announced, "The goal is to provide a design that will create a framework for the reinvention of the Mall into a vibrant and successful urban space."
The project is currently in month four of its design and engineering phase, though shovels aren't expected to touch dirt until sometime in early 2016.
In the meantime, Germantown residents are weighing in on the various proposed plans to reengineer the Mall, which could potentially see its roadway slightly lengthened and the small plazas that bookend it significantly redesigned.
Perhaps the most edifying aspect of the public meeting was the chance for community members to inspect the Mall's three proposed design ideas. A gracefully retro lumberyard theme has already received overwhelming support from business owners and other stakeholders, according to artist
Jennie Shanker, who was hired to consult with the project's design and landscape architecture team.
Click
here to view the proposed designs and the meeting's
Powerpoint presentation.
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Maplewood Mall Reconstruction Project Public Meeting