To paraphrase Hannibal Smith, we love it when a plan comes together.
In this case, we're referring to the 30th Street Station District Plan, released last week. This plan, as you might imagine, details a vision for 30th Street Station and its surrounding neighborhood over the coming decades. If everything set out in the plan actually comes to pass, this area is poised to experience an incredible transformation, the likes of which Philadelphia has never seen before.
Starting with the station itself, it's expected that ridership will more than double in the next twenty-five years. With that in mind, the plan calls for a number of improvements, including the reopening of the North Concourse for increased Amtrak service, the activation of the East Septa Mezzanine to increase Regional Rail service, improvement of the retail offerings in the station, and reopening the underground passageway that connects the station to the Market Frankford Line. A new bus terminal on Arch Street will thankfully make better sense of the chaotic bus to rail connections at 30th Street Station. Around the station, look for an expanded and improved Porch and a "West Bank" river trail that will hopefully get a new name by the time it actually happens.
But the station itself is just one piece of the puzzle. The sexiest parts of the plan revolve around some massive construction projects in the vicinity. When the Cira Centre opened a decade ago, commercial development stuck a toe in the West Philly water, and it took far longer than expected for two sister Cira towers to join the skyline. The 30th Street Station District Plan expects that many more buildings will soon follow, especially on the rail yards property to the north of the station. It calls for a staggering 18M sqft of new development in buildings large and small, including a new residential neighborhood with eight to ten thousand new residents and 40K new jobs. Shiny renderings from the architects at SOM show a possible look into the future.
Will all of this happen? Will some of it happen? Is this all just a dream? The good news is that there are a vast number of parties that have a major interest in making it happen. A video about the plan (which should have more than 2,500 view by now) ends with a splash page showing all the stakeholders in the plan, and it's a long list.
Let's dream big, Philadelphia. If even half of the projects set out in the plan happen, they would cover a footprint that's twice that of the Penn Center project which changed the face of Center City fifty years ago. Can we find the will? Can we find the cash? Can we find the A Team?
If it's a slow Monday at work and you want to read the full plan, click here.