We’ve had pop-up gardens temporarily beautify vacant Center City lots, and the Christmas Holiday Christmas Village near City Hall has become a popular fixture. Now, a new pop-up holiday treat is set to debut on the waterfront.

Penn's Landing

One way to animate public space while we carry out the planning process designed to reanimate and redevelop the waterfront is the new Waterfront Winterfest. That’s the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation’s month-long winter celebration that will turn Penn’s Landing and the RiverRink into a holiday village on the river. With grounds designed by David Fierabend of landscape architecture firm Groundswell Design, it will include a 500-person warming tent fabricated from recycled shipping containers that will be surrounded by a garden oasis of pine trees and fire pits near the rink, and food from Philly chef George Sabatino. The festivities will run from Thanksgiving Day through New Years Eve. It will also include the Art Star Craft Bazaar and a light show.

It's getting closer... (Image from Winterfest homepage)

Coming soon. (Image from Winterfest homepage)

All of this programming is a glimpse at how DRWC is working to reanimate Penn’s Landing and the entire Philadelphia waterfront and attempting to engage as many residents as possible. With projects like Washington Avenue Green, which just broke ground on Phase II to further transform Pier 53 into a green space, Penn’s Landing Park, and the Delaware River Trail, DRWC hopes to transform the Philadelphia waterfront into an animated public space connected to the city and its people that doubles as a sustainable stormwater management facility. Its plans and projects will be a will be transformative for the waterfront in the years to come, turning a currently underwhelming aspect of the City into a tremendous asset.

–Lou Mancinelli