Ahhh, the dark and scary parking garage at 8th and Filbert Street. Long have you frightened visitors to Philadelphia and bewildered the built-environment blogosphere. Apparently, that's all about to change as the Philadelphia Parking Authority recently released a series of space-age renderings of the garage looking, well, all kinds of awesome. In a phrase: It's about damn time. Seriously, Property called it "dystopia" and Philaphilia has multiple foul-mouthed (read: amazing) posts dedicated the Lord of the Dark Garages. "People were actually celebrating the creation of this monster," says GroJLart about its groundbreaking in 1962. The press release from the PPA states, "Plus, the transformed garage will have a space age look, making you feel like you're in a different world." We think they mean a different, well-lit and less-frightening world than you've parked in for the past 50 years.
All of the renderings from O'Donnell & Naccarto and Wallace, Roberts & Todd look amazing. The garage is dynamic, asymmetrical and more welcoming (for a garage). It also incorporates an "eco-mesh" or green screen element that will allow the overall design to "alleviate urban blight."
One thing that stands out is that we're pretty sure that the dude snapping a picture of a parking garage is Andy Reid, former Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. While we can't say for sure, he is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and seems to be sporting the favored haircut of one Big Red. We're also pretty sure Andy Reid would be taking a snapshot of the inside of a newly-transformed parking overpass at what looks like some sort of weird, exclusive opening gala event.
· 8th and Filbert May Look Like Crap Now…[Property]
· 8TH & FILBERT TRANSFORMATION SERIES [Philadelphia Parking Authority]
· GroJLartitorial-- Screw Party Walls, Let's Pretty-up Our Parking Garages [Philaphilia]