Renovated Love Park saucer will be a restaurant with 360-degree views

Renovations on Love Park’s iconic “flying saucer”—the final piece of a park-wide transformation project—are nearing the end.

And with the final, revamped building, Philadelphians can expect a restaurant that’s heavy on the Center City views.

City officials unveiled plans for the former Love Park Welcome Center Tuesday—occasionally referred to as Center City’s UFO, or the flying saucer. After renovations, the cylindrical shape of the building will remain the same, but the exterior will be redone with new, specialty glass from building materials company Saint-Gobain. The glass uses, “pioneering coating technologies,” to improve views of the surrounding buildings and park, according to a statement from the Philadelphia Parks Department.

That will be a boon for visitors to the former Welcome Center, which will now be home to a new restaurant by Bud & Marilyn’s owners Marcie Turney and Val Safran. The restaurant, called Loveluck, will include indoor seating for 60 people, 40 seats on the balcony, and 80 seats on the terrace below. They plan to design the new space so that diners have 360-degree views of the area around Love Park.

“Loveluck will transform the Welcome Center into a destination for quality dining and socializing. This opening marks another positive step in the rebirth of LOVE Park,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Renovations are being completed and the restaurant is expected to open in late fall of this year. It’ll cap off nearly four years of renovations at the Center City park. The project, which broke ground in early 2016, saw much of the park rearranged, with a fountain placed behind the Love sculpture, and surrounded by smaller fountains. Landscaping was redone; more benches were added to the space; and a parking garage was installed under the whole area.

The rest of the park opened in the spring of last year.