Gateway Project
Schuylkill River Park

FSRP was awarded a service grant of free design services from The Community Design Collaborative. The grant provided help to program and design improvements to the area around Markward Playground and the entrance to Schuylkill River Park at Taney and Pine Streets.

Read the final report. The report is a 11.5 MB pdf file, so it may take a few minutes to download. It is worth the wait.

FSRP is happy to announce that in April 2012 we received $150,000 from the City of Philadelphia as a first significant step to raising the funds to complete this project. Read about it here Green for Green: 3 Projects Receive Funding..

Excerpt from the report

The gateway to Schuylkill River Park, at the corner of Pine and Taney Streets, is not only a major entrance into a very well used green space, but is also a venue for a large variety of organized and impromptu activities. The project area also serves as the forecourt for the Markward recreation building which hosts a variety of commu- nity activities and educational programs. In its current state, this section of the larger park is still very well used even though much of the facilities have fallen into disrepair and no longer serve the community as well as they could.

The project area consists of two major areas; the entry, which is referred to as the “Front Parlor”, and a larger paved gathering area that is referred to as the “Living Room”. At the entry, there is a wide shallow stairway that takes up most of the space, with a retrofitted handicap ramp running up the right side, providing wheelchair access. A small war memorial, erected by local veterans, sits on top of a retaining wall directly behind the handicap ramp. There is also a small seating area off the sidewalk to the left of the entry that contains precast concrete tables and chairs that have fallen into disrepair. Both the seating area and the war memorial are well used by a group of community members and are to be retained. The stairway is used by skateboarders and rollerbladers, creating a use conflict with visitors entering and leaving the park.

The “Front Parlor” and “Living Room” are divided by a portico that spans across the entryway and is an exten- sion of the one-story recreation building. This feature is valued for the sense of gateway it creates, however, the dense wood cladding makes the space below dark and uncomfortable and it also invites younger visitors to climb on top of it.

We extend special appreciation to Community Design Collaborative for their initial help with this project.