Market St., Philadelphia - A Whole New World Emerging

            I spent some time on the west side of City Hall in Philadelphia, on Market, between 17th and 18th. I haven't been there for two years due to the pandemic. It looks like a totally different city from the east side, where I work. On the east side, the two years are mostly evidenced through closed stores, boarded up windows, restaurant seating taking over the parking spaces in the street, masks on the sidewalks, and people wired into ear buds who can't hear to respond when spoken to and who don't make eye contact.
The west side has become a grim dystopia. I came up from my train through the underground concourse , exiting at 18th St. as I've often done, at the side of the Comcast building. I was immediately disoriented, as it appeared that I'd stepped into the courtyard of a fort architecturally worthy of Game of Thrones. Where it met the sidewalk, there was an enormous iron gate that could be closed to block access. In front were granite barricades that merged into layers of large granite boxes holding trees, maybe three deep between the building and the street. The trees appear to be intended to camouflage the reality that the point was to barricade the building entrance. On the other side of the street is a building with a wide ledge running along a row of first floor windows. There was a time when that ledge could be sat upon, or, for the unhoused, it could be a place to stretch out and sleep. It's had a detail added, a decorative one that attempts to distract from what it really is, a people deterrent. It reminded me of the double rows of spikes in the vaulted arches of 30th St. Station's covered outdoor train platforms, set in place to prevent perching pigeons from pooping on commuters. The skyline is utterly altered by the addition of several skyscrapers, all constructed with reflective materials that create a fun house mirror effect, mesmerizing at all times, an optical wonderland on a sunny day, surreal as a baby's funeral when skies are grey.
   

Taken on: March 6, 2022

Tags:

Philadelphia

grey

rainy day

clouds

skyscrapers

depth

market St. Philadephia

Liberty 1

weighty

gloomy « less

Sets appears in: • My Philadelphia

Groups appears in: • Architecture • Praise and curse of the city more » • PhilaStories • Blogging Philadelphia • Flickrholics Anonymous • cHaos in the soul • Depth..... • Android Photographer « less

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