Funding Shortfall Delays Renovation of Philadelphia’s Love Park

Funding Shortfall Delays Renovation of Philadelphia’s Love Park

PlanPhilly.com reports that funding problems have the renovation of Love Park and the parking garage below it behind schedule already.

The project’s financial requirements are in the $30-35 million range and the financing is not yet in place. Consequently the architecture and engineering consultant that was to be selected in April has not yet been chosen. The Philadelphia Parking Authority, which operates the 810-space garage under JFK Plaza – Love Park’s formal name – issued a request-for-proposals seeking an A&E consultant for the project in January. The applications were reviewed, and interviews have been conducted.

As previously stated, Love Park or JFK Plaza,  is the plaza located in Center City, Philadelphia.   The park is nicknamed Love Park for Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture which overlooks the plaza.  According to Wikipedia, Love Park is the brainchild of former Philadelphia City Planner Edmund Bacon and architect Vincent Kling. The park is across from City Hall and was designed as a terminus for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The park was built in 1965 and covers an underground parking garage. The main features of the plaza are curved granite steps and a single spout fountain which was added in 1969. What was once the city visitor center was closed down for five years, but opened up in May 2006 as The Fairmount Park Welcome Center. The park was dedicated in 1967 as John F. Kennedy Plaza after President John F. Kennedy.

A “Love” sculpture, designed by Robert Indiana, was first placed in the plaza in 1976 as part of the United States’ Bicentennial celebration. It was removed in 1978, but the sculpture was missed and the chairman of Philadelphia Art Commission, F. Eugene Dixon, Jr., bought the sculpture and permanently placed it in the plaza, in 1978.

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