Loft District Plans Philly’s Answer to the High Line

City planners have long dreamt of doing something grand with the old Reading Viaduct. It’s as much a matter of logic as aesthetics: the decaying raised track of the Reading Railroad (yep, that one) is an eyesore and a magnet for crime. The best idea for the railway is one that most people wouldn’t have dreamt of, let alone considered – an elevated park. It’s exactly what it sounds like: walking, sitting, and biking space surrounded by greenery, located high above the ground.

As pretty as it is popular, NYC’ High Line revitalized the neighborhood in which it is located. Philadelphia officials would love to do something similar with the decrepit shell of a railway aqueduct in the Loft District. Photo: Allison Meiers, Creative Commons.

The inspiration for the elevated park is Manhattan’s well-known and ultra popular High Line, whose one-mile length was reclaimed from a crumbling span of the defunct West Side Line in the Meatpacking District. The High Line, which manages to pull off the improbable vibe of a walking trail paved through a sunwashed meadow, was in turn, inspired by Paris’s Promenade plantée, a cosmopolitan linear park constructed atop the obsolete right-of-way belonging to the Vincennes railway line.

Making a park of the old Reading spur isn’t a new idea. Back in autumn 2012, a trio of architectural grad students drew up proposals for such a green space, conceptualizing an area where residents can push strollers, get some exercise, and mingle. Center City movers and shakers have long desired to gentrify the fortress-esque and crumbling edifice of the viaduct as part of the greater project to help the neighborhood spruce itself up.

It’ll be a hot minute before Center City residents get to stroll and sunbathe on their very own viaduct park, not the least reason for which is the fact that not everyone with a stake in the project has agreed to it. The railroad spur that’s targeted as the first parkspace is owned by SEPTA, but the rest still belongs to the old Reading Co., which has been out of the train biz for a long while and now runs a string of movie theaters in California.