Green streetscapes and performance spaces part of $100M makeover on Avenue of the Arts

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The city is set to announce an ambitious $100 million effort to make the Avenue of the Arts livelier, greener, and, well, artsier.

The plan is to create a green streetscape with art installations and performance spaces on South Broad Street between City Hall and Washington Avenue.

“We would like to take the Avenue of the Arts to the next level,” said Laura Burkhardt, Avenue of the Arts, Inc. executive director. “Our primary goal is to create a sustainable and green urban space.”

The plan includes native vegetation in self-watering planters in the median and areas for pop-up live acts.

“We have identified several places along the avenue that we think are perfect for small performing arts — that we could have movable furniture,” Burkhardt said. “There should be performances and there should be art outside on a much grander scale.

“Even though there was already great outside public art on the avenue, we’re going to enhance that. We’re looking at some potential suspended art, using some of the building facades for art,” she continued.

The project would be funded with public and private money, she said, noting that the city is kicking in a $1 million capital investment. The improvements, she said, will amplify the avenue’s role as an economic engine for the region.

“Eighty percent of the people that visit the city find themselves on South Broad Street at some point during their visit,” Burkhardt added. “When the initial investment was made in the Avenue of the Arts, the money that was invested was recouped back in economic investment in two years.”

Renderings depict planters in some of Broad Street’s current curb lanes, but Burkhardt said drop-off zones shouldn’t be affected.

“We presented those ideas to PennDOT and to the [Philadelphia] Streets Department. The first phase of the plan will not eliminate any parking.”

Burkhardt also expects improvements will be attractive to any future occupants of the recently closed University of the Arts properties . “We are here to support whoever comes into these buildings,” she said.

Groundbreaking is set for next April and work should be completed by the nation’s 250th anniversary in two years.

“There will be a ‘wow’ moment in 2026,” she said. “That, I promise you.”