Foglietta Plaza

OLIN recently completed a feasibility study and conceptual redesign for Foglietta Plaza, a two-acre public park that bridges over I-95, connecting Philadelphia’s Center City to the Delaware riverfront. The process for Foglietta Plaza showcases the critical, interrelated exercises of engagement, analysis, and design.

Led by a steering committee that included a public-private development corporation, a public art non-profit, and a land-management non-profit, OLIN engaged the project stakeholders and the larger community to best understand their goals, their constraints, and points of conflict between them. The month-long analysis for Foglietta Plaza was segmented into four parts: an urban analysis of the connection between city and river, anchored in city policy; a legal analysis of the site’s complex ownership; a structural analysis of the existing highway cap; and a historical analysis into the proposed sculptural art collection.

OLIN’s initial concept design yielded ten options, which were then narrowed down to two options that represented fundamentally different approaches to tackling the project’s key challenges. The site’s weak urban edges, challenging location, and unique art collection required either an architectural frame or a topographic structure to create a destination, a sanctuary, and a spectacle. OLIN refined these approaches until two fully-developed concept designs ready for that we believed could successful as built projects, incorporating feedback from the client and the community at every step. Through this process, a narrative and visual identity for the project were created.

Location
Philadelphia, PA

Owner
Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

Status
Concept design completed 2017

Key Team Members
Lucinda Sanders, Partner-in-Charge
Michael Miller, Associate