The City of Benchly Love
Three of the new Corian seats, deployed across the city by C.H. Briggs in honor of Design Philadelphia 09.
It would seem Philadelphia has a bit of a seating fixation going on with this year’s Design Philadelphia event. First there was the new Veyko subway chairs, and now—as you’ve noticed if you’ve been out wandering the streets of town during October—more than a dozen seats/sculptures scattered about, all cut from DuPont Corian, all created by prominent local designers. Reading-based C.H. Briggs, the interiors supplier, decided it wanted to celebrate Philly’s top designers and the city’s popular public spaces by commissioning them to create site-specific seating from that most ubiquitous of building materials. The results will only officially be up through the end of the month, though Briggs is currently negotiating with the city and certain institutions to donate the pieces so that they might find a permanent home—not unlike those damn cow parades that were so popular earlier in the decade, though at least these seats have a far greater purpose. You can see a slideshow of all 14 here.
Very Veyko
Veyko's undulating subway seats, coming to a SEPTA station near you. (Courtesy Veyko)
With the rising popularity of both design and public transportation, it was only a matter of time before the two joined forces. Here in New York we’ve gotten fancy bike racks, fancy bus stops, and fancy bike racks cum subway grates. Now, Philly’s getting in on the action, with new, nifty seats for some of its SEPTA stations. Designed and fabricated by the fellas at Veyko, a local full-service shop, the benches are meant to evoke the movement of the trains as they fly by—though hopefully not because you’ve missed your train. They won’t be installed in stations just yet, but yo can give them a spin at Penn’s Meyerson Hall this Friday night, where they’ll be installed as park of Philly Work, an open studio event for the city’s designers. Invite after the jump. Read More
ACC Ascends Council
One day earlier than expected, the Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to amend the zoning lot at 19th Street and Arch Street, site of the proposed American Commerce Center. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the council’s Committee on Rules voted 9-0 in favor of the rezoning.
As we wrote last month, this does not grant approval of the KPF-designed project. Instead, it simply changes the zoning of the lot from medium density commercial site with a 125-foot height limit to a super-dense site with no height limits, making way for the 1,500-foot tower, which would far surpass its neighbors. With zoning in hand, it is believed financing and tenants should begin to follow.
Still, the project must return to the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the council for final approval within the year, lest the rezoning expire.
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