Thomas J. Walsh

Nov. 2, 2009

By Thomas J. Walsh

Siena's Piazza del Campo at night. October 2009.

For PlanPhilly

SIENA, Italy – It’s not the pizza; it’s the piazza that makes Italy Italy. The town center gathers and disperses. It is forever open, changing only with the centuries. A chip here and there, but on the whole, the same.  And anybody up for some stickball?

FULL STORY AND PHOTOS HERE.

A Friday afternoon in the park, August 2009.

Photos copyright 2009, Thomas J. Walsh

Aug. 28, 2009

By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly

Lost in all the recent talk about the Reading Viaduct – the elevated, abandoned railroad bed that slices through the city from Vine Street northeast to Fairmount Avenue – is that if things had gone a certain way a decade ago, the City of Philadelphia would already own the property.

What’s more, Reading International Inc., the California-based movie theater and real estate company that is the ancestor of the Reading Railroad, wanted to give the city between $2 million and $3 million to take the property off its hands, say veteran economic development professionals who were with the city’s Commerce Department at the time.

…Meanwhile, the highly touted, highly publicized High Line in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood has already served two big roles for Philadelphia’s own version of a possible elevated park in the sky.

FULL STORY HERE.