Linger
at Park Towne Place through InLiquid
June 4 - October 1, 2022
One of the big questions which motivated this project was: How do we make sense out of the rapid and disorienting architectural change happening in Philadelphia right now?
Linger looks back at a similar moment to consider: What did rapid change in Philadelphia look and feel like 60-70 years ago in this spot? It was a moment when outdated mid-twentieth century Philadelphia was transformed by urban renewal into something modern and new. For Park Towne Place it meant "cleaning up" remnants from the outdated housing and little factories just south of the new Parkway. Linger 1 cuts away the ground to situate its towers above a garden of what came before. Linger 2 complicates the narrowly progressive view outward from Society Hill and University City, to include Southwark, Sharswood, Mill Creek and Mantua.
The two installations make visible buildings, places and fragments, linking memory and history, to consider what lingers.
Installation Photos: Constance Mensh
Linger 1
Porcelain models of the four Park Towne Place towers installed in a large garden, balance over a few of the historical buildings they supplanted. Each building is about one foot tall with 2000 individual windows and 32 balconies.
Find these images and more at PhillyHistory.org and GeoHistory.org
See Amy Cohen's Hidden City Article about Park Towne Place for more background information and history.
Linger 2
Miniature high rise complexes from the mid-twentieth century are recreated in porcelain including Park Towne Place, Society Hill Towers and University of Pennsylvania High Rises. They are juxtaposed to the equally ambitious, but now demolished public projects of Mill Creek, Blumberg, Mantua Hall and Southwark. Roughly 4 to 6 inches high, cone 6 porcelain. A garden of poppies, violets, clovers and pansies is arranged according to Brewer's 1934 appraisal map. Window patterns impressed from 3D printed stamps for each building, also decorate the edge tiles.
Find these images and more at PhillyHistory.org and GeoHistory.org
Hidden City's Repercussions of Racist Maps Still Impact Neighborhoods Today (Amy Cohen) is a great discussion of the impact of "redlining" on Philadelphia today. It certainly influenced my choice to use Brewer's 1934 appraisal Map as a guide for arranging Linger 2's garden.
Models include:
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Park Town Place: 23rd and the Parkway. 4 (18 stories) 1957-1959
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Society Hill Towers: 2nd and Locust. 3 (31 stories) I. M. Pei 1964 More Information
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Penn High Rises: 40th and Locust. 3 (25 stories) 1970 More Information
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Mantua Hall: 36th and Fairmount. 1 demolished (18 stories) 1961-2008 More Information
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Blumberg Towers: 23rd and Jefferson. 2 demolished (18 stories) 1966 - 2016 More Information
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Mill Creek: 46th and Fairmount. 3 demolished (17 stories) Louis Kahn 1953/55-2002 More Information
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Southwark: 4th and Washington. 2 demolished (25 stories) 1963-2000 (note: 1 tower was renovated) More Information
Linger 3
A stoneware copy of Playskool's iconic1960's toy references the way we each carry a life-time of experiences, suggesting a parallel between our individual history and that of a city. Linger 3 notices how making the architectural models in Linger 1 and 2 felt much the same way it did when I used colorful wooden blocks to build a city on my living room rug when I was five years old. Dark stoneware, cone 6, glazed.
