Race Street Pier, Day and Night

When last I posted, the Race Street Pier was just a day away from its opening. I've made a couple of visits to the park since then, both day and night. Each time there were reasonable crowds, never busy, but never empty. These groups were always diverse ones, ranging from Fishtown hipsters to Port Richmond kids, from elderly couples to making out teens. I even saw a guy who looked like he was on his way to Old City wheel his Ninja motorcycle out onto the pier to pose for a few pictures taken by his girlfriend.

The last night I was there, the Camden RiverSharks happened to have fireworks after their game, which made for a great view from the terraced seating facing the river. The nighttime treatment of the pier is a real success, with sensitive and varied lighting that is complemented by the lights of the Ben Franklin Bridge soaring overhead. That success extends the daily life of the park and keeps it occupied up until its 11 o'clock closing time.

A new Friends group is starting to think about ways to program the pier to keep attendance up. That's a good thing, because drawing people will probably be this park's biggest challenge. Though it's well designed and certainly a unique setting in Philadelphia, it is off the beaten path. My visits were always intentional - unlike the Schuylkill Banks park or Rittenhouse Square, this is not a park that you happen into on your way somewhere. Even those who live nearby face somewhat daunting trips to the pier, either along six-lane, high-speed Columbus Boulevard, or under a series of underpasses from Old City. Hopefully the Race Street Connector project will make the latter a little more enjoyable. And with even more hope, perhaps the Delaware riverfront will evolve enough over time that more people have opportunities to wander into this great little acre of Philadelphia on the their way to somewhere else.

Race Street Pier Hard Hat Tour

In honor of tomorrow's opening of the much-anticipated and much-raved-about  Race Street Pier, I'm putting up the photo essay I made after a hard hat tour of the almost-completed project a few weeks ago. I was quite impressed with the project, and am looking forward to seeing the finished project tomorrow.

Spring Showers

There's nothing like the light after a hard spring shower. 

A Visit to Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

A couple of weekends ago, we finally made it over to visit Philadelphia's Magic Gardens on South Street, which was built by Isaiah Zagar over the course of some 14 years. Zagar and his family first settled on South Street in the late 1960's, when the area was threatened by Ed Bacon's proposed South Street Expressway. The expressway was to be the southern sister to the Vine Street Expressway, and would have replaced the block between South and Lombard with a six-lane highway trench. Given the uncertainty about the fate of the area, artists and others moved in to take over the strip while the prices were cheap, and created the creative, happening South Street of yore.

While South Street's fortunes have ebbed and flowed over the intervening 40 years, the Zagars have been stalwart and iconic residents. Isaiah's mirrored, painted, and ebullient mosaic murals came to define the streetscape of the neighborhood, and wife Julia's Eyes Gallery has been open continuously for over thirty years. In 1994, Zagar walled in a neighboring abandoned lot with his trademark walls, and began constructing the 3,000 square foot Magic Gardens. The site quickly became a landmark in the neighborhood and city. So quickly in fact that when the owner of the lot attempted to sell it in 2002, the community contributed to establish a non-profit that bought the land and will preserve the gardens in perpetuity. Like the best outsider architecture and art, the site is a monument to one man's pursuit of a project.

“Art is the center of the real world, and Philadelphia is the center of the art world.”

-Isaiah Zagar

There is a 2008 film titled In a Dream that chronicles the work of Zagar, and in the process reveals much about his history and strained relationship with his family. To view the movie and spend a couple of hours in Zagar's mind reveals the fine line between genius, obsession, and insanity. Like the Watts Towers or Cheval's Palace, these projects are never completed without a tinge of mania. It seems as though those who are least able to handle the stresses and trials of real life seem to be those most capable of realizing their fantasies.



And of course, we had to do a little video portrait to round out our visit. Click through to Vimeo to see it in full HD.


The Magic Gardens from Michael Burlando on Vimeo.

A New York Weekend

We spent a lovely weekend in New York in Mid-March. I just recently got around to putting up some of the pictures from the trip, which included visits to DUMBO, the new Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed Brooklyn Bridge Park, a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, Frank Gehry's almost complete Beekman Tower, Renzo Piano's New York Times Building, an evening at the Met, a Chinatown dim sum brunch, and a whirl around the Brooklyn Flea.

In terms of creative output, the highlight of the trip was probably the timelapse I made on the way into town. We took the Megabus and posted up in our favorite seats up top and in the front. About halfway through the trip we struck upon the idea of wedging the camera under the front handrail (with the assistance of and extra sweater) and I shot a timelapse from the Meadowlands through the end of the trip in Midtown. I think the results turned out great, and I'm looking forward to trying more videos like this one. (Click through to Vimeo for the full HD version.)

Meadowlands to Midtown from Michael Burlando on Vimeo.

One other thing that I was reminded of as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge was the New York Times' photo essay of the apartment atop the Clock Tower building in DUMBO. The building itself is great from the outside, but the Times' peek inside Brooklyn's most expensive apartment is definitely worth a gander.

Prayer for Philadelphia

Prayer for Philadelphia, by Coyopa Productions. (via Vimeo)

I came across this gorgeous video today, which the creator made from over 5,000 still images. This one gets me pumped for the coming summer, and a larger Philly timelapse that I'm hoping to put together. Hopefully that will come out half as nice as this one did.

Click through to Vimeo for the full video in HD.

Schuylkill River Cruising

From last fall's Friends of the Schuylkill Banks Cruise.