Cost: FREE

In the 1950s, Market Street East was a bustling retail area. There were five department stores, several movie theaters, men’s and women’s clothing and shoe stores, several bookstores as well as restaurants and drug stores. The sidewalks were full of shoppers. But retail business owners felt parking was inadequate and so in the late 1950s the City Planning Commission began envisioning ways to provide parking and associated activities. Designs were proposed by Wilhelm von Moltke, Lou Kahn, Romaldo Giurgola, Skidmore Owings and Merrill leading decades later to The Gallery at Market East designed by John Bower and Gerald Cope.

John Andrew Gallery was part of all that; he designed the 1964 plan and, in the late 1970s, chaired the Market East Development Corporation responsible for Phase two of The Gallery. His illustrated talk will show the evolution of the architectural design and include little known behind the scenes stories about such characters as Ed Bacon and Frank Rizzo.

This program is sponsored by Friends in the City (FitC) and Philadelphia City Institute Library.