Post-Refinery Futures
Parks and Access to Nature
Dive Deeper
Parks and Access to Nature
Parks, trails, and nature are essential city infrastructure that provide tremendous benefits to residents, workers, and visitors in Philadelphia. Parks and trails are a vibrant social commons, the mixing grounds of economic status, race, nationality, and ability that represent the democratic ideal underpinning a truly whole society. They foster healthy lifestyles, youth and intergenerational development, stabilize neighborhoods, and enhance land value. Being in places with green features improves mental health.[1] An investment in parks and recreation is an investment in the city’s environmental, social, and economic health.
It is no surprise, then, that the City of Philadelphia, like other cities, has made it a goal for residents to be within a 10-minute walk, or half-mile, of a park or public green space and of a trail.[2][3] The neighborhoods around the refinery site—Grays Ferry, Forgotten Bottom, West Passyunk, Girard Estates, Packer Park—generally have adequate access to parks, but most do not have access to a trail or easy access to the Schuylkill River. While in this area the Schuylkill River Development Corporation has focused on connecting to an extension of the Schuylkill River Trail on the west side of the river, with long-term plans for a spur to the Navy Yard, a rethinking of the refinery site presents an opportunity to consider a parallel trail route on the east side of the river. Not only could an east bank trail go hand-in-hand with providing near neighbors greater recreation options and better access to a major environmental asset in the Schuylkill River waterfront, it could serve to strengthen multimodal access to a major employment center for residents across the city. From an environmental justice perspective, It would also provide an opportunity to reconnect neighborhoods that have long been cut off from the Schuylkill River by the refinery and the Schuylkill Expressway to this environmental asset.
In addition, while nearby residents appear to have sufficient park access, parks are not just for residents. The benefits of access to nature, having places of respite, and being able to exercise are as true for workers as they are for residents. Places to jog or do yoga before work, places to get fresh air and eat a picnic lunch midday, places to decompress and socialize after work—parks and trails accessible to places of employment are important to Philadelphians’ wellbeing.
Towards a Public Vision
In January 2020, OLIN was invited to take part in a charrette with local designers, planners, and activists to articulate a public vision for the refinery site. The charrette yielded a planning framework diagram that could set the stage for a more connected, flexible, and diverse redevelopment with public riverfront access. After the charrette, we continued partnering with community and environmental advocates at the Clean Air Council to advance a landscape framework and imagine both short and long-term transformations supporting public access and ecological health.
Yes, But What About…?
Short Term: River Trail and Access
Nearby residents want river access, and they made it clear that while long-term planning is needed, they are tired of waiting for change. This conceptual rending imagines an extension of an existing river trail through the North Yards, the portion of the refinery site closest to residential neighborhoods. An elevated berm offers flood protection inland of a thickened riparian edge. A constructed wetland provides stormwater treatment separated from contaminated soil and groundwater. The proposed landscape requires no changes to Hilco’s development plans, and could be implemented in five years.
Rendering of Schuylkill River Trail at North Yards, OLIN/Clean Air Council, 2020
Long Term: Room for the River and Wetland Restoration
Girard Point is the largest and lowest-lying sector of the former refinery, once part of the vast freshwater tidal marshes at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. Hilco plans to raise the entire site by five feet, above projected flood levels, and fill it with a logistics center. This strategy leaves no room for ecology or the public, and could worsen flooding in adjacent low-lying neighborhoods. We proposed a middle ground that interlaces warehouses with a tidal wetland restoration providing flood storage, habitat, and a wild river landscape for visitors.
[1] Li, D., and Sullivan, W. C. (2016). “Impact of views to school landscapes on recovery from stress and mental fatigue.” Landscape and Urban Planning, 148, 149–158.
[2] City of Philadelphia (2010). GreenPlan Philadelphia, 87, 127.
[3] Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (2010). Green2015, 8.