The Idea Box - Entrepreneur Hub in PHL

There is a building I pass daily. It is a cube of beige, 8 floors total, but uniquely set with street front on a major throughway (Walnut Street), but as this road is elevated at this point, to cross the river, the building itself is set  on the lower "cross-street" of 24th Street. This presents 5 floors visible from Walnut street and three reserved and more private below. This building has been renovated slowly over the past year. The curtain walls were cut for more glass to be installed, allowing for a more prominent street (Walnut) face as well as overall interior day-lighting, even if this means the structural columns are "showcased" [see below].

SE corner, Walnut Street, stairs down to 24th Street, notice columns adjacent to windows

What strikes me about this building, as with many instances in real estate, is location, location, location. The building itself is somewhat bland, but it is on Walnut Street, a major connector between center city and the university area, there is a bike lane, access to the highway, and diagonally across the river is 30th Street Station - home to Amtrak and the public transit system - both regional rail and subway/trolley lines. Also, it's proximity to the river means its adjacent to the Schuylkill River Park, which also is a great pedestrian and bicycle connector.

Walnut Street, major connector with highway access and bike lane.

View along the western face - parking, river park, 30th Street Station

So why the rambling description of this property? Because this building lends itself to a function. This generic building is dying to be the LynFabric (Lightning Factory) of Philadelphia. I think of it in terms of an entrepreneurial incubator, but essentially it would be the same thing.

As you may recall, a while ago I shared with you the business model of the LynFabric (Lightning Factory) in Aarhus, Denmark. To recap LynFabrik is a shared space for creative professionals - offering officehoteling, gallery, and studio/workshop space, as well as a cafe all of which are designed to allow the intermingling of solo or small group creative practitioners - and the cafe is open to the public and sells wares from around the world (though it is located on the roof, so it isn't overwhelmed, though it does stay busy).


This building has the potential to embody this idea. First off, the main entrance on Walnut Street has huge windows - pedestrians will see what is going on inside - so on this floor could showcase the work being done by the various occupants. Perhaps where informal and formal meetings can be held - space for display and discussion. Almost the physical manifestation of the Quirky concept. Pedestrians could see the progress and the potential being created here - the energy of the entrepreneur. Also, the space could be used for more formal gallery style openings. The floors above this main floor would house work space, open office layout with enclosed rooms available for sound/video editing and the like. The open layout encourages interaction between business and this idea is furthered with a rooftop garden and cafe which, like the LynFabrik, would be open to the public, but not street side marked. This semi-private notion has many reasons, perhaps the most pertinent being that it is not the focus of the enterprise, though it does provide an revenue stream outside of the tenant fees.

As for the lower three floors, they would be additional work space and fabrication space - 3D printer, CNC machine, perhaps even the old school wood working and the like. This could be its own business, like Next Fab Studio just offering its services at discount to those who work out of the Incubator.

Ramp to North entrance off of 24th Street

This is prime location for this small creative professional hub because it is easily accessible without a car, is smack in between the central business district and the universities (hello ideas and energy, goodbye brain-drain), and its riverfront location allows for showcasing its presence. 


There is plenty of entrepreneurial spirit in Philadelphia - this could be its concentrated embodiment. Also, given its general shape, regardless of what the building would be called formally - be it Innovation Incubator, or The Idea Box, what have you... - the informal, viral, nickname would be The Cube.

Reinventing the Automobile - Or Urban Dreaming

The post Reinventing the Automobile on FastCompany showcases the city-car concept illustrated by the book William Mitchell, Christopher E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns recently published "Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century" Although  this idea of the micro-transit unit has its appeal - it allows for individual control of travel (when and whereto), protection from weather, and smaller footprint (both carbon and physical), it has its drawbacks too. This mode will face similar issues as bicycles have faced for years - a respected place on the road. Smaller than regular vehicles and the larger trucks and buses, there is risk involve, as many bicyclists are well aware. Perhaps separate lanes could be crafted - as shown below - but then do the bicyclists really feel safer if their lane is shared with motorized vehicles, pint-sized or not? If there were such grand boulevards as to allow for the implementation of such a plan as illustrated, perhaps the significantly wider bike/city-car lane would work. However, I do hope that pedestrians are so negated as to have standing room only when they get out of their city-cars or step off the bus. Note, the space for parking city-car's should not be considered sidewalk, sidewalks are spaces for non-vehicular mobility - i.e. your feet, or wheelchair (if its motorized it may be required to run in the "small-mode" lane).

via FastCompany

What may better serve the cities which may choose to embrace the kindler/gentler future of city-car's would be a retro-fit plan. In Philadelphia, the Chestnut Street Transitway - a short lived, and clearly unsuccessful venture of American urban pedestrian mall may get a second, more successful life. It could be that Bacon, and other such planners had the right ideas, just at the wrong time - both culturally and technologically. As the original drawings from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission illustrate, the concept was to be largely pedestrian with a trolley line running down a narrowed street. What if this were small-mode only? It may not work in Philadelphia - most folks here commute out of the city, highways are no place for vehicles smaller than a Smart car. However, if you could get folks to buy into the city-car concept, car-share programs convert to or add city-car fleets, issue tax rebates for urban residents to downsize their vehicles (if not eliminate entirely), then  you could have streets with bikes and pedestrians and city-cars. Buses would be on schedule because of reduced congestion, taxi drivers might take issue, but there will always be folks unable or unwilling to drive themselves from place to place.

via Philadelphia Planning Commission, archive

Clearly there are many obstacles to this mini-vehicle future. It may be that this type of vehicle will take off first, not in our urban centers, but in resort towns and these new suburban mixed-use developments (they used to be called towns, these are more likely incorporated and planned/built ground up, but we are in a cycle of rediscovering things). The hope is that these will be shared vehicles, wherever they wind up getting a curb-hold, encouraging shared resources, discouraging waste, allowing flexibility for the individual and the community - and reaffirming the connection between the two. The new face of public transit may be mini-mass-transit. This may be a book worth reading, if only to see the potential yet to be completely denied.

8th Street - Urban Seating

There are some things that you pass in your day-to-day that you fail to notice. Much of the urban landscape becomes backdrop - with bits and pieces that stick out and make you say "wow." Philadelphia has such a piece in its 8th Street subway station. These wall-mounted structures offer seating, leaning/shelf for tending to one's bag, all while being a striking visual dance of bent metal. They serve several purposes all while keeping the station easy to clean (wall-mounted = ease of floor cleaning) and I would imagine the pieces themselves are quite easy to maintain themselves with their shiny metal and all. These benches address security concerns as well by being open (for visibility for items underneath) and providing decent seating surface area while deterring unnecessary loitering without resorting to the "armrest" insert - a common and unsightly tactic.

In short, these benches address all of these concerns when designing for public spaces [security, maintenance, and user experience] and do so gracefully. Important to note, there are several designers who address this concern of urban seating - a particular designer was recently featured on DesignBoom and 3 of his pieces are shown below - compare them to the 8th Street benches and let me know what you think.

alexandre moronnoz: urban seating: Via DesignBoom
'muscle', 2009 by alexandre moronnoz
steel, zinc coat & heat-lacquered paint finish


'Y', 2006
retified timber with no surface treatment, external resistance. digitally milled.

interferences, 2007

interferences, 2007
steel, laser-cut, folded & welded. zinc electroplate & epoxy paint finish
"