Independent View
A new home for the Liberty Bell cuts modern intrusions out of the historic
picture.
By Rob Turner
The Metropolis Observed
November 2003
How do you remove unsightly buildings from a city skyline without a wrecking
ball? Simple: change your perspective. That was the solution behind the
placement of the new Liberty Bell Center, which opened in Philadelphia on
October 9 as part of a massive rethinking of Independence Mall that includes
the construction of the new National Constitution Center (see p. 94).
The bell's most recent home--a 1976 glass-and-steel box that's been derided
for decades for being cramped, out of place, and resembling a drive-thru
dry cleaner's--was aligned on the center axis of Independence Mall. The
idea was to have visitors view the bell with its original home, the spire
of Independence Hall, towering in the background. The problem was that two
other towering spires--twentieth-century skyscrapers--stood behind Independence
Hall, infringing on the historically charged moment that city leaders would
like visitors to experience as they gaze upon the city's top artifact and
tourist attraction.
The two skyscrapers, the Penn Mutual Tower (1975) and the Penn Mutual Life
Building (1931), are each 375 feet high. Tearing them down for better sightlines
was not an option. But planners--including the National Park Service, architects
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, landscape design firm the Olin Partnership,
and others--came up with a scheme to kill several birds (and two skyscrapers)
with one stone: they would design a new home for the bell that would sit
to the side of the mall, closer to Independence Hall.
"The [original] pavilion was placed at its position in the context
of a symmetrical park plan that was very European in character, very Beaux-Arts,"
the architect of the new center, Bernard Cywinski, says. "It had these
iconographic pavilions, the centrality of the fountain--all of that. What
has been understood since then is this desire for an American place, one
that has more to do with the kinetic energy of democracy," he says.
"We felt that the balance of landscape to the east and the structures
to the west, and the great open spaces framed by those two elements, spoke
to our deeper culture of open spaces."
And by situating the center to the west side of the grass-covered mall,
its bell chamber could be set at an angle to face the spire. This new perspective
from the west would remove the offending skyscrapers from visitors' view
as they stare up at the bell, with the spire looming directly behind it,
framed only by sky. "It will be a much more intimate and visceral connection
between the bell and the spire," says Cywinski, whose firm designed
Pixar's headquarters and Bill Gates's home.
But would all of this effort be wasted if new skyscrapers emerge east of
Independence Hall someday? No, says Cywinski, who saw the "bulldozer
mentality" of the 1970s destroy local historic buildings and give rise
to poorly placed ones like the Penn Mutual Tower. Fortunately the surrounding
area has since been designated a historic district. "Times have changed,"
he says. "I think we're all smarter. We have to be more careful with
our heritage than we were back then." |
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The new Liberty Bell Center is angled so that views of the bell include a
background of Independence Hall and not skyscrapers. |
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Courtesy Bohlin Cywinski Jackson |
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