One Way to Make a Street Friendlier
The other day I was walking north on 18th street in Philadelphia, heading for Market street, and I looked up at the buildings in front of me, and I saw something I had never noticed before. A blank wall. I've looked at this view more times than I care to think about, but the blank wall had never registered before. All the other buildings around have windows in their walls. This building has windows too, but not on the south side.
I think I've usually been distracted by the large olive (with pimento and toothpick) decorating the Continental Mid-town restaurant, at the bottom in the picture above. But on this day, I actually managed to focus on a blank canvas.
The canvas belongs to the Sonesta hotel, which fronts on Market and runs south on 18th to Ludlow, where our blank wall resides. (The 18th street side of the building is home to Ruth's Chris steakhouse.)
Interestingly, the north side of the building, where the front of the hotel is, also does not have windows (except for the ground floor) and already has a rather attractive mural, which came to us through Mural Arts Philadelphia in 2015. It's by an artist named MOMO.
I think Mr. MOMO's mural needs a mate.
Here's the canvas, viewed from Ludlow street. There are no windows on the ground floor. The canvas extends down to the sidewalk, where it occasionally competes with some dumpsters.
But what happens, you say, if a new, tall building goes up at the corner of 18th and Ludlow? This is not an idle question. Much of this block has already been redeveloped, and there is even a hotel, called Motto by Hilton, at 31 South 19th, which flanks a restaurant named Condesa on Ludlow. And there's another building under construction just to the east. (Don't worry: Tony's Shoe Repair is still there.)
And yes, a tall building at the eastern end of the block would obscure the view of our mural from Chestnut. But it would not obscure the view from Ludlow.
I think a mural here would make this whole area feel more inviting, and possibly even homey. That blank white wall strikes me as a bit cold and vacant.
Here's a story. I actually took two pictures of this view. The first one did not have the fire escape, just the vacant wall and the sky. I wasn't sure which one to use in this story, so I asked my eight-year-old grandson which picture would be most likely to engage a viewer and cause that person to be receptive to the idea of a mural in this location. He studied both photographs side-by-side for a few moments, and then told me he thought the shot with the fire escape would be more effective. He said of the potential donors, "They feel safer because they have a way to get out."
I'm still thinking about my grandson's statement. I think it works on a number of levels, and probably not just on Ludlow street.
See also A Mural Is Born, A Few Deft Touches for Back Streets, Bluestone to the Rescue! and Which Side Are You On? and City Beautiful Sprouts on Cypress Street, My New Favorite Alley.
