The Philadelphia Crosstown Community

This article is part of the [Sí] , a personal project curated by Marta López García where she wills to shed light on a twice silenced reality. The goal remains to recover and spread pieces of architecture displaced to the periphery; although this time focused on the work of female architects. Este artículo es parte de la serie [Sí] , comisariada por Marta López García que busca ofrecer una vision sobre una realidad doblemente silenciada. El objetivo es recuperar y difundir obras de arquitectura que han sido desplazadas a la periferia, teniendo como punto de partida proyectos de mujeres arquitectas. In Philadelphia, as in many North American cities, plans for urban redevelopment were introduced after World War II. The proposal for the Crosstown Expressway, a highway that creates a loop around the area defined as the city centre, was shown under the supervision of the city´s planning director Edmund Bacon as part of the Better Philadelphia Exhibition in 1947. En Filadelfia, como en muchas otras ciudades norteamericanas, planes de regeneración urbana fueron introducidos tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial. La propuesta del Crosstown Expressway, una autopista de circunvalación alrededor del área definida como el centro urbano, estaba incluida en la exposición de 1947 Una Mejor Filadelfia supervisada por Edmund Bacon, el director de Planeamiento de la cuidad. It was not until 1955 when South Street started to be seriously under threat, when the Crosstown Expressway plan was officially proposed. This included the demolition of the street which was at the time a run-down but active commercial area and the hearth of the Africa-American community in the city. In 1967 the Pennsylvania Department started approaching landlords in South Street to initiate negotiations to acquire the properties. As a result, a discussion was set regarding the lack of relocation solutions and the racial debate was also opened. It was then when a citizens committee was formed.