An artist’s rendering of what the Provident building will look like after its conversion into the Public Safety Services Campus. Two small buildings near the southwest corner of the complex will be demolished.
We are starting to get an idea of what the hulking, long-vacant Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building at North 46th and Market Streets will look like a few years from now. The building is being converted into a public services complex that will house the headquarters for the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Public Health, including the city’s coroner’s office and morgue.
Designers unveiled some drawings this week of a spiffed up Provident Building, complete with lots of greenery and a couple of out buildings removed. PlanPhilly reports that on November 17 artists who responded to a competitive call for a public installation that will be the centerpiece of a public plaza at 46th and Market are scheduled to present their ideas to designers. The city will draw $675,000 from its Percent for Art program to pay for the installation.
Two buildings on the west side of the site, a powerhouse (with a large smokestack near the El tracks and an auditorium) will be demolished. Ballinger Architects is designing the complex.
The complex is scheduled to be completed by 2018.
November 6th, 2015 at 7:13 am
The auditorium has already been taken down.
November 6th, 2015 at 10:22 am
So glad the City is making use of these abandon buildings. I always liked that building when I was a kid awesome job Philadelphia
November 6th, 2015 at 10:29 am
So the city has $675,000 for an art installation but yet Philadelphia public schools don’t have enough funding to have school nurses. Incredible!
November 6th, 2015 at 6:31 pm
Great to have a solid anchor for that building like the PPD. I welcome the influx of police into that area.
February 1st, 2016 at 5:45 pm
I agree with Worried Mom. While it’s great that the PPD will have a new HQ, spending $675,000 to draw a picture is stupid. I dealt with the School District of Philadelphia Nurse Shortage for my Type 1 Diabetic daughter. That money could have gone to many good things other than some starving artist. Think a little harder next time before committing that kind of cash!
February 2nd, 2016 at 11:32 am
As the link explains Percent for Art money is mandated and cannot be spent on other things like school nurses. The city doesn’t have one giant checking account that it can pull from at will. Also, the school district is a separate entity and has its own budget with very many mandates and restrictions on its spending as well.
February 2nd, 2016 at 6:07 pm
The link seems to say that developers doing business with PRA have to spend 1% of their budget on art. The above article says the city will draw $675k from its one percent program. So is it the developers money or is it city tax money?
February 2nd, 2016 at 7:03 pm
Thanks for schooling me Anonymous. Obviously you must be one of those starving artists. Not a care in the world. Good luck selling your water colorsports and pottery. Come back to the real world when you make it big and give some of that money back to those who need it.
February 3rd, 2016 at 6:38 pm
Very civil of you, Jackfax… not! Anonymous pointed out some of the reasons why the city can’t just pull that money out of its pocket and give it to the schools. They were summarizing a situation, not defending it, and you snarl back at them as though they were responsible for it.