by KYW’s Steve Tawa
To help ease the parking crunch, the Fairmount Park Commission has approved the design a new parking garage, and sculpture garden on top of it, for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The plan is to put a 440-space underground garage tucked into the existing boulder filled knoll that is there now, off Kelly Drive.
Its roof would merge architecture and landscape, by putting in a sculpture garden, overlooking the Azalea garden, the waterworks, and boathouse row, according to landscape architect Susan Weiler:
“It's one of the wonderful things about having landscape over structure.”
The chief operating officer of the museum, Gail Harrity says more parking is needed, because the terrace around the museum only holds about 320 spaces:
“On an average Saturday or Sunday, the museum has between 2,000-5,000 visitors.”
Those numbers go up during a special exhibition, to 10,000 a day, for a Dali or Wyeth exhibition.
The project would cost $30-million, and still needs the approval of more city agencies.
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