The
Residents of the 2500 Block of Meredith Street
Philadelphia,
PA J9130
10 March
2003
Mr.
George Ross
Manager
of Capital Projects
Philadelphia
Museum of Art
2525
Pennsylvania Avenue
Philadelphia,
PA 19130
Re: Renovation
of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building
2/19/03 & 2/27/03 Design Review Meeting Comments
Dear Mr.
Ross:
Our
neighborhood would like to thank you and the Art Museum for the opportunity to
meet and discuss your preliminary plans for the renovation and addition to the
Perelman Building. The drawings and materials you presented at our meeting on
19 February and again at the Fairmount Civic Association meeting on 27 February
reflect a strong, neighborly, and largely effective effort on the Museum's part
to address the concerns we expressed to you in March of last year.
As your
project team completes the schematic phase of design and begins a more detailed
development of the plans. we respectfully request that you continue to consider
the specific neighborhood concerns outlined in our 3 March 2002 letter as they
relate to both our block and the 2500 block of Olive Street. We also encourage
you to continue to work with the two homeowners and the cafe' on Olive to
develop strategies for the addition that maximize transparency and add
architectural and/or programmatic interest at the corner of Olive and 25th Streets.
We hope
that there will be another opportunity for you to share your progress with us
before you move into the final phase of design. At that time, we would hope to
be able to discuss more specific building and site topics including the
location of louvers and service access points in the north elevation of the
addition, parking lot lighting, fencing & planting plans, and possible
improvements to the gate and streetscape at the corner of Meredith and 26th Streets. We would also like to ask you to continue to
consider how best to maintain an open dialogue between the Museum and our neighborhood
once the construction phase of the project begins.
Thank you
again for the opportunity to participate in the shaping of a building that will
offer so much vitality and improvement to our Fairmount community. We very much
appreciate your continued receptiveness to our concerns and look forward to the
opportunity to speak with you again soon.
Regards,
The
Residents of the 2500 Block of Meredith Street
Contact: Kevin
or V'ivian Rasmussen
2526 Meredith Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
(215) 769-7034
suras@comcast net
cc: Ms.
Anne d 'Harnoncourt, Museum Director Ms. Gail Harrity, Chief Operating Officer
Mr Robert Morrone, Director of Facilities and Operations