Lights, landscaping to brighten Broad St. from Glenwood to Spring Garden

North Broad Street has seen an explosion of development in recent years with new housing and restaurants. Now it’s getting some new lights and landscaping.

The lights are an exciting way to link North Philadelphia and Center City, said Margaret Carney, the Temple University architect and vice president for campus planning and design.

They’re also attractive, she said.

“The light masts are beautiful stainless steel elements which will be mounted along Broad Street in a central median strip, a concrete median strip,” she said.

The lights will extend from Glenwood Avenue to Spring Garden. Carney said the tall, slender light masts will draw the eye up Broad Street and help people realize that North Philly isn’t that far from City Hall.

“They have a decorative pattern within the metal that allows light from inside the mast to be projected outward, she said. “So they have a beautiful sort of glow to them at night.”

The lights and the landscaping are about more than just making the street look nice, said Paul Beideman, president of Avenue of the Arts Incorporated. “The public environment is really very important to economic growth and to image and to safety of residents,” he said.

Beideman hopes the project will support the momentum that’s already improving North Broad.

“On North Broad right now, there’s a tremendous amout of new growth and development occurring, which I think is really exciting,” he said. “And what this project does is bring something that’s certainly going to connect those neighborhoods in that area.”

Construction on the $14 million project should begin within the next few months.