Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts introduces South Broad Street’s green future

A $150 million plan to beautify a mile of South Broad has begun with a “beta test.”

Peter Crimmins

Updated Jun. 24, 2026 7:13 pm

The block of South Broad Street between Spruce and Pine streets is the first of 10 blocks between City Hall and Washington Avenue to get a raised median filled with plantings. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

A new traffic median in front of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center on South Broad Street has been rebuilt as a 230-foot-long green ribbon elevated a couple of feet above the asphalt, planted with canopy trees and blooming flowers.

The new green space, which is not accessible to pedestrians, is a taste of what developer Carl Dranoff and Avenue of the Arts Inc. have in mind for the mile-long stretch of Broad Street from City Hall to Washington Avenue.

“We call it our beta project to show people what’s coming,” said Dranoff, Avenue of the Arts Inc. board chair. “We’ve taken a derelict, weed-strewn concrete bunker of a median strip, which we call an ugly duckling, and have made it into a beautiful swan.”

WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

Dignitaries water the plants in a raised median strip dividing South Broad Street between Spruce and Pine streets. The new median features native trees and plantings, a rainwater-collection cistern, and lighting. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Dubbed Avenue of the Arts 2.0, the $150 million master plan aims to envelope South Broad Street in greenery, redesigning its sidewalks with continuous planters large enough to contain full-size trees and carving out niches for public art and performance spaces.

The fully realized plan will be years in the making. Construction is taking an iterative approach, designing and building a block at a time as resources allow. Reconstruction of the sidewalks of the 300 block of South Broad will begin in 2027.

A block of South Broad Street in Philadelphia, between Spruce and Pine streets, is seen with a raised median filled with plantings — The block of South Broad Street between Spruce and Pine streets is the first of 10 blocks between City Hall and Washington Avenue to get a raised median filled with plantings. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Avenue of the Arts Inc. pushed to get the initial median strip finished early so it would be in place for an anticipated busy summer.

“While this may be the first block, it sends a powerful message that progress is here and visible,” said board member Tiffany White.

The ambitious beautification vision came from Dranoff, who has developed a handful of major real estate projects along South Broad Street, including the Symphony House and Arthaus residential towers.

Carl Dranoff speaks at a ceremony celebrating the completion of a new plant-filled median on South Broad Street between Spruce and Pine streets — Carl Dranoff, chairman of the board of Avenue of the Arts, speaks at a ceremony celebrating the completion of a new plant-filled median on South Broad Street between Spruce and Pine streets. It is the first step in an initiative to transform Avenue of the Arts (South Broad Street) into a tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly boulevard. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Beyond adding a few planters and street trees, the plan involves rethinking the avenue’s parking, dropoff zones, loading zones and bus stops. The aggressive reconstruction impacts underground utility systems as well as the SEPTA and PATCO subway infrastructures. South Broad Street is part of Pennsylvania Highway 611, which requires collaboration with the state Department of Transportation.

“When we started this process four years ago, people said, ‘No, it couldn’t be done. The state, the city, they won’t let you do it,’” Dranoff said. “It turns out that we have outstanding government officials who not only helped us to get to where we are today, but we got encouragement from them and we got problem-solving.”

Ultimately, Dranoff said his vision is to put the Avenue of the Arts on par with the grand corridors of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and Paris’ Champs-Élysée.

WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.