Inga Saffron on Philly’s decade of “smartphone urbanism”

The urban changes that Philadelphia experienced in the first years of the 21st century were gentler and more likely to enhance the city’s existing 20th-century form. The tech-induced trends from the last 10 years have challenged that physical form by radically reconfiguring the way we move through, and interact with, the city.

Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer provides a tech-focused decade-in-review highlighting the impact of smartphone technologies on the city’s urbanism. 

Highlighting the proliferation of “fast-casual” food, buildings, and development approaches, Saffron writes: “once millennials (and their parents) got those smartphones in their hands, they promptly began moving into cities, buying fixer-uppers in working-class neighborhoods like Point Breeze and Fishtown, and transforming them into upscale enclaves.”

In particular, Saffron highlights the Foster + Partners-designed Comcast Technology Center, which some have likened to a giant middle finger;  Weiss/Manfredi’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology from 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania; and Snøhetta‘s new Charles Library at Temple University as some of the decade’s best architectural works in the city.

Antonio Pacheco via Archinect - News http://bit.ly/34YGREg