ATTENTION EDITORS: High-resolution images available upon request.
Keeping Center City Green and Lush: CCD Spring Planting
(April 21, 2008) – With spring weather comes a flurry of activity by the Center City District (CCD) to enhance the downtown with lush greenery and colorful seasonal plantings.
Over the last decade, the CCD planted and now maintains a substantial landscape inventory downtown: 850 trees, 130 container planters, 33 planter beds maintained as parking screens at nine surface parking locations and 156 hanging baskets.
CCD contracts through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to maintain trees and other landscape elements year-round to make Center City an attractive place to live, work and visit. Trees and greenery also provide shade in Philadelphia’s hot summers and help control stormwater run-off and pollution.
Among upcoming initiatives, CCD will embark on a demonstration project to determine the best ways to maintain Philadelphia’s urban tree population. Under a
$100,000 TreeVitalize Special Project grant from the PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources Community Conservation Partnership Program, CCD and PHS will repair a limited number of tree pits along Chestnut Street that are in disrepair.
CCD will test methods of rebuilding the damaged tree pits as a model for developers and residents to demonstrate how proper tree pit design, construction and maintenance encourages the health and vitality of urban trees.
In another project, CCD will install new landscaping on 16th Street between Chestnut and Ranstead streets. The developer of the Residences at Two Liberty Place contracted with CCD to beautify what is now a partially residential street. Working for CCD, PHS is planting four new street trees on the east side of the street and installing 12 36"-round planters bearing the CCD logo on both sides of the street.
As part of its ongoing, routine maintenance, CCD will also shortly begin replanting 60 sidewalk planters with an array of colorful spring flowers and greenery including shrub verbena lantana, sweet potato vine, purple fountain grass, canna lily, spider flower, coleus, Swedish ivy and elephant ear. The plant materials are chosen because they are beautiful, hardy and do well in urban environments.
In addition, CCD contractors are currently at work to replace 23 trees that were damaged or killed over the winter. Later in the spring, CCD will replant the 156 hanging baskets that it maintains on Market Street East.
The Center City District, a private-sector sponsored business improvement district dedicated to making Center City Philadelphia clean, safe and attractive, is committed to maintaining Center City’s competitive edge as a regional employment center, a quality place to live, and a premier regional destination for dining, shopping and cultural attractions.
###