The Delaware Power Plant

By Jordan Sheftel:

           Built in 1917 by Philadelphia architect John T. Windrim PECO’s Delaware power station has sat idle since the 1980’s. Windrim, whose work includes numerous commissions from PECO and Bell Telephone as well as the Franklin Institute and the Lincoln-Liberty building was recognized as Philadelphia’s premier architect for classical-revival and Beaux-arts style in his time.

The building sits adjacent to Penn Treaty Park on the Delaware River waterfront and is currently owned by PECO. There has been talk of redevelopment including everything from a museum to an apartment complex. But with no sure-fire plans and difficulty securing Historic protection its future remains uncertain.     

           

This brings up an interesting question, one that I’m sure many developers are racking their brains over at the moment: what exactly can be done with something like this? It is undoubtedly a beautiful building filled with incredible spaces and a rich past but does that make it worth saving? And if it isn’t worth saving does it at least make it worth remembering? Or perhaps beyond mere aesthetics, is the history of what happened in this place worth keeping alive, The blood and sweat of the people who worked here to make this thing run in order to power most of northeast Philadelphia.

Architecture unlike other art forms is purpose built for a client to serve a specific function. Often when that function is no longer needed neither is the architecture. It also has the misfortune of being tied to a physical location and as we come to realize in America, underutilized space is wasted space. This leaves us with a conundrum; leave a beautiful rotting building to serve as a monument to the past, or cut your loses and build for the future. Currently I’m undecided.

I am torn because the architect/photographer/hoarder side of me wants to see this thing stay as is it forever. I want to see this thing decay. I want to see this formidable concrete block that was built to last forever crumble to the ground while I explore it every step of the way. I’d rather see it fall to pieces under its own power than see it divided neatly into swanky condos.

The other side of me however hates to see such a beautiful thing go to waste. I look at the Tate Modern in London by Herzog & de Meuron as a prime example of how a space like this can be re-purposed and re-celebrated. It took 5 years and $220,000,000 but it was eventually transformed from the abandoned and endangered Bankside Power station into the most visited modern art gallery in the world.  However Kensington, Philadelphia is not London, England and I don’t think it ever will nor should be.

So that’s the dilemma, for now all we can do is enjoy its fading beauty while we await its fate or start working on a better plan and put it into action.