Becoming Philadelphia: How an Old American City Made Itself New Again

by Inga Saffron

Once dismissed as a rusting industrial has-been—the “Next Detroit”—Philadelphia has enjoyed an astonishing comeback in the 21st century. Over the past two decades, Inga Saffron has served as the premier chronicler of the city’s physical transformation as it emerged from a half century of decline. Through her Pulitzer Prize-winning columns on architecture and urbanism in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she has tracked the city’s revival on a weekly basis.

Becoming Philadelphia collects the best of Saffron’s work, plus a new introduction reflecting on the stunning changes the city has undergone. A fearless crusader who is also a seasoned reporter, Saffron ranges beyond the usual boundaries of architectural criticism to explore how big money and politics intersect with design, profoundly shaping our everyday experience of city life. Even as she celebrates Philadelphia’s resurgence, she considers how it finds itself grappling with the problems of success: gentrification, poverty, privatization, and the unequal distribution of public services.

What emerges in these 80 pieces is a remarkable narrative of a remarkable time. The proverbial first draft of history, these columns tell the story of how a great city shape-shifted before our very eyes.

Genres: Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're lucky to have an urbanist as our chief writer about Philadelphia--someone who shares my interests in the form of cities, how people interact with buildings and transportation, and how the past and the future intersect. I liked that this collection of her columns very roughly coincides with the years I wasn't living in the area (1999-2015).

My only problem with the book is that it collects the columns verbatim; no one went to the trouble to gloss them with a sentence or two of context or what happened afterward. My response to some of the projects she discussed was "Well, golly, they never built that, but what is there now?" And then I was squinting at Google Maps on my phone in the bright sun of the beach trying to figure it out on my own.

The theme Saffron comes back to repeatedly is who is this city for? A lot of the shooting ourselves in the foot comes from trying to satisfy or impress some imagined audience of suburbanites or tourists, and not ourselves. What if we actually had a park that wasn't full of highways? I'm glad she's here to ask those questions in the paper every week.

[Jennifer S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saffron really helped me understand the effect of development at any scale in Philly, from a bike lane, to a parking garage, to a new skyscraper. She has a great writing style that is passionate, funny, and interesting to people who may not understand all the nitty-gritty nuances of architecture. I wish each article would have included an update, if relevant, on how the project ended up, since many of these took place years ago. But it was still interesting to see how projects have developed, and I look forward to hearing Saffron’s perspective on future projects.

[Sharon Hillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

*spoiler alert*

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoy Inga’s writing style and her wit. I also appreciate how much detail she goes into about the history of various buildings and neighborhoods in Philly as well as how they’ve evolved. She highlights core urbanist values such as maintaining approachable, human-scale architecture, public green spaces, bike paths, and reducing vehicular traffic. She also really digs into analyzing design and form, both of historical buildings as well as of new buildings that have gone up in the last 20 years. However, I feel like she could have spent more time focusing on social issues and the implications of gentrification and displacement of communities that have existed for generations. For all the talk about a utopian pedestrian and bike friendly city with zero cars and pop-up beer gardens, who does this *really* serve besides middle and upper-class white folks? She does touch upon affordable housing and equity for residents in a couple chapters but I don’t think she digs deeply enough. The way she describes blight is as if it’s something that just happens because people decide to leave neighborhoods and not a direct result of century-old racist redlining policies and intentional disinvestment of Black and Brown neighborhoods. Even more off-putting and strange is that she chose to end the book with an invitation for Amazon to build their second headquarters in Philly which is the antithesis of urbanism and would completely destroy the fabric of Philadelphia both architecturally and culturally. Thankfully, this proposal never came into fruition and Amazon stayed out of our city. Ultimately, this is an interesting read but it could have done better.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[L L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Inga Saffron's vision for Philadelphia: a mixed-income racially diverse pedestrian and bike friendly, civically-engaged city that is also aesthetically pleasing. A place that is pleasant and enjoyable to live in for people of all backgrounds. This book is a collection of her architecture columns in the Philadelphia Inquirer, where you get her perspectives on developments in the built environment of Philadelphia.

I love her rants against parking garages for their aesthetic depravity, her support for walkable streets, and her commentary on the 10-year tax abatement (way too broad and way past its useful life; though now changed in Dec 2020). I also appreciate her support for broad use of public spaces and parks, including her frustrations with the constant events at Dilworth Plaza that prevent protesters from getting permits and apparently there were once signs at Rittenhouse Square telling people to not sit on the restored columns.

I am grateful for her continued voice in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and this book helps you piece together her consistent vision over the years. It's also a walk back in time through development in Philadelphia: the early beginnings of the Schukyll River park, the renovation of Dilworth Plaza, the Comcast Tower. Sometimes, the more in-depth architecture details get lost on me, but I do want to walk around the city with the book in tow.

Highly recommended for anyone living in Philadelphia who cares about the future of this city.

[Erin Paulson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love Inga’s writing - so concise and cutting, never an extraneous phrase, painting a truthful portrait of the city that became my heart home. However, a simple chronological ordering of her fantastic articles would have been more successful at telling Philadelphia’s story of the last two decades. I understand the choice to organize them by theme, but I often felt myself distracted by trying to place this article in relationship to that article on the timeline. Also, I cannot fathom the choice to conclude a volume that largely fights against social injustice and inequity through the lens of housing and public space with an article in support of Amazon choosing Philadelphia for its next headquarters. Four stars instead of five.

[Peyton Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inga Saffron is a good writer; I will give her that. I do wish, in a book about architecture and place, there were more photos of the described building facades or locations so that I didn't need to pick up my phone so much while reading. As much of the building is going on in fast-growing areas like Fishtown and Center City, I understand why most of the articles are concentrated there, but wish that there had been more diversity in exploring all of Philadelphia. At times Saffron came off as contradictory-- not hiding her privilege and expressing rage over the trivial in some articles while expressing deep concern for lower-status Philadelphians in others. However, she is an architecture critic, not a social justice commentator, and this may be a product of the fact that the articles span over 20 years of her career. I went into the book not agreeing with her stance on historical preservation and was not much convinced by her arguments for it (although there is not much room for in-depth discussion on the topic in her short columns). She does a good job at exposing corrupt political leadership and backdoor deals that you wouldn't otherwise hear about. Saffron also occasionally admits the downsides of the projects or ideas she supports, but oftentimes I find her zeal a bit too one-sided. Overall, I appreciated the book as a deep dive into Philadelphia's built environment as a former resident and current researcher of these issues.

[Samantha Shain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stellar complication of a rich career of architectural criticism from Inga Saffron. Reading the stories of corruption were jaw-dropping and salacious. Meanwhile, the precise commentary about street-level doors, urban revitalization, urbanism, housing (affordable and non), zoning, development, and design were refreshing and instructive. In some cases, I found her sentences overburdened with clauses, but perhaps that suits the journalistic form. In a few cases, her use of terms like "blight" and harping on the "crack epidemic" seem out of date or discompassionate. I appreciate the conversation the book contributed to regarding affordable housing and gentrification - I would read an entire book by Saffron on this topic, were she to compile one. Her take on murals and public art was surprisingly scathing, whereas her demonstrative invitation to Amazon was peculiar (at best). Overall, the book is a tour de force and a highly recommended read for people who love Philadelphia.

[Kenneth Miraski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a bit biased as a former Philadelphian (but still one at heart), however this is a well-curated anthology of writings from the Philadelphia Inquirer's architectural critic. If you have always enjoyed the writings of Ada Louise Huxtable (as I do), Inga's writing comes across with a similarly comforting and sometimes tongue-in-cheek approach. This collection covers the recent and a crucial period of Philadelphia's history (from 2000 to today). It will give the reader a taste of what the city has faced and continues to face with its economic rebirth, entrenched yet hopefully reforming politics, and the tug-of-war between architectural heritage and the desire to be contemporary. If you want a taste of where Philadelphia is heading, add this to your reading list.

[Simon C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jam-packed with great information on the oddities and big stories in Philadelphia development over the past 25 years. Regrettably a bit myopic in its focus on Center City and the notably gentrified neighborhoods on its perimeter. Gimme a piece on the stately rowhomes in Parkside or Nicetown, something more to remind the reader that there's more to the "new" Philadelphia than the neighborhoods that masses of students and white-collar professionals are moving to.

[Michael Schill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of columns with a fine introduction; it would have been enlightening to have an afterword with updates on at least some of the various issues and projects covered. (and also perhaps should not have ended with a column arguing for Amazon to build its chimeric second location in Philly.)

[Emily Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one for a criminology class, and will probably continue to refer back to it throughout my academic career. Inga Saffron's writing is very good, even if some of her ideas about urban design are a little pretentious.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re coming to Philly and planning on staying, this is a must read.

[Josh Katz]

Brilliant writer. This book is the perfect answer to the question, “How did Philly get to where it is today?”.