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Philadelphia Magazine and eight of the city’s smartest urban thinkers have ideas on what our “most beleaguered corridor” should look like. Editors invited Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake to contribute to “How to Save Market East (For Real This Time)” or “Re-re-reinventing Market East” for the March 2026 issue.

A big thank you to Janine White and Philadelphia for including our voice in this important discussion. As a Philadelphia-based firm, our stake in the civic, economic, and cultural vitality of this city runs deep.

The possibilities for Market East are endless: a car-free pedestrian corridor connecting City Hall to the Delaware River. An architectural museum without walls. A catalytic hub for both affordable housing and new industry.

But, ambition alone won’t transform this corridor. Market East’s next chapter demands vision paired with discipline and the patience to build incrementally, the nimbleness to adapt as opportunities emerge, and the wisdom to honor the rich layers of history and culture already woven into these neighborhoods.

We think about history as being east of 6th from Independence Mall down. There is another expansive history, too, that traverses 150 years that isn’t recognized and utilized enough in my view. 

Stephen Kieran

Perhaps a part of the old Gallery needs to be taken down. There are parts that can be built up over. So adding either affordable housing or additional market-rate housing in that area all the way along that street would bring populace to the street. 

James Timberlake

Look at the work in University City. The leveraging of 30th Street Station and using placemaking like Drexel Square and tying assets together before any of that development really sort of occurred, I think, is the key to the things that you’re seeing happen now. Steven and James did a brilliant job of reimagining the facade of the Bulletin Building for Spark [a gene therapy company], but there’s no way Spark would’ve been in that building in the first place had all these other public assets like Drexel Square not been put in place.

John Fry, president of Temple University.