Watch ONLINE via ZOOM from the safety and comfort of your home. A link with instructions will be provided three hours prior to this virtual lecture. 

To the Future! Rail Park Visioning and Next Steps

presented by Rebecca Cordes Chan

The Rail Park is a vision for a three mile linear park and multi-use pathway connecting 10+ Philadelphia neighborhoods and 50 city blocks along the site of former Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad lines. Open to the public since June 2018, Phase One of the Rail Park transformed a quarter-mile elevated section of viaduct from Broad and Noble streets up to the 1100 block of Callowhill Street in Philadelphia, serving as an award winning proof of concept. The development of Phase One was led by Center City District, in partnership with the City of Philadelphia, SEPTA and Friends of the Rail Park.

In light of new leadership and shifting stakeholder priorities in the wake of the pandemic, Friends of the Rail Park commissioned a cost estimate and feasibility study in 2021. The goal of this exercise and FRP’s work, which examined the full three mile vision for the Rail Park, was twofold: determine a viable next phase of the Rail Park, and better understand how the Rail Park can contribute to comprehensive community development in the 10+ neighborhoods the park touches and for the city of Philadelphia. In this presentation, friends of the Rail Park’s Executive Director, Rebecca Cordes Chan, will share the preliminary results of this work and the path forward. 

Rebecca Cordes Chan is the Executive Director of the Friends of the Rail Park, the organization dedicated to bringing the Rail Park– a vision for a three mile greenway and infrastructure reuse project to life. Prior to joining the Rail Park, Rebecca was the program officer for the National Economic Development and Creative Placemaking programs at Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), where she managed a portfolio of projects focused on using arts- and culturally-based strategies as tools for inclusive economic development. She received her MS from the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, and a BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

$15 | General Admission

$10 | Alliance Member 

Students with ID or individuals with financial difficulties free with email to vcheng@preservationalliance.com