“Home Alone” at the Piazza: Privatized Public Space in Philadelphia

The Piazza at Schmidt’s is a 2009 Philadelphia mixed-use development of apartments, retail and 80,000 square feet of paved open space, meant to foster vibrant urban interaction. Initially, the Piazza was highly community-oriented: the developer incorporated the neighborhood’s requests for walkability, filled the retail space with local artists, and hosted many public events. However, this early community-based success was unsustainable because of the developer’s inherent private-sector commitment to maximizing the return on investment. Today, the Piazza is chronically underused because the drive for short-term profit has sabotaged the long-term viability of the public space. The Piazza at Schmidt’s is a telling example of why the system of privatized public space may be ineffective: because the original arts community was less profitable, it was not given the chance to thrive, and the resulting public space has lost its sense of vibrant urban life.