COUNTERTOPS
Glenside Derails
Above, the proposed new Glenside train station and parking garage shows the first-floor retail wrapping around the front.
Unfortunately, the handsome new building will sit a good 120-160 feet from Easton Road, the main thoroughfare through Glenside. This plan shows the building on the left facing a drop-off area and courtyard.
Though quaint and marginally historic, the original Glenside station is easily replaced by something better, even by today's standards.
Last Monday I had the pleasure of sitting through a public presentation for a proposed redevelopment of the Glenside train station in Pennsylvania’s Cheltenham Township. I actually live in nearby Jenkintown, but the issue draws my attention for several reasons. First, I spend at least two hours a week sitting with my iBook at Elcy's Coffee House located inside the existing station, and since its serves as my auxiliary office, I have an obvious concern for its future. Second, I love train stations. And third, this project has the potential to revitalize a charming but struggling traditional community.
The Glenside station sits astride the Reading Railroad mainline that connected Philadelphia with Bethlehem. Judging from the simple, nondescript design and construction of the station, Reading probably never considered Glenside a particularly important stop along its system. Since the Southeast Pennsylvania Regional Transportation Authority (SEPTA) took control of the line, Glenside has become a popular commuter station. In light of this, the county, the township, and SEPTA have initiated a very public process to redevelop the parcel with a parking garage and retail space.
Giving the local community a voice in the planning process certainly has its merits, especially when the public pays for such projects, but in this case, the exercise produced a classic case of design by committee. During the architect’s detailed slide presentation that outlined all the features of the project, he kept prefacing his remarks with the words, “The participants wanted to see [this]” and “This [element] reflects the desire of the public to have [that].” All the while, I wanted to stop him and ask, “You’re the paid professional. What do you think should be there?” The architects have designed a fine building, but the public has forced them to put it in the wrong place.
Glenside now has a rare and golden opportunity to give itself a defining community symbol, but threatens to squander it due to its fear of change and corrosive addiction to automobiles. This new station has all the prerequisite elements of such a symbol. The design provides for ample new parking; it obscures the parking levels behind a traditional facade; and it builds out 10,000 square feet of new retail space. It also retains a venerable maple tree and preserves the original stone-built, century-old station for the exclusive use of Elcy's, and it moves the SEPTA ticket office to the new facility.
Yet, despite the symbolic importance of this development, the citizens of Glenside would rather shove it out of the way. This station should be a crowning achievement for the community, deserving of landmark status, except that its proposed placement well back from the district’s main street relegates it to an architectural sideshow, just another building upon which the community places no particular value.
Even in this walkable community, the car comes out on top. Because the public wanted to preserve the grass slope on Easton and the tree, the plan leaves an needless gap half the length of a football field in the Glenside retail promenade. A pedestrian walking north from the heart of the district towards the station crosses a busy Glenside Avenue into more open space and across the vehicle access to the courtyard and passenger pickup. In rainy weather, the gap leaves the walker exposed to the elements that awnings would otherwise deflect. During rush hour, the traffic will make people think twice before venturing into those intersections. Retailers hate it when potential customers think twice.
Just as regrettable, the potentially iconic and landmarking clock tower sits too far back from where it might otherwise serve as a beacon for those coming into the district. Instead, lesser structures and the tree will obscure its view outside of its immediate surroundings.
The current plan preserves the train station by moving it about thirty feet towards Easton Road, keeping it in full view as per the wishes of the community. While you will find few people with a greater passion for preserving train stations than myself, this is a case where I’d support its demolition if replaced by something better looking and just as permanent. Though an ardent preservationist, I reject the notion that we have lost the ability to improve our built environment, despite a paucity of evidence in that regard. The Glenside station’s design is best described as quaint but utilitarian. I’d speculate that if the Reading Railroad didn’t chronically teeter on bankruptcy in its last forty years of operation, it would have happily knocked it down for a better replacement. Now, a fear of change has forced the designers to make dubious compromises that add tens of thousands to the final cost.
Even communities with nearly all the ingredients of our recipe for an American renaissance often don’t quite get it. Last night, some actually lamented that this building would deprive them of their open views of the parking lot! Many expressed concern about the additional traffic a new garage would generate. And of course, a good half of the discussion centered around parking. No one expressed much concern for how this project would specifically affect the pedestrian experience, which ultimately it should enhance.
The goal of any such transportation-related project should consider the pedestrian first and foremost, especially a project that involves rail transit in an urban setting, but this plan clearly doesn’t. Though not mentioned explicitly, some at this hearing worried about gentrification and how it would raise the cost of living in Glenside. I worry about that as well, but I see gentrification as a better alternative to stagnation and decline, which will happen if Glenside doesn’t take a few bold steps into the future. Train stations and Main Street retail puts people on sidewalks, gets them out of their cars, and preserves the most valuable aspects of the living in a real community. Glenside has a golden opportunity to take those steps. It should appreciate the value of this moment and move forward and proudly put its new station in front for all the region to see.
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