Scouting out the city's secret gardens and hidden courtyards
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
If you’re looking to discover the quiet spaces, the unassuming spots in our city of brash skyscrapers and big noise, then curl up with Searching for Philadelphia: The Concealed City. Architect David S. Traub has been scouting out these tiny parks, secret gardens, hidden courtyards and enchanting doorways for 32 years. His photos of 90 of his favorite spaces are included in this slender volume, published last year by Camino Books.
“This book is a celebration of what’s still there,” Traub says, noting how his book differs from recent ones detailing what has vanished from the city. The images are in black and white, an approach he chose partly because he found it to be “more expressive of the nuances, of light, of shade and mood.”
He wisely lets the photographs tell the story, providing just enough information so the reader can locate the spot and make his or her own pilgrimage. Armchair travelers are in for a treat, too. A sense of calm grows with each turn of the page as one quiet scene follows another.
An ardent preservationist, Traub’s appreciation of the city — through an architect’s eye — is apparent. As he says in the introduction: “Philadelphia is an old and historic city full of unsuspected treasures. To walk down the hidden, narrow lanes tucked away within its core is to experience an atmosphere of intimacy and charm of the sort one might travel to Europe to see. Though Philadelphia now enjoys a new skyline bristling with skyscrapers, far below these pinnacles lies what could be thought of as another city.”
Hidden City: Traub will speak Thu., April 10, 6:30 p.m., free, The Philadelphia Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St., 215-569-3186, philadelphiacfa.org.
