Love Park & Welcome Center

Philadelphia’s iconic Love Park was renovated by Bittenbender Construction as a Sub Contractor/General Contractor under Turner Construction. The park was originally conceived of by Edmund Bacon and architect Vincent G. Kling in 1965, two years later in 1967 the park was dedicated as John F. Kennedy Plaza and has since served as the gateway to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway & the Art Museum district. The new design was led by Hargreaves Associates with a welcoming public space of green areas situated at the same level as the perimeter sidewalks. This project consisted of re-designing JFK Plaza / Love Park, which sits above an underground parking garage and the SEPTA concourse, both of which are in operation during construction. The scope included Garage elements on the surface of the Park, i.e. stairs, elevators and head houses. Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE sculpture was restored and reinstalled in nearly the same spot, and the old granite pavers were removed and salvaged for reuse for skate parks across the city. Our firm also completed renovation of the existing Fairmount Park Welcome Center building in the southwest corner of the Park. This space was converted into a 55 seat (interior) and 135 seat (balcony/terrace) turn-key space for a potential restaurant.