LOVE Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, is a public park located in

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the ci ...

, Pennsylvania, United States. The park is across from the

Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the office ...

and serves as a visual terminus for the

Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020. The parkway is named ...

. The park is nicknamed LOVE Park for its reproduction of Robert Indiana's 1970 ''

LOVE Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

'' sculpture which overlooks the plaza, one of three located in Philadelphia. Despite municipal bans and renovations designed to limit the activity, LOVE Park became one of the most famous and recognizable

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

spots in the world in the 1990s and 2000s.

History

Former Philadelphia city planner

Edmund Bacon Edmund Bacon may refer to: * Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Redgrave (c. 1570–1649), English MP for Eye and for Norfolk in 1593 and 1625 * Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Gillingham (c. 1660–1683), see Bacon baronets * Sir Edmund Bacon, 4 ...

and architect Vincent G. Kling planned and designed the original LOVE Park. The park was first proposed as part of Bacon’s Cornell architecture thesis in 1932 as a feature of a new city plan for Philadelphia. Once Bacon became Executive Director of the City Planning Commission, the architectural design of the park itself was completed by Kling. The park was built in 1965 and covered an underground parking garage. The main feature of the plaza became a centrally located single spout fountain added in 1969. The city's visitor center (built in 1960, before LOVE Park) was closed for five years, but re-opened in 2006 as The

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, w ...

Welcome Center. The park was dedicated in 1967 as John F. Kennedy Plaza after President John F. Kennedy. LOVE Park Plaque

A "LOVE" sculpture, designed by

Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark; September 13, 1928 – May 19, 2018) was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. Indiana is mostly known for his iconic image LOVE which was first created in 1964 in the form of a card. India ...

, was first placed in the plaza in 1976 as part of the

United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic. It was a central event in the memo ...

celebration. The sculpture was removed in 1978 after the celebration ended. However, the chairman of Philadelphia Art Commission, Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr., was able to purchase the sculpture and to have it permanently placed it in the plaza during that year. From 2016 to 2018, a major reconstruction project converted the largely

hardscape Hardscape is hard landscape materials in the built environment structures that are incorporated into a landscape. This can include paved areas, driveways, retaining walls, sleeper walls, stairs, walkways, and any other landscaping made up of ...

d plaza into a greener space that contains large and small lawns for casual uses, two gardens and 2 green stormwater basins with tropical and native plantings, an open viewshed of City Hall and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, new cafe seating, and daily recreational games. A redesigned fountain features a large central jet and a "bird's nest" of smaller jets with programmable up-lighting within a large oval paved area.

Skateboarding

Skateboarders began skating LOVE Park in the 1980s. The first ban on skateboarding in the park was passed in 1984. In the early 1990s, during the administration of Mayor

Ed Rendell Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American politician, author, and former prosecutor who served as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. He previously served as chair of the national Democratic Party from 1999 to 2 ...

, enforcement was ramped up and prioritized, with police giving $300 fines to skateboarders. Despite the ban, throughout the 1990s skate videos and photographs featuring the park propelled it to becoming one of the most recognizable East Coast skateboarding locations. “Neither Vincent or I had the slightest premonition that our work would become world famous” Bacon said in 2004 regarding the fame skateboarding had brought the park. In 2000, LOVE Park was featured as a level in the video game '' Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2''. In 2001, Mayor John F. Street’s administration announced plans to increase the level of policing and enforcement of the ban on skateboarding while simultaneously hosting the

X-Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moor ...

in 2001 and 2002, leading to criticism, protests, and discussion as to whether the city was wrongly wasting an asset by discouraging skateboarding in the park. In early 2002, the city announced renovations that would intentionally destroy the skateable elements of the park. In October 2002, Bacon skateboarded across the park at age 92 in protest of both the renovations and the bans on skateboarding in an act of civil disobedience. In 2004,

DC Shoes DC Shoes, Inc. is an American brand specializes in footwear for action sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding. The company also manufactures apparel, bags, accessories, hats, t-shirts, and posters. History DC was founded in June 1994 by ...

offered to pay the city for the park’s upkeep if skateboarding would be allowed at the park, but the bans and renovations continued. In February 2016, Mayor

Jim Kenney James Francis Kenney (born August 7, 1958) is an American politician who served as the 99th mayor of Philadelphia from 2016 to 2024. Kenney was first elected on November 3, 2015, defeating his Republican rival Melissa Murray Bailey after winning ...

temporarily lifted the ban on skateboarding for five days before the park was completely demolished and rebuilt, removing the iconic Fountain Gap and remaining skateable elements. In 2024, the city of Malmo, Sweden announced they had acquired the original granite used in the park and were rebuilding a portion of the original design intentionally to attract skateboarders. The park will be open in June of 2024.

References

External links

*
Love Park videos and photos
from SkateSpotter {{DEFAULTSORT:Love Park Municipal parks in Philadelphia Skateboarding spots Center City, Philadelphia Love Monuments and memorials to John F. Kennedy in the United States

History

Skateboarding

See also

References

External links