Philadelphia has developed a unique streetscape, from quaint rowhomes to our iconic City Hall to the sleek designs of our modern skyscrapers. City Cast Philly spoke to photographer and artist Chris Hytha on how we can appreciate Philly’s architectural past, his personal project to restore a home from the 1800s, and what’s in store for the future.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full interview in the link above.
Do you know why architects chose to build rowhomes and not standalone single homes?
“ When you go back to the original plan for Philly that William Penn had, he wanted a garden city. Each block was a lot. It was supposed to have farms and a barn and like a big house. It wasn't the original vision of Philadelphia to have a dense city like we have today, [but] I think it's largely just economical. The rowhome is a really smart way to get a lot of density, get a lot of efficiency. When we're sharing walls you have less heat loss through the side walls…It's a firewall, so you have that type of protection and then a little cutout in the back so you're still getting light from almost every side of the building. So it solves a lot of problems. The density of the row home is really what makes our city so walkable.”
How can you appreciate the different architecture of Philly buildings?
“ It's just about looking around. One of the things I really love about photography and I would definitely encourage anyone who has an interest in it, even with their phone to start taking photos because it very much changes the way you see the world. It was really through photography that I was able to appreciate architecture more because you're then thinking about light and thinking about details and you just become a much more active observer of the world. When you're walking to work, you can be preoccupied by the tasks at hand or what's going on or in your own head. Or you can tune into the city and just look around and look up.”
What about these homes inspired you?
“ They used to call [Philly] the ‘workshop of the world.’…As such an old city, it has to keep up with the times to stay relevant and we've lost almost all of our manufacturing and we've had to redefine ourselves. In many ways our housing tells that story. Just because they're old houses compared to a new development, I think they tell their own stories visually without even having to know the whole story of Philadelphia.
“When you see a rowhome or a block of rowhomes and they have different paint and modifications and they'll change out windows, they're almost like this shell where the occupant can customize it however they want, and then generations come and go. Families come and go. Times change and needs change, and then our housing kind of adapts to that. There's of course … the beautiful brickwork and these cornices. Even though to some extent they are mass-produced, there's still so much variety. And then when you layer on the history and the changes and people's different preferences of paint colors, each one is just so unique.
“ They feel like characters in a movie that have been through it all, through ups and downs, and standing strong.”
