In Wednesday’s (9/1) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin reports, “The Kimmel [Center for the Performing Arts] won approval Wednesday from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to erect an animated video cube at the northeast corner of the building, at Broad and Spruce Streets. The object, whose two screens and audio will run documentary and promotional material, is a project of the Kimmel’s Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts this spring, but will remain operational after the month-long event ends in May. Another changing element the Kimmel hopes will redress its often moribund atmosphere: Wolfgang Puck. … Puck will develop a new restaurant, which will take over the Spruce Street-side space currently occupied by the gift shop. … Both the new video cube (which is a larger, three-dimensional realization of the festival’s logo) and the opening of a ground-floor restaurant are philosophically consistent with the Kimmel’s drive to enliven its public spaces. … In addition to promoting Kimmel Center Presents events and those of the resident companies, the cube could be used to electronically convey live events going on within the Kimmel, such as Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, lawyer Matthew N. McClure of Ballard Spahr told zoning board members.”
Posted September 2, 2010
