Editing Beaux-Arts Architecture (section)

== Benjamin Franklin Parkway ==

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway represents Philadelphia's most ambitious Beaux-Arts urban intervention, a diagonal boulevard slicing through the grid to connect City Hall with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Designed by Jacques Gréber and Paul Philippe Cret beginning in 1917, the Parkway drew inspiration from Baron Haussmann's transformation of Paris and the City Beautiful movement's application of Beaux-Arts principles to American cities. The resulting composition—a tree-lined boulevard flanked by cultural institutions, terminating in the museum's classical temple—created a civic centerpiece of European grandeur.<ref name="tatum"/>

Buildings along the Parkway present unified Beaux-Arts character: the Free Library and the former Family Court Building (now offices) frame Logan Square with matching classical facades. The Rodin Museum provides a gem-scale Beaux-Arts pavilion. The Franklin Institute, though streamlined in style, maintains compatible scale and placement. The ensemble creates a processional sequence from the density of Center City to the cultural acropolis of the Museum of Art, its formal organization expressing civic values through architectural composition.<ref name="roth"/>