Editing LOVE Park

'''LOVE Park''', officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, is a public plaza in Center City Philadelphia famous for hosting Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE sculpture. Located at the northwest corner of City Hall, the park provides public space at the intersection of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the city's regular grid, creating a gateway between downtown Philadelphia and the cultural institutions along the Parkway. The park underwent comprehensive redesign completed in 2018, transforming a deteriorating plaza into a flexible public space while maintaining the LOVE sculpture's prominent position as one of Philadelphia's most photographed landmarks.<ref name="gallery">{{cite book |last=Gallery |first=John Andrew |title=Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City |year=2016 |publisher=Paul Dry Books |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

== Original Design ==

Vincent Kling designed the original JFK Plaza as part of the Penn Center development in the late 1960s, creating a modernist plaza that provided public space at the important intersection where the Benjamin Franklin Parkway meets the city grid. The design featured a multi-level layout with a sunken central area, fountain, and varied surfaces intended to accommodate different activities. The plaza's name honored President John F. Kennedy, whose assassination in 1963 prompted memorials throughout the country.<ref name="hine">{{cite book |last=Hine |first=Thomas |title=A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in Philadelphia |year=2009 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

The LOVE sculpture arrived in 1976 as part of the city's Bicentennial celebration, when Robert Indiana's work was temporarily installed in the plaza that would eventually adopt its name. The sculpture's popularity led to its return as permanent installation in 1978, transforming a modernist plaza into an iconic destination. The sculpture's stacked letters, rendered in red and blue against a green background, became one of Philadelphia's most recognizable symbols, appearing in countless photographs and reproductions.<ref name="gallery"/>

== Skateboarding Era ==

LOVE Park became internationally famous in the skateboarding community during the 1990s and 2000s, when its granite surfaces, steps, and ledges attracted skaters who transformed the plaza into one of the world's most celebrated skateboarding spots. The park's architectural features provided terrain for tricks; its urban setting provided cultural authenticity that purpose-built skateparks lacked. Professional skaters came from around the world to perform and film at LOVE Park, making it central to skateboarding's identity during a formative period.<ref name="hine"/>

This skateboarding fame generated tension with city officials, who viewed the activity as incompatible with the plaza's intended purposes and damaging to its physical fabric. A 2002 ban on skateboarding, enforced with varying degrees of success, ended the park's official role as skateboarding destination while fueling debates about public space, youth culture, and urban governance. The ban disappointed the skateboarding community while doing little to improve the plaza's physical condition or attract alternative uses.<ref name="gallery"/>

== Redesign ==

The park's 2016-2018 redesign, led by Hargreaves Associates with OLIN, transformed the deteriorating plaza while maintaining the LOVE sculpture's central position. The new design replaced the previous multi-level layout with a simplified surface that provides flexibility for varied programming. An interactive fountain, seasonal food vendors, and improved seating create amenities that attract users throughout the year. The design preserves views to City Hall and along the Parkway while creating a more welcoming environment than the previous plaza provided.<ref name="hine"/>

The redesign included a dedicated skateboarding area at the park's edge, acknowledging the activity's historical association with the site while separating it from other uses. This compromise satisfied neither skateboarding purists, who preferred the original architecture, nor those who wished to eliminate skateboarding entirely. The solution demonstrates the difficulty of resolving competing claims to public space, where different groups value the same location for incompatible reasons.<ref name="gallery"/>

== LOVE Sculpture ==

Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture has defined the plaza since its permanent installation in 1978, its stacked letters becoming one of Philadelphia's most recognized symbols. The sculpture's simple composition—four letters arranged in a square with the tilted "O"—achieves iconic status through reduction and repetition. The work exists in multiple versions worldwide, but Philadelphia's installation in the plaza renamed for it has become the definitive iteration in public consciousness.<ref name="hine"/>

The sculpture's popularity has made it a required stop for tourists, whose photographs spread the image through social media and personal collections. This photographic reproduction extends the sculpture's reach far beyond its physical location, making LOVE Park famous to people who have never visited Philadelphia. The sculpture demonstrates how public art can define urban identity, creating associations between places and images that shape how outsiders perceive and remember cities.<ref name="gallery"/>

== Cultural Significance ==

LOVE Park's cultural significance extends beyond its physical attributes to encompass meanings that different communities have attached to the space. For tourists, the LOVE sculpture represents Philadelphia's identity and provides a photo opportunity confirming their visit. For skateboarders, the park represents a lost golden age and ongoing debates about public space. For urban designers, the park's redesign represents contemporary approaches to plaza design and activation. These overlapping meanings make LOVE Park a contested space where different values and communities intersect.<ref name="hine"/>

The park's name—LOVE Park—itself represents a tension between official designation and popular usage. The city named the plaza for President Kennedy; popular usage named it for the sculpture. This naming demonstrates how public experience can override official designation, with the sculpture's presence defining the space more powerfully than any formal naming process. LOVE Park's identity derives from what it contains rather than what it was named, a relationship that the redesign maintained despite its comprehensive transformation of the physical space.<ref name="gallery"/>

== See Also ==
* [[Benjamin Franklin Parkway]]
* [[Dilworth Park]]
* [[Robert Indiana]]
* [[Philadelphia City Hall]]
* [[Public Art]]

== References ==
<references />

{{#seo:
|title=LOVE Park - Philadelphia's Iconic JFK Plaza
|description=LOVE Park, officially JFK Plaza, hosts Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE sculpture, redesigned in 2018 as gateway between Center City and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
|keywords=LOVE Park, JFK Plaza, Robert Indiana, LOVE sculpture, Philadelphia landmarks, skateboarding, Center City parks, Vincent Kling, Benjamin Franklin Parkway
|type=Article
}}

[[Category:Architecture]]
[[Category:Urban Design]]
[[Category:Parks]]
[[Category:Center City]]
[[Category:Public Art]]