Philadelphia has more
outdoor works of art than any other city
in North America, in part because of a
law requiring public buildings to spend
1% of construction costs for art.
More than 200 of these
outdoor sculptures (including works by
Auguste Rodin) are in Fairmount
Park alone.
Here are some of our other
favorites (listed in no particular
order):
Judy Pfaff's
mixed-media sculpture (in the
Reading Railroad train shed)
Claes Oldenburg's Clothspin (in front of the Center
Square Building at 15th and
Market Streets, controversial at
first, now a Philadelphia icon)
Milkweed at
the Rohm and Haas building
(Market and Chestnut Streets)
The red Button (on the UPenn campus by College
Hall)
A seated Ben
Franklin near Walnut Walk (on the
UPenn campus)
The eight-foot high
bust of Ben Franklin made of
80,000 pennies donated by local
children (on Arch Street near the Betsy Ross House)
The charming kitten
in the fountain at Atwater Park
(adjacent to the Betsy Ross House)
Swann Fountain at
Logan Circle (designed by
Alexander Stirling Caldor -- son
of Alexander Milne Calder who
designed City Hall's statue of
William Penn; also related to the
modern sculptor Alexander Calder,
famous for mobiles)
