Design advocates call for transformation of Filbert Street bus terminal

Reopening the old Greyhound Station on Filbert Street in Center City needs to involve much, much more than just slapping on a new coat of paint.

That’s according to the Design Advocacy Group, a nonprofit organization of architects and planners focused on development in the city. The group is applauding the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s decision to reopen the former station building next spring, while urging the agency and the city to budget more money to renovate the structure inside and out and improve the neighboring streetscape.

“While basic amenities (seating areas, toilets, and food and drink vending) are essential, they are not all that is required to create a successful terminal,” the DAG steering committee wrote in a blog post last week. “A fresh coat of paint, new ceiling tiles, and a sign that says ‘BUS’ won’t cut it when it comes to bringing the 1984 Greyhound terminal back to life.”

The PPA, which plans to lease the building and operate the station on the city’s behalf, has said it intends to spend more than $1 million to refurbish the facility, which has been a boarded-up, graffiti-scrawled shell since Greyhound abandoned it in June 2023.

The work will include new outdoor lighting and greenery and a Philly-themed mural, PPA executive director Rich Lazer said last month. The agency will also install an automated camera system to track vehicles that use its bus bays, so the carriers can be charged usage fees, he said.

However, Lazer said this week that PPA does “not envision major structural changes” to the building, and a city planning official said it wouldn’t make sense to make more substantial investments as part of the station reopening. 

That’s in part because the city intends to create a new, permanent intercity bus terminal elsewhere within 10 years, and because bus companies will not agree to pay fees for more than the station’s operating costs.

“To the extent that there’s things that happen in the vicinity, PPA is really going to focus on the property,” said John Mondlak, deputy chief of staff in the city’s Department of Planning and Development. “They really shouldn’t be spending the bus fee money outside of the property, because then that becomes a problem with our fee structure.”

Wishing for a wall of windows

In addition to making basic repairs inside the station, DAG argues the PPA should do more to beautify the structure and “create an environment that is hospitable to visitors and helps Philadelphians rethink their rightfully negative memories of the bus station on Filbert Street,” DAG chair Eli Storch said. 

To really make the place attractive, the agency should cut windows into the 250-foot-long, solid brick wall on the Filbert Street side, to brighten the interior and “provide connection to the improved streetscape,” the group wrote. Rather than repairing the existing, “easily damaged” acoustic tile ceiling, PPA should consider removing it and “opening the full height of the limited space.”

“Our deserved reputation as a city of history and public art should be tapped in refurbishing the bus terminal, helping to signal clearly that you have arrived here in Philadelphia,” the DAG members said. “The station could host rotating art and historic exhibits, highlighting events related to our nation’s 250th anniversary and featuring the work of recent graduates of our art programs and prominent Philadelphia artists.”

Outside, “relatively low-cost interventions” could include replanting empty tree pits, installing benches and other street furniture, and adding ample wayfinding or signage, to help people who have arrived by bus get to attractions and destinations, the group said. To prevent taxis and ridesharing cars from clogging up Filbert, the city should designate some parking spots as loading spaces.

The DAG committee bemoaned conditions on the block as a whole, saying it was “forgotten” and “currently resembles a zombie movie set.” The “awful conditions” outside the building contribute to negative opinions of the station, they said.

“Stepping out onto Filbert Street, as it exists, is no way to welcome visitors to Philadelphia,” they wrote.

They called for “creativity” in reimagining the “featureless facing wall of the Fashion District — with the sad hole that is the door of the Jefferson SEPTA station. This upgraded streetscape should extend beyond the block in all directions, to connect with the energy generated nearby by the Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown — and to help to bring life to Market Street.”

Suggestions appreciated but unlikely

The siting and design of a new intercity bus station has been a major focus for infrastructure-minded residents. 

Some of the DAG members calling for improvements on Filbert Street were part of a group that recently proposed turning the Roundhouse, the architecturally distinctive former police headquarters on Race Street, into a multi-use development with a bus terminal, housing, and other features.

Mondlak, who is helping run the city’s search for a permanent new station, said he was pleased to see their new set of recommendations.

“When anybody, like a DAG or anybody else, brings forward a whole bunch of ideas, I can’t tell you how grateful we are as a government,” he said. “We sit here and we think of things and they all sound great … but you don’t know what you’re missing. When folks take the time to do this, it’s really, really helpful.”

“Now, whether or not we could achieve all these things is a whole other question,” he added.

Lazer said he also welcomed the feedback. He said he’s focused on short-term goals of securing and cleaning up the site, getting it running by next May, and making “the exterior and cityscape around the terminal as beautiful and appealing as possible.”

“Our immediate priority is to transform the terminal into a visually appealing, clean, safe and welcoming transportation hub that enhances the surrounding neighborhoods and helps generate added local economic activity,” he said in an email. After that, “we will focus on fine-tuning some interior and exterior design components.”

Adding greenery and boosting trash cleanup outside the station are high priorities, given Mayor Cherelle Parker’s agenda to make Philadelphia the “safest, cleanest, greenest city” in the country, Mondlak said. 

Mike Carroll, who heads the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, has said the city will work to make sure the site doesn’t attract nuisance activity, and will direct bus drivers to come and go via Market Street rather than driving through Chinatown’s smaller streets.

However, the improvements are not likely to include pricier projects like windows or a higher ceiling, Mondlak said. Bus operators are willing to pay fees to fund facility operations, but they will push back against efforts to have them cover the cost of additional work, he said.

“We’re having lots of meetings with them now to work through what we think is a number that they can pay that still keeps the lights on and keeps it operating,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be fancy, necessarily. It doesn’t have to be the best one in the country. But if it’s not nice and it’s not clean and it’s not desirable to be in, then none of us really want to be involved in that.”

A “huge bump” in ridership is coming

A heated debate over how to handle intercity buses has smoldered since Greyhound canceled its Filbert Street lease 2½ years ago as part of an industry-wide trend of liquidating real estate obligations to cut costs. 

Since then carriers like Megabus and FlixBus have been picking up passengers curbside, most recently from Spring Garden Street in Northern Liberties. That has led to a host of complaints from neighbors, from riders who don’t like the relatively remote location, and from bus companies that saw significant drops in ridership, Mondlak said.

The question has become more urgent now, because “a huge bump” in intercity ridership to Philly is expected during next year’s FIFA World Cup games, which will draw a crowd of urbanites and international soccer fans who will want to travel by bus, he said. 

After considering options for a quick, temporary fix, planners concluded that reopening the old station made the most sense.

The city has hired Guillermo Leiva, a former assistant commissioner at the New York City Department of Transportation, to be on site and help run the reopened Filbert Street station, along with PPA staff, Mondlak said. The Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems has also asked City Council to pass a bill allowing the city, via the PPA, to charge bus companies set fees to pick up and drop off customers anywhere in the city. 

“We have not been charging them, at different times in the past. There were either permit fees or small agreements, but it really amounted to almost nothing,” Mondlak said. Officials are pushing for the legislation to “make it clear that we can and will charge fees, and not just in this station, but also on the curb.”

He noted that the bus station rehab, and DAG’s call for streetscape improvements, coincide with a ramped-up effort to revitalize the stagnant Market East corridor, first to host the 2026 visitors and then for the long term.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau is planning to spruce up the nearby Pennsylvania Convention Center and its surroundings, including parts of Filbert Street, possibly with better lighting, he said. Jefferson Health, whose office tower is a block over from the station, is considering how to improve the area, and the PPA may make changes around its 1,200-space Parkade garage at 8th and Filbert.

Mondlak also defended the “sad hole” entrance to the Jefferson SEPTA station across from the bus terminal, calling it “very functional.” 

“I have to tell you — they’ve got elevators. It’s always clean every time I’ve been there. It’s convenient. It’s on the corner,” he said. “But can it be nicer? Yeah, it could be nicer.”

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