I was riding my bike home from yoga class late one afternoon when in passing this little alley, my
breath was taken way by the view of the Drake Tower with the new Kimmel Center in front of it
and the sun setting behind them. I went back the next day and set up my easel.
I like the juxtaposition of the Drake Tower, a beautiful art deco building in terracotta stone, and the
Kimmel Center, a modern building of glass and steel. I loved how the color of the Drake Tower comes
thru the glass of the Kimmel's roof and the Drake is silhouetted in hazy evening light.
If you are ever in Philadelphia, you must walk to the corner of 13th and Panama (between Pine and
Spruce Streets) and look west. It's quite spectacular — a bit like Oz.
Just as an additional point of interest: when I
first moved to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, this was the
corner on which I lived. My apartment was in the building in the right foreground, and my husband-to-be
(though I didn't know his role at the time) lived in the brick building to the left. Shortly after, I
moved to South Philly and Jim moved into another apartment two blocks further west on
15th Street — in a building on the present site of the Kimmel Center.
