William Penn?EUR??,,????'??+Founder, City Planner, Purveyor of Democratic Principles?EUR??,,????'???Colonial Landscape Architect

 

William Penn at 22. He not only founded the Pennsylvania colony, but planned the development of its first city, Philadelphia. This Renaissance man was an urban planner with landscape architecture sensibilities.

Among his numerable accomplishments, William Penn (1644?EUR??,,????'???1718) founded Pennsylvania and directed the planning and development of Philadelphia. So, of course, there are a number of statues of Penn about the city?EUR??,,????'??+the most prominent being atop the City Hall Building and a large representation outside the Pine Building.

When LASN was in Philadelphia for the recent ASLA Expo, we came across another statue of him, this one tucked away in historic old town near Penn?EUR??,,????'???s Landing. Etched into the pavement in front of his statue are his directions for founding the city.

William Penn is the man about town. His statues are throughout Philadelphia, this one at Penn Treaty Park on the western shore of the Delaware. Here, it is said he signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenape, a tribe the Europeans called the Delaware.

His words struck us as warranting the title ?EUR??,,????'??Colonial Landscape Architect.?EUR??,,????'?? Penn?EUR??,,????'???s pertinent quote reads:

His design for the city, tucked in between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, was a rectangular grid with large lots. He divided the municipality into four quadrants, with two main streets going east-west and north-south, and the other east-west streets named for trees.