Rittenhouse Square Park

A variety of buildings, most of them architecturally notable, surround the park: elegant turn-of-the-century apartment buildings, brownstones, and the mansions that make up the Curtis Institute and the Art Alliance, as well as modern high-rises. The strip of Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square features a good selection of upscale shops and restaurants, but the other streets near the park are more welcoming. There is a sense of community within the Square: an interaction between the habitues of the park that one actually feels that this is the City of Brotherly Love after all. The urbanist Jane Jacobs correctly describes this area of Philadelphia as the perfect urban neighborhood.