This month, the architecture industry is headed to Philadelphia for three days of lectures, meetings, and some real-life, business-card-swapping networking. What should you see during AIA Convention 2016?
Philadelphia Chinatown’s Friendship Gate: Venture east of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and you’ll find the city’s bustling Chinatown neighborhood—a seven-block hub for the commerce, cuisine, and culture of several Asian-American communities. Established in the 1870s by a wave of Chinese immigrants, the area has diversified in the last half-century to include Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese, as well as Southeast Asian, influences. The neighborhood’s prominent entrance at 10th and Arch streets is anchored by the Friendship Gate, which was built in 1983 by artisans using tiles from Tianjin, China, one of Philadelphia’s sister cities, and installed a year later. The colorful, 40-foot-tall gate features designs from the Qing Dynasty.
Read ARCHITECT’s complete coverage of the AIA Convention 2016.
