Sister Cities Park

Sister Cities Park sits at the midpoint of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, between City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on a site that traces back to William Penn's 1682 plan for the city's public squares. Originally dedicated in 1976 to honor Philadelphia's Sister Cities program, the roughly 1.3-acre park was transformed in a 2012 renovation led by Center City District, turning a barren plaza into one of the nation's leading multigenerational parks. The park's centerpiece is a bluestone fountain shaped as an abstracted globe with Philadelphia at its center, its eleven geyser-like water spouts positioned to reflect the actual geographic distance to each of the city's Sister Cities. Alongside it, the Children's Discovery Garden offers a nature-inspired play space with winding pathways, a climbing net, push-button water jets, and a stream dam, while a shallow wading pond operates from late April through October and converts to the Imagination Playground in the cooler months. A 6,000-square-foot pollinator garden with more than 4,000 native plants borders the space, and Robert Indiana's AMOR sculpture, installed in 2016, anchors the park's public art. Sister Cities Café, built with structural glass walls and a green roof, offers indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the garden and parkway. The park lends itself to everything from children's birthday parties to wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, and corporate gatherings, with Center City District's events team coordinating brand activations, corporate functions, and private celebrations on-site.