When not blogging and momming and such, I am busy working in my chosen career of PR.
One of the things we PR people do routinely is invite the media to cover events – but we learn early on that even if we give plenty of notice, have a legitimately great event, have timed it well before deadline, and have been told by various reporters “Yes, we’ll be there,” you should never, NEVER count on the press to show up. If a gas main blows in Kensington or the vice president’s son gets transferred from one hospital to another, all bets are off. The press will be chasing that fireball or that ambulance, and there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.
Quite often, though, it all goes without a hitch. Such was the case yesterday, when beautiful new gates were installed in Rittenhouse Square in commemoration of a beloved woman named Patty Hogan. The Philadelphia Inquirer sent a reporter and a photographer: story here
Patty had served on the board of the Friends of Rittenhouse Square for many years and had single handedly arranged for scores of teak benches to be installed in the park – a tremendous fundraiser. Her sudden death two years ago was a great blow to all who knew her.
As a memorial, the Friends of Patty Hogan commissioned a Philadelphia sculptor named Eric Berg to create a piece of art to cover rather bland and forbidding black doors at the end of a garden storage building. Eric’s final design features twining vines, with 14 animals scattered throughout. Normally his work is all free-standing (the Drexel dragon, the gorilla at the zoo, etc) but this was his first piece in relief. Adding even more local interest, the gates were forged in bronze at the Laran Foundary in Chester, PA. Nothing was made in China.
When next in Center City Philadelphia, go take a look at this lovely new addition to the sculpture in the Square – located on the west side, where Locust comes in.
It is a beautiful tribute to the beautiful Patty Hogan.
And on the same day that a Philadelphia landmark – the Spectrum – was demolished, a new landmark went up.
