32
FALL 2017
little after 5 o'clock on a
Wednesday in June — which is
to say, happy hour — landscape
architect David Fierabend '82
ascends the steps to Independence
Beer Garden in Philadelphia.
This 20,000-square-foot outdoor
extravaganza lies at the foot of a
Brutalist office tower overlooking
Independence National Historical Park, and from
the day it opened three years ago, the beer garden
has been a Center City magnet. At this hour, true to
form, throngs of mostly millennials, newly liberated
from city cubicles, have descended. Fierabend
surveys the scene. "It's one of the most popular
places in the city, if not the East Coast," he says.
"I mean, it's crazy."
Then, almost as an
afterthought, he adds the
kicker. "This is nothing,"
he says. "Later on, it will be
mobbed."
You can blame Fierabend
for all this crazy. After all,
he and his Philadelphia-
based firm designed
Independence Beer Garden,
one of a growing number
of public spaces that have
fueled the meteoric rise of
Groundswell Design Group
and made its workaholic
founder something of a
local celebrity. Philly.com
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