Rittenhouse Square, by the reckoning of many architects and urbanists, is the finest urban square in the United States. Rittenhouse Square was one of five open squares that William Penn laid out in his original plan for Philadelphia in 1682, intended as green lungs in the center of each quadrant of the city. It was called Southwest Square until 1825, when it was renamed for David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and clockmaker who made Philadelphia the scientific capital of colonial America.
The square was redesigned in 1913 by Paul Philippe Cret in its current form, with diagonal paths converging on a central fountain, and the buildings that surround it — apartment towers, town houses, and hotels built from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth — create one of the finest urban enclosures in America. On warm days the square fills with office workers, students, families, dog-walkers, and chess players in a mix that feels genuinely democratic. The Saturday morning farmers market draws crowds year-round.
The two lions flanking the central path were sculpted by Edward Kemeys, the same sculptor who made the famous lions at the Art Institute of Chicago. Sit on a bench and watch the city use its square.