She is confident that the Kimmel could be the blockbuster that will get Philadelphia beyond the W. C. Fields-type jokes. Big hopes are being pinned on the new orchestra hall. Not only is the Kimmel expected to relieve the city's cultural space crunch and provide the Philadelphia Orchestra with an acoustically sympathetic place to show off, but the modern hunk of glass and steel is also supposed to provide Philadelphia with an image update. Philadelphia is always here. People need a trigger, a sense of urgency.
Architecture is one of the main things that sells our city.
But because the Kimmel's design is so modern, Levitz hopes that journalists will start thinking of Philadelphia as a living, thriving city where art and culture are still being made.