The Center City District works year-round to ensure that Philadelphia's downtown not only looks welcoming, but also is brighter, safer and more accessible.

Since 2005, the Center City District has steadily increased the scale and complexity of its capital improvements, leveraging significant new investments in the parks and public spaces in Center City from foundation, state, and federal sources. Building from a long-range plan, prepared by the Central Philadelphia development Corporation in 2003, the CCD has made $16,650,000 in improvements to public spaces on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the 1.1-mile diagonal boulevard connecting the central business district with a collection of cultural and educational institutions culminating with the Philadelphia museum of art at the entrance to Fairmount Park.

With the goal of creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment and animating the public spaces in front of the museums and cultural institutions, the CCD installed new vehicular, pedestrian, façade, and monument lighting, as well as signs and new pedestrian crosswalks. In 2007, the CCD renovated Aviator Park, adjacent to the Franklin Institute, making $1.8 million in improvements, including more green space, new signs, improved paved paths, and settings for major sculptures, benches, and lighting.