By Nicholas Mirra, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Flower Show has opened and will remain open until Sunday. That means this is your first chance to see the winning designs from the bicycle rack contest we ran last year!

Spiral, by Collin Robinson. Destined for the PMA’s Perelman Building

Seven of the ten winning racks are featured in the display, which can be seen in the Grand Hall Concourse near the food and drink (closest entrance is the Market Street entrance between 11th and 12th). This summer, all ten racks will be permanently installed in prominent places in and near Center City Philadelphia.

Pretzel, by Peter E. Brown & Barbara Ann Sprague; Ed Ocelus and Tom Ransom, fabrication

We will have glossy photos of all the racks to share with you next week. But in the meantime, we encourage you to check them out in person. While the idea of attending a flower show right now might seem absurd, it’s actually the best in-city respite we can think of from the feeling that winter will never leave.

Lastly, but not least-ly, a tremendous number of people worked very hard to bring this display together.

Artists | Fabricators (not all fabricators known)

• Peter E. Brown & Barbara Ann Sprague | Ed Ocelus and Tom Ransom of R/J Florig Industrial Co. Inc. and Mark A. Franz of Franz Structural Engineering LLC
• Kathleen Fruge-Brown (whose “Bird” rack narrowly missed inclusion in the display)
• Warren Holzman | Iron Studio
• Carin Mincemoyer
• Collin Robinson
• Nathaniel Ross
• Ralph Tullie | RJ Florig Industrial Co. Inc.
• Juliet Whelan | En-Motion Design & RefreshTech

• Tim Beitz, 160over90
• Kimberly Hallman, 160over90
• Cory McCall, 160over90
• Ralph Tullie

• Margot Berg, OACCE
• Katie Pinder, Bicycle Coalition
• Aaron Ritz, MOTU
• Leslye Silver, Bicycle Coalition
• Shannon Slusher, 160over90
• Cozen O’Connor
• Advanced Sports International/Fuji
• The Knight Foundation
• PHS and the Flower Show
• Paul Newman
• Grace Kelly

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Hey, this is a pretty nifty thing the Bicycle Coalition is doing!” then you are a prime candidate to make these kinds of initiatives happen again. How can you help?

. We can’t snap our fingers and make unique bicycle racks appear on the streets – it takes time, effort, and relationships, and your membership makes those things possible.