SCENE: LIKE JELLYROLL, LIKE SCULPTCHA

Street hits the road in search of sculpture in PhillyStreet hits the road in search of sculpture in Phillyby Barbara Verwoerd and Erica Firpo So what exactly are we talking about? Well, we're not talking about Ben Franklin, the bird, and the bench. You don't need a museum label as proof. You've already missed two of the best sculptures the City has to offer on your Sunday stroll to Border's or when hopping on Amtrak at 30th Street. Even the most distracted Amtrak commuter can't miss the monumental bronze angel located at the east entrance of 30th Street Station. The Pennsylvania Railroad commissioned Walter Hancock to create this 39 ft. Angel to commemorate the 1307 railroad employees that died in the Second World War. The combination of the angel's strength and the sagging body of the dying soldier evokes dignity and respect. The archangel Michael, angel of the Resurrection, is a welcome and familiar sight when arriving in Philadelphia and a solace in the event of a missed train. Not all of the public sculptures are as daunting or symbolic -- some are just meant to enliven the locale. Take, for example, young Billy. Yes, you've heard of this goat; maybe even laughed as little kids climb all over him. Billy resides in the heart of oh-so-fashionable Rittenhouse Square. Albert Laessle created the 26-inch bronze goat in 1914, inspired by his family pet. Little kids often mistake Billy for the real thing. His horns have been rubbed so often over the century that the patina has worn away revealing a gold color as precious as the Billy goat Gruff. But sculpture is not always as realistic as Billy. Looming atop the stairs at JFK Plaza is 1964's Three-Way Piece Number 1: Points by Henry Moore. Points appears to have erupted from the earth like molten lava. Huge and curvaceous, Moore's piece defies gravity by balancing on three points. The abstract four-foot bronze provides a playful presence in the Plaza. The bottom line here is go jump on Moore's bulbous work. Philadelphia favorite Alexander Calder is equally abstract -- especially his 1964 Three Discs One Lacking, made of painted metal sheeting with a bird-like delicacy echoing its feathered friends. Like the Moore work, this piece balances on three points and can be thought of as an X-ray or inner structure of Points. However, Three Discs is geometric, consisting of arcs and circles. Calder's wit prevails with the missing disks. Here he plays with conceptual and experienced space. Lucky for us, Penn has her own Calder: the Elephant outside of Meyerson. But Discs is worth the trip to Penn Center. So grab some tokens and live a little. As we have seen, animals are often inspiration for art and sculpture, especially in the Philadelphia Zoo, where you can find sculptures of anything from bears and cubs to fish and aquatic life. Some pieces are realistic enough to raise the question of life imitating art or vice versa. The Impala Fountain at the Zoo takes a more abstract approach to the animal. Here, Henry Mitchell fuses the energy of the gazelles with water's force in the bronze work of 1964. In the oval-shaped pool, 12 impala leap 15 feet into the air, imitating the height they reach when they explode into flight as a result of danger or attack. Mitchell's skeletal forms combined with the arcs of the water capture the animal's lightness and agility. The impalas are gracefully pinned together in three arcs that cover the pool. The dynamism of the piece is undeniable. Mitchell has manipulated the heaviness of the bronze into the elegance and speed of the impala. Harry Bertoia's Fountain Sculpture abstracts Mitchell's idea of the fountain. Fountain looks like a Lichstenstein canvas of green and yellow paint swirls taken into three dimensions. The sculpture is outside of the Civic Center Plaza so there's no excuse not to go down and experience this piece. And experience it you must. The undulating carefree swirls of copper tubes extend 12 feet into the sky and are 13 feet wide. The fountain design consists of flowing forms that echo the movement and vivacity of water. The bronze oscillates between protruding outer forms to sculpted cave-like crevasses. Bertoia preferred to stress the importance of the piece not its creator. He rarely signed or named his pieces -- believing in 'action without self assertion.' The piece belongs to, if anyone, the viewer. More than any other piece this is yours?go down and check it out. It is said that 'to be great is to be misunderstood;' this is true of sculpture. A charming and refreshing trait of much sculpture is the added element of humor. The Button, for example, is one of the funniest things this side of the Schuykill. If you think it's just a meeting spot before lunch at Le Bus, then your Oxford shirt is buttoned a bit tight. Allow us to explain. Supposedly, creator Claes Oldenberg intended the button to be a jab at the stuffiness of Ivy League Institutions. Think of it as a button off a polo shirt or a stray missile from Ben, just across the way. Its target: the pompous college student. So jump up, jump in and jump around the sculptures in Philadelphia; Billy's waiting for you.