PHILADELPHIA - A proposal to bring auto racing to Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway is facing opposition in City Hall and from the institutions that would be affected by the estimated $800,000 cost of renovations.

The proposed 1.8-mile route on the parkway would take open-wheel racers around Alexander Calder's Swann Fountain and up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, providing racers with a thorough - albeit quick - tour of the city's museum district.

But the proposal by actor and racing team co-owner Paul Newman and his colleagues includes recommendations for at least four pedestrian bridges and the widening some of the roads to meet Champ Car World Series minimum requirements.

But the Parkway Council Foundation - a coalition of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Moore College of Art and Design, the Academy of Natural Sciences and other institutions - opposes the changes.

"We collectively feel that the weeks of construction, preparation, street closures and traffic disruption will result in irreparable damage to all the parkway institutions as well as the parkway itself," the foundation said in a letter to city officials.

Moore College president Happy Fernandez said she found the proposal "unacceptable."

"Turning our most beautiful boulevard into a high-speed racetrack goes against everything we want," Fernandez said. "It's really a cultural destination."

The racing proposal praised the parkway's open spaces and proximity to downtown hotels, and supporters said that a Champ Car event could bring in millions of dollars in hotel, restaurant and shopping revenue from tourists.

The tree-lined parkway, site of this year's Live 8 concert, is modeled on the Champs Elysees in Paris and home to many of the city's museums. Dominated at one end by the towering Art Museum and at the other by LOVE Park, beside City Hall, the parkway is also home to the Rodin Museum, the Franklin Institute science museum and the Free Library of Philadelphia. It is also the proposed site of a museum to house the multibillion-dollar art collection of the late Albert Barnes.

Stewart Graham, a spokesman for Councilman Frank Rizzo, one of the supporters of a Champ Car race, said he thought an agreement could be reached because of the dramatic visual appeal of the parkway.

"I think it might be possible to adjust these plans," Graham said. "If it's that attractive, maybe they'll just make adjustments in their proposal."