Bethany Seawright, graduate student of interior design, MFA candidate and contributing blogger for Apartment Therapy, has given Philly architecture a great shout-out on the site. “Over and over again, I am amazed at the number of formidable architects than have come through our city and influenced its ever-changing landscape,” says Seawright. She featured the the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk by Michael Baker Engineers, the Barnes Foundation (on the Parkway) by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (as well as their Skirkanich Hall project), I.M. Pei’s Bingham Court, Onion Flat’s Rag Flats and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Shalom Congregation. ”There seems to be no end to the inspiration to be found in our fabulous city,” exclaims Seawright. We thank her for posting these projects, which were additions to Arch Daily’s original (but not complete) feature on  our architectural gems.

Last Friday night on the way to our favorite piano bar, we noticed (via note on the door at 2006 Chestnut Street) that Jolly Weldon, owner of Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar, has moved his bar to the Academy House at 1420 Locust Street. We missed the official opening last Friday, but got a sneak peek and what’s to come when we caught directing manager Dan Caputo at the new location.

Caputo let us in on the deets: the new location (now called Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar and Restaurant) has a full kitchen, much more indoor seating, three flat screen TVs facing the raised party area for live feeds of the piano stage, outdoor seating with heat lamps and a bar-central flat screen for sports. The new location came about for obvious reasons (obvious, that is, to anyone who frequented the last location)—owner Jolly Weldon just needed more…

The Philadelphia School has plans to recycle the former Licenses and Inspections maintenance garage on the property at 2501 South Street into a multipurpose space for student performances, assemblies and all-school community gatherings. Additional development on the property includes construction of a one-story Early Childhood Center with four preschool and kindergarten classrooms that open directly onto green outdoor play spaces. “We are exciting to be transforming an eyesore of a property into a beautiful extension of our school and our school’s mission,” says head of school, Amy Purcell Vorenberg. ”Development of 2501 South Street will enable us to bring a little bit of the country onto our city campus, and to use outdoor spaces as classrooms.”

The property will also include an Urban Garden for use by students in collaboration with other city organizations, as well as 14 private parking spaces for school faculty and staff. All design and construction…

The former dilapidated 20-year-old Doggy World at 858 N. Third Street is now the bright non-profit charity Operation Ava and soon-to-be for-profit Pet Mechanic. Nine-year-old Ava Guitierrez, daughter of Claudia (CEO of Operatrion Ava and COO and senior vice president of Doggie Style) began the business to provide rescue and adoption services to the neighborhood as well as medical care or funding for medical procedures. Last night attorney Adam Lavar proposed Op Ava’s vet hospital and overnight boarding to the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA), to some resistance. Lavar proposed the transformation of the day care at 860-862 N. Third Street, the retail and rescue non-profit Operation Ava, as well as the Pet Mechanic at 858 N. Third Street, a for-profit veterinarian space for at-cost high-quality services for Operation Ava that that will be overseen by University of Pennsylvania vets. (

The existing AAA building at 2040 Market will soon be a mixed-use residential/commercial building with 235 apartments, 15,000-square-feet of retail on the ground floor and 200 underground parking spaces. PMC Property Group acquired the 155,787-square-feet, six-story office building from NorthStar Realty for $8.3 million or about $52 per square foot, according to the CoStar Group. Stephen Varenhorst Associates will be designing the new building, which won’t exceed 20 stories, according to PMC. The erroneous photos we previously posted were older renderings from a past design; we will update as soon as we get the current plans.

On Sunday, March 6, seven artists got together for The Winter Art Festival at 2628 Martha Street. This was one of the first art festivals to be held at The Hatchatory, the collection of small-business office spaces in a renovated Fishtown warehouse. Tenants here rent pet-friendly modern lofts with original exposed brick, wood beams, hardwood floors, gated off-street parking, a security system, a custom bike rack and a pricing sheet that the owner put together to get the building occupied fast. A first-floor 1000-square-foot unit runs $750 per month, while a second-floor space of the same size is $500 and up (there is even a 6,000-square-foot complete third floor loft with cathedral ceilings at $1500). The Hatchatory is already home to Fishtank Phl, The Sneakerboxx and East Hundred, and Gerard Galster, the broker and owner of this address, is creating a second-floor 16 x…