As is the case in every city, parking is a concern in Philadelphia. With that in mind, we accept parking lots as a necessary evil, giving residents and visitors alike a place to put their vehicles while they’re not behind the wheel. The lowest form of parking lot, in our estimation, is the surface lot, which takes only a limited number of cars off the road and only offers passersby a view of an ocean of cars at street level. Parking garages are certainly more efficient, though they are quite often architectural horrors, making little to no effort to fit in with their surroundings.

Ugh

Such is the case for the parking garage located at 1700 South Street, which is used primarily by employees and patients of Penn Medicine Rittenhouse, a facility that occupies several former Graduate Hospital buildings.…

Penn’s 23-acre South Bank campus is located on the former DuPont site between 34th St. & Grays Ferry Ave., and the Grays Ferry Crescent section of the Schuylkill River Trail park just south of the Schuylkill River where the river makes a turn before the Grays Ferry Bridge and continues south towards Bartram’s Garden and the airport. This campus represents a long-term redevelopment vision that also serves an immediate need.

Current entrance

Aerial view

A master plan for a long-term vision of the

The other day, a reader gave us the heads up about a couple of zoning notices they noticed at 1715 McKean St., but when we made our way over to check ‘em out it was the building itself that really caught our attention. Have you ever seen this place in person?

Awesome building

According to the PHMC Cultural Resources Database, this building was constructed in 1921, and designed by W. Timm. And while it was a very impressive home for Abbott’s Alderney Dairies, it apparently wasn’t their only location in town. A City Paper story from last year (from our old friend GroJLart) tells the tale of another (and also very cool looking) Abbott’s building at 30th & Chestnut. According to that story, Abbott’s consolidated all their operations at 7th & Packer back…

Almost two months ago, we told you that St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, located at 3rd & Reed, would soon be demolished. The church closed down a few months ago, and the lovely building which dates back over 120 years is indeed in the process of being torn down.

In the past

Last week

As you may recall, twelve town homes will soon rise in this location, replacing a House of God with houses of granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. We can certainly understand the market dynamics that lead to gorgeous buildings like this being torn down instead of being creatively reused by developers, but that doesn’t make the destruction of this building an easier pill to swallow.

Getting closer. It was (predictably) very dusty, despite the efforts of the demo crew

…

The People’s Emergency Center (PEC) is at work revitalizing lower Lancaster Avenue in University City, an area tucked between the spur of development west of 30th Street and the rising popularity of neighborhoods like Spruce and Walnut Hill, and Clark and Cedar Park in West Philadelphia. Lancaster Avenue is a zipper thoroughfare that brings together five neighborhoods: Belmont, Mantua, Sanders Park, West Powelton and Mill Creek.

Looking down Lancaster

In the past two years, PEC purchased two long vacant and bruised buildings on the 3800 block of Lancaster Avenue. That and the 3900 block are areas that PEC has identified as primed for revitalization in its Make Your Mark Lower Lancaster Revitalization Plan published last summer. Its current work on the 3800 block of Lancaster is part of a larger about $4M investment project, realized through two separate but connected developments.

That includes renovations…

After stuffing our faces with cannoli at the Italian Market Festival, we found ourselves on the 1200 block of Carpenter St. and were surprised to see some new construction activity on the block. 1215 Carpenter St. was an overgrown vacant lot we’d never noticed, and now it’s framed out over two stories.

In the past

Current view

According to a zoning application from a few months ago, this will be a triplex that could rise as high as 60′ in the air. We’re guessing it will end up being four stories tall, as anything taller would require different framing for the first story, from what we understand. We were surprised to see construction here because though there are a couple of homes on the eastern end of this block, it’s not exactly a residential…