NakedPhilly

Steel Framing Begins for Two Massive Homes on Bainbridge

MrFox — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:12:04 +0000

Over the winter, we noticed two huge holes in the ground on the 1400 block of Bainbridge St., and explained that they would eventually turn into two 61′ tall homes, each with nine parking spaces, a garage rooftop swimming pool, half-court basketball, and a couple of bowling alley lanes in the basement.

In December

We passed by this site the other day and discovered that framing was underway. As you may or may not be aware, such large buildings can’t be framed out of wood like most of the residential projects we see, but instead require the strength of steel. Check it out.

Steel is rising

Steel yourselves folks, these homes are gonna be mammoth.

Revolving Door Retail Space Again Has a New Tenant

MrFox — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:10:08 +0000

We’ve probably written about the southwest corner of 10th & Carpenter half a dozen times in the last couple of years, often bearing the bad news that the latest business to call this little space home had closed its doors. From InFusion to Mazag Cafe to Filter Cafe to Bookz-n-Beans and then finally Brown Sugar Cafe, this space has surely borne the mark of the devil himself.

Last week, Down Dog Healing Cafe became the latest business to attempt to break the curse.

The corner

New signs

With recipes and a philosophy inspired by Ayurveda, this cafe will attempt to fill stomachs and spirits with natural and healing food and drink. And hopefully, they’ll have much more luck than those who came before them.

This Weekend, Check Out SOSNA Super Saturday

MrFox — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:03:16 +0000

Tomorrow, the Graduate Hospital neighborhood will be abuzz with all sorts of activity, with volunteering opportunities in the morning, the dedication of a green space in the afternoon, and arts, food, drink, and entertainment into the evening. We’ll certainly be there, and you should too.

At 9am, early birds can go to Catharine Park at 22nd & Catharine to participate in Neighborhood Cleanup Day and help tidy up 22nd Street. By 10am, you’ll be able to enjoy coffee and snacks and meet your local police and firefighters at the park as SOSNA throws an Officer Appreciation Event. At noon, the SOSNA Arts Crawl will begin, with neighborhood businesses featuring works from community artists, and several businesses offering SOSNA-sponsored drinks. Participating businesses include Beauty Shop Cafe, Ultimo Coffee, SoWe, Sidecar, American Mortals, and

Neighborhood Gems: Karen Donnelly Park

MrFox — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:18:31 +0000

We were in Pennsport the other day on our way to get the old jalopy inspected and happened upon Karen Donnelly Park, a public green space we never knew existed. According to the South Philly Review, this little patch of public space at 230 Dickinson St. was originally established as a quiet resting place for area residents back in 1978. For years, it contained a few tables and chairs and several trees, but upkeep fell off and the area was leveled by the City in the 1990s.

In 2009

Around 2005, the City decided to sell the lot for redevelopment, but after a few years of pushback from neighbors the plan changed to refashion the space into a new and improved pocket park. The space, as you can see, has been totally rebuilt from the ground up with permanent tables (with three…

Looking at Another Soak it Up! Winner

MrFox — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:02:45 +0000

Greening the Grid, the winning team in the residential element of the Soak It Up! challenge, envisioned retrofits in Queen Village that would plant more trees along residential streets, connect those streets with corner parks, and connect those parks with larger community greenspaces in the neighborhood and across the city. Their submission can serve as model for just about every neighborhood in town.

Greener map of Queen Village

“It won’t be successful at the end of the day if you take a vacant lot in Queen Village and turn it into a rain garden,” said Kristen Knese, senior marketing coordinator at The Olin Studio, and one of the members of the winning residential team, about how to retrofit a residential area with stormwater management infrastructure. While it seems simple enough to improve stormwater management in a residential setting, say by fabricating more…

Could a Large Mixed-Use Project Finally Be Coming to Washington Avenue?

MrFox — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:15:31 +0000

For years, we’ve been ringing the bell for Washington Avenue, hoping for development west of Broad Street, where residential construction has crested to the north and is booming to the south. And we’ve seen some progress, of late. NextFab Studios opened their new location on the 2000 block, with a lovely cafe on the first floor. Kermit’s Bakeshop, from the folks at the Sidecar, is coming soon to the 2200 block. And while both of those commercial locations will increase foot traffic on Washington Avenue and shrink the perceived moat between Graduate Hospital and Point Breeze to some effect, we contend that only residential development on Washington Avenue will truly be able to bridge that gap.

And we finally might be getting just that.

Development site?

We heard a rumor yesterday that a developer (and we don’t know who)…

Twenty-Four Homes Planned Across the Street From Another Large Development in Bella Vista

MrFox — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:42:14 +0000

Earlier this week, we attended a BVTW zoning meeting and the buzz in the room was primarily about a proposed 70′ building that was dead on arrival. The other prominent project discussed at this meeting was a proposal from US Construction for twenty-four new homes on the 900 block of S. 8th St. and the 800 blocks of Montrose and Carpenter. A 7-Up bottling plant was apparently located here many moons ago, and we confess we’ve wondered about this location for as long as we can remember.

Corner of 8th and Montrose

Looking down 8th St.

View on Carpenter St.

These homes will be demoed

At the meeting, the applicants explained that they were simply presenting for informational purposes and that they still had to go…

More New Construction Planned Next to Slowly Moving Francisville Project

MrFox — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:26:25 +0000

Way back in the fall of 2011, we told you about a six-unit project going up near the corner of 17th & Cambridge in Francisville. At the time, we commented that the project seemed to be moving rather slowly, having received zoning approvals back in the middle of 2010. Well, another year and a half seems to have only made a small difference as there has definitely been some progress at this site but the building appears to still be far away from completion.

November 2011

Current view

We found ourselves on this corner because a reader told us about a zoning notice next door to this still-unfinished building. By the time we got here the notice was gone, but the L&I Map was able to fill us in on what may be coming…

Massive Development Proposed for Southport Pier, Probably Years Away if it ever happens

MrFox — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:30:14 +0000

As news of and plans for new projects along the waterfront continue to come to light, we often find ourselves wondering what other plans might exist for large and underused parcels situated along the Delaware River. Recently, a reader tipped us off to a proposal for a hotel and marketplace at the Southport Pier, a 120-acre site located just southwest of the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, below Columbus Blvd and Packer Ave., and extending west to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It’s a vision to open up Philadelphia’s presence in the global market.

Down here

Huge parcel

The Philadelphia Global Trade Center would feature a 300-room hotel with a 100-room extended stay building, a marketplace for 300-vendors in a 570K sqft building, green space, retail, restaurants and parking. The proposal was released in January and created by…

Winding Roses Park Spoiled By New Construction

MrFox — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:11:35 +0000

Earlier this winter we wrote about the possible development of a Francisville lot in the middle of Winding Roses Park, an underutilized neighborhood park located at Uber and Brown, a block away from the Francisville Rec Center. This space had been a quasi-public green space for years, with City agencies owning four of the five lots that make up the park.

Back in January

Regrettably, 1911 Brown St., a lot in the middle of the park, is privately owned by a developer named William Guzman. Over the winter, Guzman moved to build a single-family home on his lot. Our previous story about the lot quoted a Daily News article that said that Guzman was willing to swap his lot for another in the area, but miscommunication and perhaps insufficient effort on the parts of several parties meant that this was not…