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…

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…

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)…

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…

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…

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…