Another piece of Philadelphia history seems as though it will soon be demolished. A 25-story mixed-use high rise featuring apartments, retail and office space is planned for 38th & Chestnut next to the Philadelphia Episcopal Church in University City. Last summer, the Historical Commission granted the Church permission to demolish two historic brownstones located on Chestnut Street to make way for the new building. The Church has hired Radnor Property Group to construct the building, which could be completed by 2015, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

The church

The brownstones

The decision to allow demolition prompted John Gallery, executive director of the Preservation Alliance, to tell PlanPhilly last year that applicants committed “a very serious series of offenses.”  The Church applied for permission to raze the two homes on the grounds that the demolition would allow them…

One way old, expensive, yet interesting buildings are saved from demolition and preserved is through the Federal Historic Tax Credits program.

It’s what preserved the Art Deco 30th Street Main Post Office building, constructed when the style was as much in swing as swing music, located across from 30th Street Station. The program offers developers a 20% income tax credit based off the cost of the entire project, from pens to post-development. Bart Blatstein capitalized on the opportunity for his Tower Place Project that renovated the former State Building at Broad and Spring Garden Streets into apartments. That project totaled around $70M, which makes for a $14M rebate. The Morris Building that was renovated at 17th & Arch is another example of an old structure that benefitted from the program.

Former Post Office building

There a few requirements that must be fulfilled in order…

If you’ve ever walked, driven, or biked around the northern end of Temple‘s campus, perhaps you’ve marveled at the beautiful and surprisingly intact architecture of Diamond Street. In an area that’s seen more than its share of vacancy and blight in recent decades, many of the Victorian townhouses on Diamond Street have remained more or less in one piece, and many have been respectfully renovated and rehabbed in recent years.

Homes on the 1700 block

According to the Preservation Alliance, the Diamond Street Historic District runs from Carlyle to Van Pelt Street, containing hundreds of homes constructed between 1875 and 1900. These homes were built due to both an increase in the City’s population during those years as well as the addition of two streetcar lines that ran up to Susquehanna, making commuting to Center City much more practical…

Though the Spring Garden neighborhood has experienced tremendous improvement in the past two decades, a handful of blighted properties remain. Take, for instance, 1516 Green St., a property right near the Chapel Lofts, which surprised us when we passed by on an unseasonably warm afternoon this past weekend.

The building

From what we understand, AHA Development LLC purchased the former Philadelphia Housing Authority shell about a year ago at auction. The price was very high at $423,500. The developers had plans to demolish the rear of the building, and replace it with a three story addition, but this was not approved by the Historical Commission. Six apartments was the hope for this building, but the project seems stalled at the moment.

Looking down the block. Note the Chapel Lofts.

The Spring Garden Historic District is bordered by Spring Garden Street to…

Upon first glance, District Health Center No. 1 is an unassuming building just south of Broad and Lombard Streets. A closer look reveals a glazed façade of stylized blue and gray brick that runs across the building like a tile mosaic in between the second and third stories, measured by ribbon windows that stretch around the sleek curves of the building. It’s where modern architects in the middle of the twentieth century envisioned the style of urban architecture was headed.

Health Center Number 1

The Health Center, located at 500 S. Broad St., appeared on this year’s Endangered Properties list compiled by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The City is proposing to vacate this center, like it’s proposing to leave the Roundhouse, when its new West Philly location opens.

At that time, the site is likely to be marketed for redevelopment. Designed by 

The Drunk Tank. If you’ve ever consumed what others may consider to be too much alcohol and gotten mixed up one way or another with the police, you might have ended up there. In Philly, it’s known as The Roundhouse, located at 700 Race St.

The Roundhouse

This year, the building is listed on the Preservation Alliances Endangered Properties list. When the Philadelphia Police move their headquarters to another building on the list from years prior, the Provident Mutual building at 46th and Market, a move that is expected to take a few years, the Roundhouse will be left unoccupied.

Could be vacant in the coming years

It was constructed during the 1960s and regarded as a watershed moment in the redevelopment of Center City spearheaded by Ed Bacon and Richardson Dilworth (You’ve heard of