Center City : Development News

When this year’s call for applications for the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) IMPACT Awards of Greater Philadelphia came in, staffers at Center City’s Community Design Collaborative (CDC) saw a big opportunity.
 
GSK has been awarding these $40,000 grants annually for about twenty years -- that’s almost $6 million for 150 local nonprofits focused on some aspect of improving community health and quality of life in categories such as Diet and Exercise, Education, and Family and Social Support. In 2014, GSK added a new category: the Built Environment.
 
Collaborative leaders knew they couldn’t pass up the chance to apply, and this fall they learned that they were among eight organizations (out of a pool of about 100 applicants) to win a $40,000 grant. (GSK partnered with United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey for the 2014 round of Philly grants.)
 
"Community health and wellness is definitely one of the themes we could address," says Collaborative Executive Director Beth Miller of pursuing the program. It was the first time the Collaborative had applied, and it was "a super-duper honor" to be chosen, winning alongside organizations such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the University City District.
 
The recognition is an important boost for an organization like the Collaborative, explains Miller. While completed blueprints, groundbreakings and openings always grab the most press, the vital legwork behind those milestones can be hard to notice or articulate. The group doesn’t provide finalized architectural plans and it doesn’t assist in the construction of the projects it works on, but its design-related services, including community outreach and discussion, public charrettes, conceptual designs and cost estimates -- all key to luring investors and developers -- serve as a vital bridge from neighborhood needs to actionable plans.
 
The GSK grant will benefit a range of efforts in 2015, including five new community health and wellness projects. These are yet to be determined, but, as Miller puts it, they’ll "bubble up" from the local organizations involved.  
 
The dollars will also aid a revamp of the organization's website; the new site will include a gallery of past projects and a package showcasing the work the organization has done to galvanize new futures for 18 public schoolyards.
 
Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Beth Miller, Community Design Collaborative

The intersection of 10th and Vine Streets has been a sore spot for years in the Chinatown community -- the construction of the modern Vine Street Expressway razed countless homes and businesses, effectively splitting the neighborhood in half. But the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) got exciting news in October: a $3.7 million Pennsylvania Economic Growth Initiative grant. It’s a major step toward making the Eastern Tower Community Center, planned for the northwest corner of that infamous intersection, a reality.

"We’ve looked around, but we haven’t found anything quite like it," says PCDC managing director Andrew Toy of the planned 23-story building, which has a projected budget of $76 million. That’s not just because of the size and cost -- which as far as PCDC knows, is the largest ever undertaken by a Philadelphia CDC -- it’s because when it’s finished, the Eastern Tower will house an unprecedented range of services and programs.

Those include 150 mixed-income residential units (which Toy estimates will mean at least 250 new neighbors on the 10th Street business corridor), a bilingual preschool and prekindergarten program from the Chinatown Learning Center, a grocery store, a recreation and community center, programming for seniors, a computer lab, and even doctors’ offices focused on preventive care for a linguistically under-served population.

Part of the story on the project’s financing is its special status through a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)-administered program: Eastern Tower is an EB-5 qualified investment project. This is a low-interest brand of international financing that targets areas of the U.S. with high unemployment and focuses on creating jobs. And it’s not just about a financial return -- foreign investors who help create ten jobs for every $50,000 they spend can receive green cards for themselves and their families.

A grant from the William Penn Foundation helped PCDC set up a dedicated regional center to act as a conduit for these investments, and since it will continue to operate once the Eastern Tower project is complete, Toy hopes it will become a permanent gateway for development in the area.

Even local youngsters have been getting involved -- for example, the Philadelphia Suns, a neighborhood sports and volunteer organization, recently raised money for the project.

“The youth of the community are getting more and more engaged, because they see this as a real thing and they’re getting excited about having a place of their own,” says Toy. “Success has a lot of mothers.”

"It wasn’t easy and it didn’t happen overnight," he adds. But with local, state and federal support, the project is currently on track to finalize its financing by early 2015. They’re looking at "a shovel in the ground" this winter, with an official opening slated for early 2017.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Andrew Toy, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation
 

You want to buy a house. Besides your agent and a pre-approval on a mortgage, where do you start? It’s easy to get a comprehensive look at what’s available for sale through multiple listing services (MLS) like Trulia or TREND, filtered by categories such as location, property type and price. But what if you want to rent an apartment?

In Philly, you’re often doomed to crowdsourcing your social networks, hoping a friend of a friend has space to rent, or wading through the swamps of a website like Craigslist, whose listings, once posted, can’t be updated and can get buried in a matter of minutes.

Ishay Grinberg, the founder and CEO of Boston-based Rental Beast, calls the rental status quo in Philly "a nightmare," and he wants to change that. His site is an MLS for rentals, and it’s ready to put about one million listings at prospective renters’ fingertips through its network of hyper-local real estate experts.

"About forty percent of the population rents, and about forty percent of the population will continue to rent," explains Grinberg, acknowledging the boom in home-ownership that peaked in 2005  -- and, well, we all know what happened next.

"Almost everywhere you look if you drive around, you start seeing ‘for rent’ signs," he says of Philly, where a Rental Beast team is already set up in Center City, readying an official launch for early 2015. "There’s plenty of demand to be satisfied."

Rental Beast works for renters as well as landlords and property managers, from those handling just a few properties to those handling thousands. In less than five years, the company has seen huge success in Boston, nabbing 70 percent of the city’s market share. Now its sights are set on Philly, its suburbs and the surrounding area, including central Pennsylvania, and parts of Delaware and New Jersey.

"We’re completely free for landlords of any size to list with us," insists Grinberg.

That free-of-charge model for both landlords and prospective tenants is supported by large brokerages who partner with the company for access to its inventory, and provide a portion of the broker fee when a property is leased through the site.

But the service isn’t just about aggregating and maintaining the most up-to-date, customizable info from landlords, managers, brokers, neighborhood experts and wider market data. Users also have access to tools for everything from proper pricing to drawing up the lease to finding contractors for when there’s quick turnover on a unit.

"When small landlords have a unit turn over, they don’t have an armada of maintenance people like the large managers do," explains Grinberg. For jobs like cleaning, sanding or painting, Rental Beast maintains a free database of vetted service providers.

Philly’s "good startup community" is part of the reason he’s bringing Rental Beast to the area. With the growing trend of millennials staying in the city to work or launch their own ventures after graduation, he insists it’s the perfect time to simplify the rental market.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Ishay Grinberg
 

One of Philly’s freshest restaurants is on the cusp of a major expansion, and hopes to use our city as a launching pad to spread nationwide.

Hai Street Kitchen and Co., a unique Japanese-inspired food spot, opened its first eatery at 18th and Chestnut Streets in May. Now company spokesperson Patrick Hughes confirms that another Hai Street location will open in University City before the end of this year.

Hai Street Kitchen is under the umbrella of Genji, an international company based in Center City Philadelphia -- anyone who’s ever picked up sushi at a Whole Foods location on the east coast has already tasted Genji's products.

The restaurant, meanwhile, offers quick sushi-style flavor wrapped up in a new way. According to Hughes, as popular as sushi is among its devotees, only 15 percent of Americans eat it.

"We want to expand to that other 85 percent of America, and came up with the sushi burrito," he explains.

What’s the typical American response to sushi, Hughes asks? It’s cold, it’s small, it’s not filling, it’s only for people who know how to wield chopsticks, and "what’s this green thing in the corner?"

Hai Street diners can order their own sushi-style burritos in a nori wrap (or they can select a rice or salad bowl) with basics such as shrimp tempura, tataki salmon, chili citrus pork and more. They can choose dressings from spicy peanut sauce to black pepper teriyaki, and add a wide variety of toppings, including grilled zucchini, pickled jicama, carrots or cucumbers, wasabi guacamole, and fried garlic or shallots.

"Basically, everything is made right in front of you," says Hughes. And it's meant to appeal to everyone, from health-conscious city lunch-breakers to guys looking for something to "scarf down instead of a cheesesteak."

As with Genji’s Whole Foods-approved sushi, Hai Street focuses on organic, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, sustainably raised and harvested proteins and veggies, sourced locally in the tri-state area whenever possible (that means a menu that adjusts with the seasons).

They’re also expanding their green mission with the restaurant’s new delivery system, launched last month, serving "Vine to Pine, river to river" Monday through Friday, using bike-centric One Hour Messengers.

The company has grand aspirations -- in addition to their second restaurant later this year, Hai Street aims to open eight more in 2015, including locations in South Jersey, King of Prussia and the Main Line, with more planned for 2016.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Patrick Hughes, Hai Street Kitchen & Co.
 

On November 14, Center City's Community Design Collaborative (CDC) will hold a special Reactivating Vacant Schools Design Charrette to help spark a new future for two recently-shuttered Philly schools: Old Frances Willard School at 1290 E. Orleans Street in Kensington, and the M. Hall Stanton School at 1523 W. Cumberland Street in Lower North Philadelphia.

According to Heidi Segall Levy, director of design services at the CDC, two teams (boasting about twelve professionals each, including architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and graphic and lighting designers) will be assigned to each school, for a total of four teams.

Because "the development of these sites is going to take awhile," Levy explains, each school will get one team focused on a short-term use solution, with "a low-cost way to activate those sites as soon as possible," and one team focused on a long-term plan for the space.

Short-term uses could include a farmers' market, urban farm or youth recreational space. Meanwhile, ongoing conversation with community partners in the charrette, including Community Ventures, Impact Services Corporation and the New Kensington CDC, point to a variety of long-term use possibilities. That could mean envisioning these sites "as something completely different from what they were," adds Levy, noting that the buildings may not continue as schools, but become a new type of "community anchor."
 
There is a special benefit to hosting charrettes -- versus other types of support, such as grants -- explains Levy, because charrettes are a more active way to build awareness through a wider cross-section of the city, with a focus on schools that did not elicit any interest from potential developers.

Levy hopes that the plans that come out of the charrette, which the CDC will develop into an accessible and actionable packet, "may grab the attention of developers for these sites, and ignite attention" for other empty schools facing a similar fate.
 
Plans developed through the CDC charrette model also lay the groundwork for locals' continued input, helping developers understand that it’s important to engage the community.
 
The charrette is happening with the help of a design team from KieranTimberlake Associates, LLP, as well as students from the Charter High School for Architecture and Design; partnerships with AIA Philadelphia and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development; and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia.

While slots on the design teams are now full, the public is invited to a free presentation and panel discussion from 4 - 6 p.m. on November 14 at the Center for Architecture (1216 Arch Street); reception to follow. To RSVP, click here.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Heidi Segall Levy, The Community Design Collaborative
 

When we think of enjoying Philadelphia's parks, we usually think of spring and summer maintenance and activities. But as Fairmount Park Conservancy park stewardship coordinator Erin Engelstad insists, it’s just as important to help "put our park spaces to bed for the winter."

The Conservancy and the Philadelphia Department of Parks & Recreation partner with city-wide volunteers twice a year for Love Your Park service days, one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring service day typically includes as many as 100 parks and 2,000 volunteers, while this year’s fall event, on Saturday, November 15, includes 75 parks so far. Engelstad expects about 1,000 volunteers to turn out across the city.

There’s a lot to do to keep our outdoor treasures looking good once winter looms. The first item of business is clearing out all those fallen leaves. Parks & Rec will be on hand with cleaned-out trash trucks ready to transport all the gathered leaves to the Philadelphia Recycling Center in Fairmount Park, where this year’s autumn color will become next year’s mulch.

If you love spring flowers, you can help plant crocus bulbs; volunteers will also pitch in to plant up to 200 new trees -- according to Engelstad, autumn is a great time to put them in the ground.

Helpers will include school groups -- kids, parents, and teachers from North Philadelphia’s Gesu School who will be working at Smith Memorial Playground.

"They’re excited to have a large group, because they want to make the biggest leaf pile in Fairmount Park," explains Engelstad.

And yes, even though it may make some extra work in the long run, the pile will be open to jumpers of all ages.  

Park organizers, who will manage the schedule and to-do lists at their individual parks, can provide gloves and tools, and no experience is necessary to pitch in. Residents are welcome to just show up, but they can give organizers a hand by signing up in advance online.

"It’s an opportunity for folks to get to know people in their neighborhood," adds Engelstad.

Writer: Alaina Mabaso
Source: Erin Engelstad, Fairmount Park Conservancy
 

At a press event this past Wednesday, October 15, Center City District (CCD) President Paul Levy announced the upcoming Rothman Ice Rink at Dilworth Park in front of City Hall.

Sponsored by its namesake orthopedic practice, the Rothman Institute, the new ice skating venue will open to the public on Friday, November 14. Along with Rothman, PNC Bank and local ABC affiliate WPVI have provided financial support for the rink, which will be erected atop Dilworth Park's 11,600-square-foot fountain. It will ve roughly the size of the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

All-day admission to the ice will be $3 for children and $4 for adults, with skate rentals available for $8. Open seven days a week, the venue will stay open on holidays and offer a four-week learn-to-skate program on Sunday mornings, along with additional events and programs coordinated by CCD.

Avid people-watchers and tired parents will be able relax on the PNC terrace, where they can enjoy coffee, pastries and sandwiches from José Garces’ Rosa Blanca Cuban Diner. Free Wi-Fi will remain available throughout the winter.

As a result of a competitive bidding process held by CCD earlier this year, Rink Management Service Corporation will operate the rink and offer group discounts, birthday party packages and private rentals. 

Held at noon, the press event allowed visitors to get a sense of just how popular Dilworth Park has become as the midday lunch crowd and tourists streamed into the brand new public space.

Other Dilworth Park updates were also provided: According to Levy, a lawn and more bench seating will be accessible this week, and the remainder of the park is set to open before Thanksgiving.

Information on Rothman Ice Rink events and other updates are available at dilworthpark.com.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Paul Levy, Center City District
 

On the first evening of October, as the sun slowly descended over Paine's Park, a group of onlookers gathered to watch dozens of skaters grind and kick-flip their way through the 16-month-old, $4.5 million skateboard park, located just off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway adjacent to the Schuylkill River.
 
Nearby, skateboarding supporters mingled between an open bar and a silent auction featuring skateboard decks, hotel packages and skate-themed art.
 
The occasion was Street Level, the inaugural fundraising and skate-culture event benefiting the Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund. The organization is responsible for constructing free public skateparks throughout the city, including Paine's Park. Perhaps more importantly, Franklin's Paine works to empower skateboarders through various community engagement programs and advocacy efforts.
 
"The [organization's] focus for so long was about concrete and bricks," says Franklin's Paine Executive Director Josh Dubin, explaining the genesis of the event, which featured skating demos and a deejay. "But now that it's built, we needed an event that celebrated the people who skate, and all the benefits that come to a community when it supports and nurtures skateboarding as a dynamic force."
 
The proceeds raised by the event will be folded back into the nonprofit organization's fund; Franklin's Paine is currently working to build a skatepark in Nicetown. But as Dubin pointed out, the most crucial aspect of the shindig was its focus "on the places skateboarding can take you if that passion is nurtured and supported."     
 
A number of skateboarding role models were recognized, including Joel Zwicky, a Wisconsin police officer who patrols on a longboard, and Skateistan Founder Oliver Percovich, who uses the sport to positively affect the lives of disenfranchised youth in developing countries.
 
Visit Franklin's Paine online to make a donation.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Josh Dubin, Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund 
 

The Free Library of Philadelphia has announced a $60 million multi-branch development initiative. It will involve not only the significant renovation and expansion of the Parkway Central Library, but of five initial prototype libraries throughout the city. Each will be modernized with the specific needs of their communities in mind.
 
Known as "Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries," the multi-faceted plan will be funded in part by $4.5 million from the City of Philadelphia and a historic $25 million gift from the William Penn Foundation. According to a release, the funds from William Penn represent "the largest private gift ever received by the Library."  
 
According to Director and President Siobhan Reardon, the concept for "Building Inspiration" grew from the Free Library's Strategic Plan (PDF) -- essentially a reorganizational effort drawn up after the Library lost roughly 20 percent of its funding from the City and the Commonwealth in 2008 and 2009.
 
Part of that plan involved looking at the ways in which technology is altering basic library services.

"The changes we've announced are all about how to create an engaging 21st-century library in an older building," explains Reardon.

At the 87-year-old Parkway Central branch, for instance, an 8,000-square-foot area called The Common will be designed by architect Moshe Safdie to operate as a flexible and active community gathering space. The South Philadelphia Library will be fitted with a 'Health Information and New Americans' room. The Logan Library will be getting a family literacy center. The Lovett Memorial, Tacony and Lillian Marrero branches will also see progressive improvements.
 
"I think what you're going to find interesting at the neighborhood libraries is a very open experience," says Reardon, who adds that most branches should reopen in late 2016. "It's going to be a much more civically-engaged social learning environment."

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Siobhan Reardon, Free Library of Philadelphia
 

As you step outside your home or office this Friday, September 19, don't be surprised if you see your neighbor lounging where their car would normally be parked.

In fact, don't be surprised if an antique coffee table is perched on the sidewalk next to them, or if a working lamp, bookshelf or mini-fridge is alongside in the gutter.   
 
Every year here in Philadelphia -- and throughout the world, for that matter -- on the third Friday of September, an unusual celebration of public spaces occurs at dozens of metered parking spaces throughout the city.
 
Known as PARK(ing) Day, the nine-year-old event was first launched in San Francisco, where a single metered parking space was transformed for two hours into a miniature public park by members of an architecture firm. A photo of the temporary installation soon went viral, and by 2011, PARK(ing) Day was being celebrated in 162 cities on six continents.
 
Here in Philly, more than 50 diminutive pop-up parks will be installed in Center City, Queen Village, Germantown, Fishtown and North Philly, to name a few. An interactive map of the planned parks can be accessed online.
 
As Erike De Veyra of Zimmerman Studio, which organizes the event locally, points out, the purpose of PARK(ing) Day Philadelphia isn't solely to raise awareness of public spaces. It's also to suggest that public spaces, which bring communities together, don't necessarily need to be large or even particularly expensive in order to serve their purpose.
 
From 5 to 8 p.m., the Center for Architecture will host an after-party featuring photos from the day. Click here to reserve a spot.  

Insider's Tip: According to De Veyra, a Center City architecture firm historically hosts one of the event's best parks. It's located near the corner of Broad and Walnut.

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Erike De Veyra, Zimmerman Studio

As Flying Kite has reported, City Hall's Dilworth Park opened on September 4. Folks from around the city came out to get aquainted with Philadelphia's latest revamped public space.

Among those visitors was esteemed Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, and she was, well, slightly disappointed.

Dilworth's new comforts, which won't be complete until November, are undermined by an uptight and controlling sensibility...The new design was intended to be the polar opposite of the 37-year-old plaza, a hardscape extravaganza by the late Vincent Kling, the same midcentury modernist who exhausted a couple of quarries building LOVE Park, the Centre Square towers, and Municipal Services Building and its plaza. In place of Kling's tricky level changes, gratuitous barriers, shadowy hiding places and puffed-up monumentality, we now have a flat, multipurpose surface, wide-open views -- and a new kind of puffed-up monumentality. There are vast amounts of hardscape...

The aesthetic is all wrong for a city eager to remake itself for an expanding creative class...Yes, there is real magic when the fountain's jets of water shoot into action, but inactivated, the granite landscape is dry and stiff. The new Dilworth is a suit in a jeans-and-T-shirt world.

Saffron goes into details about her frustrations, which extend to the materials and a lack of greenery.

It sounds strange, but the designers' emphasis on perfection is suffocating. They bludgeon you with "high quality" materials that evoke the atmosphere of a slick corporate lobby. Five types of granite are used, ranging from speckled white to dark black, on the plaza surface.

Olin's sculpted benches, which are seductive and beautiful forms, also are granite. A wooden version, similar to Olin's design for nearby Lenfest Plaza, would have softened the official feel of the place. So would some additional shade, but all the greenery has been relegated to the periphery. The nicest spot is a small grove where the chairs have been arranged on crushed gravel rather than granite.

Maybe I spent too much time in beer gardens this summer, but I found myself longing for some of their laid-back, serendipitous vibe.
 
All that said, Dilworth Park remains a vast improvement over its gray, dreary, lurker-shielding predecessor. There's a cafe and interactive water feature; there is also ample space for public events, be it protests or concerts. And, it's a huge project completed thanks to a public-private partnership.

There is no doubt that this important civic space, once a smelly, run-down municipal embarrassment in the heart of Philadelphia, has been greatly improved by the Center City District's Paul Levy, who marshaled a dream team of Philadelphia's most renowned designers and engineers. The amenities, from the food vendor to the picnic lawn, are reason enough to applaud.

How about you? What do you think of the new Dilworth Park? Tweet us @flyingkitemedia or hit us up on Facebook.
 

The rebuilding of Dilworth Plaza from a drab, inaccessible concrete slab encircling Philadelphia's City Hall into Dilworth Park, a green public space set to become one of Center City's most exciting outdoor areas, has been one of the most closely watched local development stories for three years now.
 
Finally, the $55 million project's official opening date has been made public. During an August 19 press conference, Center City District CEO Paul Levy announced that the park will be unveiled Thursday, September 4 at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
 
As Flying Kite reported in late 2010, a 185-foot-wide programmable fountain operating on recycled rain water will be one of the park's centerpieces; it will be transformed into an ice skating rink during the winter months.
 
And because the 120,000-square-foot project's main mission has always centered on enhancing access to the nucleus of Philly's public transit system, it makes sense that two subway entrances made of glass -- and seemingly inspired by the Louvre Pyramid -- are architectural standouts as well.   
 
Perhaps the most exciting Dilworth update, though, involves Chef Jose Garces being attached to the cafe that will sit in the Plaza's northwest corner. The breakfast-all-day eatery will be similar to Garces' Rosa Blanca and offer light Cuban-inspired fare.
 
Although roughly 10 percent of the project's construction won't be complete for another six to eight weeks, an entire weekend's worth of events will celebrate its opening, beginning with an all-day arts and culture festival on September 4.

Click here for a complete list of the weekend's scheduled performances and events.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Center City District

Architectural renderings courtesy of OLIN and KieranTimberlake

 

A Miami-based co-working firm, Pipeline, is opening a Philadelphia outpost in Center City this November. The 21,000-square-foot Pipeline Philadelphia, as the facility has been dubbed, will occupy two floors in the Graham Building at 15th and Chestnut Streets in Center City.

But don't expect Pipeline's local outpost to resemble any of the DIY-influenced co-working spaces that have popped up here in recent years. The company's Miami branch -- known as Pipeline Brickell -- is a highly polished environment offering reception services and private suites starting at $849 a month. According to CEO Todd Oretsky, Pipeline also isn't one of those shared corporate office spaces that tend to price out anyone lacking an expense account. The company aims to foster an especially diverse work space, one where established business professionals and startup entrepreneurs can find themselves collaborating.

"There's a big differentiator between us and other co-working spaces," says Oretsky. "We think integrating people in the tech community and the startup world alongside active professionals leads to the highest likelihood of success."
 
To facilitate that community, Pipeline Philly plans to offer a wide schedule of events, including lectures and educational seminars featuring thought leaders; many will be free to the general public. All the better to facilitate the office's all-important philosophy of cooperative congregation.

"We are very high-design," adds Oretsky. "We have price points that can work for a blogger or a member of a large international corporation. And those two people benefit from knowing each other."
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Todd Oretsky, Pipeline  
 

If you've already whiled away a pleasant evening or three this summer at the pop-up Spruce Street Harbor Park but haven't yet stopped by the reimagined Eakins Oval at the center of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, you'll want to consider making room in your schedule for a visit.
 
Officially dubbed The Oval, the temporary eight-acre public space sits directly in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It popped up last summer, and following a number of spring and fall events, celebrated its seasonal return to the Parkway in mid-July.
 
For the next four weeks (through August 17) the color-saturated urban play space will be home to a huge schedule of free events, activities and community programming. There will be fitness boot camps and yoga classes; Quizzo contests and film screenings; Tai Chi lessons and DJ nights. And along with a monster-sized chess board, a ping-pong table and a mini-golf course (all free!), The Oval also features a rotating cast of food trucks and a beer garden built from reclaimed construction materials.    
 
The Oval's "has been very, very successful," says Colleen Campbell of the Fairmount Park Conservancy. "It's been tremendously well-received."
 
And although last summer's beach theme was popular with park-goers, this year the design is different. Local artist Candy Coated was commissioned by the Association for Public Art to transform The Oval into a whimsical space with a magic carpet motif.

"It's very fanciful, and it's very bright," explains Campbell. "Aside from our programming, it's just a fun piece of art to interact with."

The Oval is open 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Wednesday - Friday; noon - 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Source: Colleen Campbell, Fairmount Park Conservancy
Writer: Dan Eldridge

At the intersection of Fitzwater Street and Grays Ferry Avenue in Graduate Hospital, a 125-year-old former Catholic chapel has been adapted into 30 loft-style homes and eight apartments. They are now leasing.
 
Known as Sanctuary Lofts -- and most recently occupied by the congregation of St. Matthew Baptist Church -- the structure was one of 20 Philadelphia sites that appeared on the 2011 list of endangered historical properties released by Save Our Sites, an urban preservationist group. At the time, the church's congregation feared the building would be demolished to make way for housing if it were sold.  
 
Instead, the site was purchased by Barzilay Development, a local firm specializing in the adaptive reuse of old buildings. According to Alon Barzilay, the firm's founder and CEO (and son of former Toll Brothers president and COO Zvi Barzilay), the renovated loft spaces will be rich in intricately preserved details such as exposed marble and salvaged hardwood floors. Even some of the church's pews are being repurposed.
 
"I basically give people historic buildings, but with contemporary features," say Barzilay, describing his adaptive construction philosophy, "from granite countertops to stainless steel appliances to European cabinetry."     
 
Rents start at around $1,200 for a one-bedroom loft. Many of the project's most impressive features can be seen simply by viewing the church's exterior. A 128-foot granite clock tower is the jewel of the building -- it earned its 15 minutes of fame after appearing in director M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. Also impressive are the church's stained-glass windows and its distinctive red door; an outdoor garden courtyard with church pew seating will be completed soon.
 
A model unit is currently available for viewing; visit sanctuary-lofts.com for photos and to read about the church's history.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Alon Barzilay, Barzilay Development