The boom of North Broad is apparent as soon as one passes City Hall. Hanover North Broad, a mixed-use development consisting of two apartment buildings at the corners of Broad and Callowhill, has been rising since breaking ground earlier this year, and will serve as the gateway to North Broad when it opens in 2017.
Source: 5 Philly neighborhoods everyone should be watching – Curbed Philly
See this Instagram photo by @designphilly • 25 likes
Source: DesignPhiladelphia (@designphilly) • Instagram photos and videos
NOTO is opening a 1,000-person club in Chinatown next month.
Source: Meet the Team That’s Building Philly’s Biggest Nightclub Ever | BizPhilly
While we continue to wait for the apartment building’s return—it’ll be another year or so—it’s worth remembering what the storied Divine Lorraine lobby once looked like at its peak. These archived photos from the Library of Congress were taken in 1933 for a Historic American Buildings survey. Developer Eric Blumenfeld’s team has said before that they’re using these photos to return the lobby to its original design.
Source: Historic photos reveal the Divine Lorraine lobby from 1933 to today – Curbed Philly
Hello members, neighbors and friends
As you probably know Phase One of the Rail Park, located in Callowhill, will soon begin construction. The Knight Foundation is a making a significant capital investment in the Viaduct Rail Park and asking for our help . Below is a link to a Knight Foundation survey being managed by Penn Praxis. Please fill it out – it won’t take long ! and please share with residential and business neighbors, condo boards etc.
Philadelphia is the first city to be chosen by the Knight Foundation to explore the ways “civic assets” or parks, libraries and other public spaces can be used to increase integration, build community and economic development and retain residents. To test this theory, the Knight Foundation is planning to invest significant capital in five sites – Bartram’s Mile, East and West Fairmount Park, Lovett Library and the Viaduct Rail Park.
Callowhill Neighborhood Association
@Eraserhood Wanna make sure that #railparkphilly 🌿 is a part of your future? Keep in touch ➡️ https://t.co/Vtj9UuWNxG #ilovephilly
— PA Horticultural Soc (@PHSgardening) August 3, 2016
This developer-driven model diverges from the traditional, bottom-up Mural Arts process, which is open to any applicant with a wall and an idea. It’s also a novel approach to creating a sense of place, engineered by Grossman’s Arts & Crafts Holdings. The company entered the neighborhood just last year and bought about a dozen properties in the vicinity of the planned elevated rail park, reflecting an investment of more than $20 million.
With it, the developer brings a vision to recast the area – alternately known as Callowhill, Chinatown North, the Loft District, Trestletown, and even Eraserhood (a nod to filmmaker David Lynch) – as Spring Arts, a center for the creative class.“I’m an art lover, personally and publicly. I know, obviously, the power that it has to ignite change,” Grossman said. He figured art could also attract a new constituency. Branding the area as Spring Arts, making it one big outdoor gallery, “provides it with an identity that area’s been lacking.”
Some longtime residents don’t see it that way.
Barrier. Obstacle. Divider.
Nobody at last week’s Every Place Counts meeting had anything nice to say about the Vine Street Expressway when asked for one-word descriptions of the submerged highway.
But everyone in attendance, from Mayor Jim Kenney and his staff, to representatives from Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) and community activists, to PennDOT and U.S. DOT staff signaled optimism that the Expressway’s worst impacts on the neighborhood could be mitigated through interventions of varying intensities and price-tags.
Source: PlanPhilly Residents discuss capping Vine Street Expressway other remedies at U.S. DOT forum
The golden summer morning was perfect for a stroll on the Reading Viaduct, Philadelphia’s answer to New York’s High Line. The difference is that Philadelphia’s version has no architect-designed staircases or glass elevators to bring visitors up to the postindustrial wonderland. To get inside, you have to venture up an overgrown ramp, bushwhack your way through chest-high weeds, then shimmy through a large opening in a chain-link security fence. Technically, it’s trespassing.
Source: Changing Skyline Still not enough funding but Reading Viaduct is a park in all but name
