Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue

A waterfront rail line in Philadelphia moved closer to reality yesterday as the Delaware River Port Authority approved a $6.5 million contract for environmental studies and preliminary design.

A waterfront rail line in Philadelphia moved closer to reality Wednesday as the Delaware River Port Authority approved a $6.5 million contract for environmental studies and preliminary design.

Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel slammed Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato as "cowardly" today after Hoeffel's nominating petitions for the May 18 Democratic primary election for governor were challenged in Commonwealth Court yesterday. Hoeffel's campaign claimed the five voters listed as challenging the petitions were "acting on behalf of Onorato."

Philadelphia Managing Director Camille Barnett just tearfully announced in a City Hall news conference that she is leaving Mayor Nutter's administration. Barnett, who thanked her colleagues in City Hall for their support, said her last day will be June 30. She has no plans right now for what she will do next.

Developer Brian O'Neill's promise to lead an ambitious revitalization of Norristown's depressed Schuylkill riverfront came to an official end yesterday with an agreement to sell his only property there to the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority.

A FEW months ago, we launched City Howl, a Web site that allows citizens to post their raves or rants about city services (see www.thecityhowl.com).

Philadelphia is such a relentlessly right-angled city, a place so completely devoted to its colonial grid, that it's not surprising that some architectural dissidents would insist on flaunting their curves. The PSFS tower, now the Loews Hotel, is the city's best-known nonconformist, but plenty of modest rowhouses also break out of the box with similar hip-jutting moves.

Bit by bit, the University of Pennsylvania is emerging from its redbrick rut. For years, Penn seemed incapable of putting up a new building that didn't include heaping quantities of those little red rectangles, along with gooey allusions to Philadelphia's Colonial past. The effect was to make the Ivy League campus feel like a place stuck in time, rather than one engaged in vital intellectual pursuits.

What influences the public's perception of Market East more: The mobs of rampaging teens who have descended on the Gallery mall over the last few weeks? Or the building's gloomy fortress walls, which have weighed down Philadelphia's traditional shopping street for well over three decades?

In the hope of ending its reputation for Fortress America-style embassies, the State Department yesterday selected a Philadelphia architecture firm known for its thoughtful and environmentally rigorous work to design a new, more welcoming U.S. Embassy in London.

When the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. selected Field Operations last fall to design a new park at the Race Street pier, it was hard to shake off a certain feeling of trepidation.

Philadelphia officials are usually generous architecture critics. There's nothing that they seem to enjoy more than crowing about their latest building project. Yet, even the city's most gregarious boosters are having trouble mustering nice words for the new Family Court building, planned for 15th and Arch Streets.

Young-Hwan Choi arrived in Philadelphia from his native South Korea in August. By October, the University of Pennsylvania architecture student had devised an elegant new design for the sidewalk sheds that protect pedestrians during construction. And he was barely into his second semester when New York announced it was adopting his innovative system as its official prototype.

During the last decade, America's supermarket chains made a startling discovery: City residents have to eat, too. The chains went into expansion mode, erecting spacious, modern stores in Philadelphia neighborhoods that hadn't seen a fresh apple in decades.

Let's cut to the chase on the architectural merits of 10 Rittenhouse, the poshly proper apartment house that has lately assumed its place on Rittenhouse Square's northeast corner, as if the location were its birthright:

The television series Sex and the City debuted in 1998, the same year I began writing about architecture and cities for The Inquirer. Little did I guess back then that Carrie Bradshaw's glamorous gallivanting through the streets of Gotham signaled a major image update for America's cities, from lawless jungles to middle-class playgrounds. It's the city that's sexy now.

IF THE LONG national nightmare to pass a watered-down health-care-reform bill has taught us anything, it's this: A bill in Congress that enjoys "bipartisan support" is probably too weak to fix the problem it's supposed to address.

Agent designations, certifications explained

Mary Umberger
Inman News

Like a sea of medals on a general's chest, many real estate agents' business cards are festooned with initials after their names.

Agents may boast about such designations or certifications as ABR, SRES, GRI or a host of others intended to be a testament to expertise they bring to a home-sale transaction. However, there are so many of them that they may be alphabet soup to the average consumer.

The acronyms usually represent coursework focused on a single aspect of real estate, such as transactions involving raw land, foreclosures or international properties, explained Colleen Ryan, manager of education services for the National Association of Realtors.

Or, she said, they may indicate broader specialized coursework in residential transactions (as opposed to commercial real estate, for example) or working specifically with homebuyers (as opposed to sellers).

Adding to the potential confusion, within NAR there's a difference between a certification and a designation. "Designations have additional requirements that need to be met, in addition to the coursework," Ryan said. "The coursework is also more detailed and longer in terms of the number of hours that must be completed.

"Designations also have a dues/membership fee attached that must be renewed to keep their membership current," she explained.

The NAR offers courses leading to nearly two dozen such designations and certifications, though many of them deal with such interests as appraisal or brokerage management, rather areas that directly touch on consumer issues.

And though NAR-sponsored courses dominate the acronyms, other real estate organizations also bestow certification in such things as green building and home staging.

The courses vary widely in their requirements, from an afternoon to several days; many of them are offered online now, an option that's particularly popular with younger agents, Ryan said.

Whether these accolades necessarily benefit consumers is something that even agents themselves argue about -- sometimes hotly -- given the broad disparity in the depth of the courses and whether coursework actually translates into experience.

(The Realtors suggest, at least, that the completed courses translate into earnings. The trade group cites a 2009 survey that says the median income of agents without designations was about half that of agents with at least one designation.)

Nonetheless, consumers who have little background in the world of real estate agents probably couldn't parse a CIPS from an RSPS. A quick guide to some of the letters they might encounter in the Acronym Jungle:

• SFR (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource). The new course, leading to a certification, is a sign of our times, Ryan said. It's intended to teach agents how to navigate the byzantine path through foreclosures and short sales, in which seller and his lender agree to sell a home for an amount less than the value of the mortgage.

• ABR (Accredited Buyer Representative). The designation course covers legal considerations and duties specific to working with buyers, negotiation skills, and other topics.

• CRS (Certified Residential Specialist). The designation requires that an agent complete a specified number of transactions and includes several courses in such topics as effective sales presentations or real estate technology.

• GRI (Graduate Realtor Institute). The designation course requires 90 to 95 hours of coursework on contract law, taxes, finance and other topics.

• SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialist). The designation course is intended to develop skills specific to the needs of buyers and sellers aged 55 and over. It includes materials on tax laws, probate and estate planning.

• RSPS (Resort & Second-Home Property Specialist). As the name implies, the certification course teaches the essentials of buying, selling, or managing resort properties or second homes.

• ABR (Accredited Buyer's Representative). After the two-day designation course, agents have three years to verify five completed transactions in which they acted solely as a legally designated buyer's agent.

• "Green" designations -- Real estate agents can establish environmental-awareness credentials in a couple of ways. EcoBroker is a designation from an organization unaffiliated with NAR. Agents can earn the EcoBroker designation by completing an assortment of two-day courses, in class or online, on such concerns as radon, asbestos, indoor air quality, LEED certification, solar power, etc. NAR offers a GREEN designation, on similar topics.

• CRP (Certified Relocation Professional). Worldwide ERP, a trade group for the relocation industry, offers an exam for agents and others in the business on corporate relocation policy, appraising, residential real estate, tax and legal issues, among other topics.

Mary Umberger is a freelance writer in Chicago.

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