PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future

Sites along the Schuylkill, like Grays Ferry Crescent, from the Water Works to Bartram's Garden will host painters working outdoors all weekend.

The three-day Art in the Open (AiO) festival will line the banks of the Schuylkill River with art and family activities this weekend, May 18 – 20.

AiO aims to celebrate artists and their relationship with the urban environment. Friday through Sunday juried artists will work outside along the banks of the Schuylkill River from the Fairmount Park Water Works to Bartram’s Garden. The artists will work with a variety of media and create work on-site along the river.

Guests are welcome to observe the artists work for free, and at some locations, visitors will be invited to make their own art. Friday will feature several events specifically designed for families at the “Skate Park” section of the Schuylkill Banks path, the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center and along the Delaware River. Various partner organizations will offer drawing, sculpting, painting and more to artists of all ages and abilities.

If you cannot make the events this weekend, the art created during AiO will be on display at the Independence Seaport Museum from June 15 through September 9.

For a full schedule of events visit http://www.artintheopenphila.org/

How many miles can you bike between now and August 31? How about biking to work this Friday?

May happens to be bike month and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia has a lot of events planned.

May 18 is Bike to Work Day. Of course, you can cycle to work on your own, but you could show your love for bike commuting by riding in a morning road rally alongside alongside Mayor Nutter, and the Bicycle Coalition. The ride will go from Lloyd Hall (1 Boathouse Row) to LOVE Park at 8:30am, rain or shine. Everyone is invited to meet up at Lloyd Hall starting at 7:30am for coffee.

If you can manage bike to work on Friday, you could also take this summer’s I Bike PHL Challenge, by tracking all of the miles you travel by bike until August 31.

As part of the Bicycle Coalition’s first I Bike PHL Challenge last year, city cyclists logged more than 150,000 miles. Can we do better this year? You can register for the challenge at Endomondo to track every mile you pedal as part of the summer-long challenge. [Click through for FAQs about the challenge, and be sure to sign up for Philly-related prizes.]

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I’m learning to be a better city cyclist. I signed up for the I Bike PHL Challenge out of sheer curiosity about how many miles I might travel by bike before September. [team: Spokes on the Street, members: one. Care to join me? ]

Concept plan of Marina View Tower, 230 N. Columbus Blvd | Ensemble Real Estate

The city has thousands of vacant, old industrial properties that are simultaneously keys to neighborhood revitalization and impediments. Today’s Inquirer tours some of these properties in Kensington, Frankford, and Port Richmond, tracing the difficulty even diligent property owners have in keeping buildings sealed and pursuing redevelopment.

The City Parks Alliance has named Hunting Park a “Frontline Park,” in recognition of its community-driven revitalization and its excellence as an urban park, Philebrity reports.

The beautiful Boyd Theater has been closed for ten years now, but its interiors are still fabulous. Hidden City Daily shows a peek inside the Boyd, refreshing our memories about the Art Deco finishes, and how this place is just waiting for a sensitive redevelopment plan.

What happens when L&I issues you violations for a house you don’t own? City Howl has the strange tale of Elizabeth Simmons, a Southwest Philly resident, who had to navigate a maze of city departments trying to clear her name of violations on a property she never owned. Until Simmons involved Councilwoman Blackwell’s office, L&I never bothered to tell her that they fixed the problem. Key complication: A different Elizabeth Simmons owned the house with violations.

The Planning Commission had little love for the conceptual plans of Marina View Towers presented yesterday, reports PlanPhilly’s Kellie Patrick Gates. Commissioners want to see improvements to the building’s materials, large retaining wall, street presence, pedestrian connectivity, height and more.

 

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.

The yearlong, collaborative “Make Your Mark” neighborhood planning process is nearing completion, and People’s Emergency Center, the organization driving the planning process, has released a draft of the proposed Lower Lancaster Revitalization Plan [pdf]. Now through May 23 anyone may submit comments regarding the draft to zsivertsen@pec-cares.org.

The Lower Lancaster Revitalization Plan is an effort to improve the communities surrounding Lancaster Avenue between 37th and 48th streets. The draft of the plan, produced by Interface Studio, includes initiatives to cultivate civic leadership, support local youth, improve access to fresh food, clean and green the neighborhood, bridge the digital divide and more.

As previously reported on PlanPhilly, the planning process has included various community engagement components including ongoing work with a steering committee, a several month long resident survey, open house events, public meetings and more.

Residents hoping to voice their opinions or concerns may view the drafted plan at http://makeyourmarkplan.wordpress.com/ and email comments by 5 p.m. on May 23.

School District of Philadelphia | Vincent J. Brown via Flickr, Creative Commons License

This week’s news is again dominated by school coverage, so here’s a special roundup:

• Governor Corbett will be in Philly today, and activists plan to welcome the Governor with a human red carpet outside the Prince Theater in protest education cuts. Corbett is in town to address the Chamber of Commerce.
• Grant Calder, a Friends Central teacher, contextualizes today’s school debate with a look to the city’s public school past in an Inquirer opinion piece. Philly never had a public school golden age, Calder contends. In 1912, as in 2012, the city “lacked the will to invest in high-quality education for all its children.” And, he continues, “The populations served by the district over the decades have always lacked the economic and political clout to force the city to provide better schools.” As long as education funding is tied to municipal boundaries, the problem isn’t going anywhere.
• An Inquirer editorial today calls for caution as the radical school-restructuring plan is implemented. The scale of the School District’s problems requires major intervention, but there are very reasonable doubts about the process ahead. As dozens of schools close, will quality charters be ready to absorb the high volume of students? Will there be adequate oversight of the charters and “achievement networks” by the shrunken district?
• Retired teacher Lisa Haver calls the plan the end of public education in Philadelphia, in a Daily News opinion piece peppered with tough questions. How have we arrived at a point where the public-school system can be auctioned off to the lowest bidder? Will our schools be able to remain a unifying force in our society or will they widen the gulf between haves and have-nots? Haver has doubts about the ability people from outside of the education world to privatize the public school system with quality education in mind.
• The It’s Our Money podcast this week features three big-time questions for the School District:  ”Why do the schools need the extra money to come from property taxes? How will the district’s restructuring plan save money? And what is Harrisburg’s role in this?” Listen here.
• Metropolis has a two-part series on making public schools work by Connie Langland. In part one, she makes the case that public schools can be turned around, with a close look at Stetson Middle School. In part two, she zeroes in on strategies being used to boost student learning and ultimately test scores. She concludes, “what matters is the student — not the bureaucracy, not tradition, and not doing things the easy way.”

Don't forget the umbrella: There's an 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms today.

Can music venues actually improve neighborhoods? They often face community opposition but Flying Kite considers the examples of Fishtown’s Johnny Brenda’s, Union Transfer on Spring Garden, and planned rebirth of South Broad’s Boot & Saddle.

Blondell Reynolds Brown: Dancer. Committeewoman. Councilwoman. Mayor? The Daily News profiles Councilwoman Brown, tracing her rise from Mantua Committeewoman to majority whip in Council, and her serious exploration of a run for mayor in 2015.

In Gray’s Ferry part of a decades-old garden tended by Mabel Wilson and the children in her Central Club for Boys and Girls could be lost at a sheriff’s sale this week. The Daily News reports that two of the garden’s eight lots are up sale this Wednesday because of back taxes that predate the Central Club’s official ownership. Wilson’s son will be in Common Pleas Court to try to stop the sale. The IRS granted the Central Club tax-exempt status retroactive to 1947, and they await a ruling from the city.

Ensemble Real Estate has proposed a new mid-rise apartment building just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge along Delaware Avenue. As PlanPhilly’s Kellie Patrick Gates explains, the project is tricky because its timing falls in a gap between the Master Plan for the Central Delaware and the forthcoming zoning overlay for the waterfront. That means that the proposed building’s 120-foot height is legal but doesn’t conform to the Master Plan.

City Council’s new Economic Opportunity Review Committee will examine the enforcement and effectiveness of the fair hiring and minority participation rules for city contracts. PlanPhilly’s Jared Brey reports from the Committee’s first meeting on Monday.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.

The rumors are true: PlanPhilly is seeking a Membership Director. This is a new position created to help PlanPhilly launch and develop several ventures we’ve got in the works, including events and memberships.

The position could be a great fit for someone who has experience in sales/marketing/fundraising/membership, and knows the city’s planning/development/civic ecosystem. If that sounds like you, check out the job description here.

Applications are due May 21. Join us.

Le Grand Continental Recruitment

Tuesday, May 15 and Wednesday, May 16, 7-9pm. Live Arts Studio, 919 North 5th. Be a part of a Live Arts Festival show this year as one of 200 dancers performing a contemporary line dance outside the Art Museum. Public recruiting for the dance, Le Grand Continental, will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, so put on your dancing shoes and sign up for one of the two sessions this week. Anyone over the age of 10 is welcome, register for one of the recruiting nights online.

 The Next Generation of Urban Manufacturing in Philadelphia

Thursday, May 17, 6:30-8:30. Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A sustainable urban future means a strong economy, with a green and competitive manufacturing sector. The Academy’s next Urban Sustainability Forum will be a panel discussion about how Philadelphia can marry sustainability goals with urban manufacturing. Panelists will include: Shawn Garvin (EPA Region 3), Adam Friedman (Pratt Center for Community Development), Steve Jurash (Manufacturing Alliance of Philadelphia), Evan Malone (NextFab Studio), Joe Houldin (Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center), and Karen Randal (Philadelphia Commerce Department). $5, free for students and members. Register online.

PAFA After Dark: Real World

Thursday, May 17, 6-9pm. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, 128 North Broad. PAFA’s After Dark series returns with new artwork on display, and lively performances from Spiral Q Puppet Theater, West Philadelphia orchestra. InLiquid artists will do a hands-on yarn art project, and PAFA’s young artists will discuss how they think about exhibiting and pricing their work. $10, free for members. Purchase tickets online.

Logan In Full Bloom

Thursday, May 17, Stenton, 4601 North 18th Street. Logan CDC’s benefit at Stenton House will feature a silent auction, music from Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble. Congressman Bob Brady, and winners of the Logan Blooming Youth Award and the Logan Blooming Business Leader Award will be honored. $60 per person, $110 for couples, and $50 for Young Friends (under 40). Tickets may be purchased online.

11th & Spring | phillytrax, Eyes on the Street Flickr Group

City Council should confront the School District’s financial crisis and the city’s broken property tax system separately, the Inquirer editorialized on Sunday. Practically speaking the Actual Value Initiative and the budget should not be intertwined because property assessments won’t be finished until after the budget deadline. By separating these issues, AVI could be revenue-neutral (as originally conceived), and school funding could be addressed independently. It is, the editorial argues, a matter of fairness and transparency to taxpayers.

The Central Delaware Advocacy Group has mixed feelings about the draft zoning overlay for the Central Delaware Waterfront, reports PlanPhilly’s Kellie Patrick Gates. Among the sticking points: exceptions to the 100-foot height limit, billboards, and extending 10 streets to the river to provide waterfront access. The push is on, however, to finalize the draft so that Council can approve the overlay prior to August when the new zoning code will go into effect.

The largely non-union workforce working to convert the Goldtex factory at 12th and Wood should be back on the job today, the Daily News reports. The city has lifted a stop-work order issued because some subcontractors did not have proper licenses and permits. Union workers have been protesting the job site.

Philly’s burgeoning food truck scene is getting noticed. An article in the NY Times travel section this weekend visited with Pitruco Pizza, Lucky Old Souls, and Sweetbox and gave a shout out to the Food Trust’s Night Markets.

Pennsylvania collected $1.5 billion in tax revenue from gambling last year, ranking behind Nevada and New Jersey, the Associated Press reports.

Philadelphia Media Network publisher Greg Osberg stepped down on Friday, one month after the company changed hands, the Daily News reports. Bob Hall, who previously served as publisher of the Inquirer and Daily News from 1990-2003, is replacing Osberg.

 

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.

At Friday’s Historical Commission Meeting two important, and unusual hardship cases in West Philadelphia dominated the nearly eight-hour session. Penn was granted its request to demolish a property it owns at 40th and Pine, while the Episcopal Cathedral at 38th and Chestnut will have to wait for a future hearing for its hardship outcome.

40th and Pine:

Penn received permission to demolish the building it owns at 40th and Pine.

The University of Pennsylvania received permission to demolish a historic, but badly altered, Italianate mansion at the corner of 40th and Pine, with a vote of six to three (with one abstention).

Penn has attempted to find a new use for the building since 2003. The University’s latest market-driven attempt resulted in a proposal for a seven-story residential building to be constructed alongside a restored mansion. The Historical Commission previously approved that plan at its meeting in October 2011, as PlanPhilly reported, but neighbors balked and called for a lower-scale building.

Penn’s subsequent analysis found that alternative scenarios to restore the mansion and construct a new building with fewer than 7 stories were not financially feasible. That determination is in large part, due to the target rental market for the units, as well as the cost of construction and rehabilitation.

At Friday’s meeting a coalition of Spruce Hill neighbors and preservation advocates testified in opposition to Penn’s hardship claim, alleging that Penn did not try to sell the property, explore enough leasing options, and that the developers expect too great a return on their investment.

As Eyes on the Street reported Thursday, Penn’s case for hardship relies on the neighborhood’s desire for a lower scale building, not because a seven-story building is impracticable. The case then relies on the presumption that the University would not be able obtain the necessary zoning variances to build a building at seven stories, therefore creating a hardship.

Commissioner John Mattioni put forward a motion to deny the hardship, which was defeated. Sara Merriman then motioned to accept the hardship, which was approved 6-3 with one abstention. Penn will need to get its zoning permits and finalize project financing before demolition commences.

The hardship finding will allow Penn to raze the site at 40th and Pine, and they are proposing a new five-story residential building for the site.  The Commission’s Architectural Committee approved this design in concept in late April, and at Friday’s hearing architect Sam Olshin presented Atkins Olshin Schade’s designs for the development. Neighbors again expressed disappointment with the conceptual design’s scale, but members of the Historical Committee found the design to be “compatible” with the neighborhood.

The full Commission approved the five-story proposal in concept by a vote of 8-1 (with one abstention.)

Paul Boni, attorney for a group of Spruce Hill and Woodland Terrace neighbors, said that his clients plan to challenge the Commission’s hardship findings. The next battleground for this property will be at neighborhood zoning meetings and a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing.

38th and Chestnut:

The Episcopal Cathedral could get a 25-story tower built on its campus at 38th and Chestnut.

Next the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral presented a hardship application, with the assistance of Neil Sklaroff, an attorney with Ballard Spahr. The Cathedral is applying for permission to demolish two historically designated rowhouses on its campus at 38th and Chestnut streets in order to build a 25-story residential tower that they say will support its mission, social services, and create a stream of revenue that will enable restoration work to the historic Cathedral building.

The Episcopal Cathedral is seeking permission for this demolition under a different hardship provision called “necessary public interest,” which is a stricter test, but one that is less clearly defined in the preservation ordinance than financial hardship. The Commission’s past positions on this type of hardship have concentrated on whether or not a proposed project will result in a broad public benefit.

After a two hours of testimony about the dire condition of the Cathedral itself and the proposed tower’s design and site plan, the question of public interest came to the fore. The benefits being claimed are the restoration of the Cathedral building, and the religious and social services provided at the Cathedral’s facilities.

Commissioner Dominique Hawkins questioned whether or not the demolition and proposed development would, in reality, lead to the necessary restoration work at the Cathedral. She asked, “If the purpose of the public interest is to save this building, but yet this application doesn’t save the building…then what is it for?” Sklaroff replied that the public benefit is often indirect.

John Gallery, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, strongly questioned the necessity of this public benefit and the indirect outcome of the Cathedral’s potential restoration. Based on the limited evidence presented, Gallery cast doubt on the project’s financial viability as well as the likelihood that the Cathedral building will be restored with the possible funds yielded by the residential development.

“There is no guarantee to you that any of the public interest objectives stated by the church, even if you accept them, can be accomplished by what you’ve been given,” Gallery said.

Of particular concern to Gallery was the concept that sacrificing two historic brownstone rowhouses was acceptable because the Cathedral is a more important historic building. They are equal in designation and to Gallery this kind of relativism “is a terribly, terribly dangerous path for the Commission to go down.”

The Commission’s votes ended in a deadlock at 4-4 with one abstention. The hardship case was tabled, and will be heard in the next six months.

Sister Cities Park opened on Thursday, one year to the day after construction began on the Parkway’s newest park. As part of Eyes on the Street’s focus on the Parkway this month, I recently shared a look at Sister Cities Park while it was still under construction earlier this spring. I went back to Sister Cities late on Thursday to see the finished park in action. The fountain was on, kids were playing in the stream, people were taking in the scenery on the beautiful evening.

As part of LOVE Your Park week, Sister Cities has a grand opening celebration on Saturday, May 12. If you stop by, let us know what you think or share your photos in our Flickr group. The new park is open seven days a week, from 6am to 1am.

 

Developer Michael Samschick's Pennthouses at Penn Treaty Village, Brown Street and Delaware Avenue..

Developer Michael Samschick took PlanPhilly’s Kellie Patrick Gates around his residential reuse of the auto-storage buildings at Brown Street and Delaware Avenue. Samschick showed off the building’s “smart” tech features, talked about his vision for the blocks he owns on Delaware Avenue and how that overlaps with the Master Plan for the Central Delaware.

Can L&I’s review board trump the Historical Commission? That’s the key question for Common Pleas Court Judge Idee Fox as she considers the fate of the Church of the Assumption hardship case. PlanPhilly’s Alan Jaffe was at the hearing and reports that Judge Fox will issue a ruling in about one month.

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project wants to replace an old bank building at Front and Norris with 25 units of affordable housing, but many neighbors don’t support the project. City Paper checked in at a three-way zoning meeting between Fishtown Neighbors, East Kensington Neighbors Association, and Norris Square Civic Association and found the zoning debate colored by political baggage and mistrust.

What the hell is up with Harrisburg? Councilman Dennis O’Brien wants to know why the state isn’t lifting a finger to help Philadelphia’s public schools dig out of their $300 million hole. City Paper reports that O’Brien launched into a rant during a hearing about $90 million from the property tax increases that the mayor wants to see put toward closing the gap.

 

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.

The building at 40th and Pine is a designated historic property, which after 10 years of trying to redevelop, Penn now wants permission to demolish.

This week three very different hardship cases have the attention of Philadelphia’s preservation community. The Church of the Assumption case was heard Thursday by the Court of Common Pleas, and on Friday two West Philadelphia cases come before the Historical Commission. One involves the Episcopal Cathedral’s campus at 38th and Chestnut, but I am captivated by the strange and important case of a humble white elephant at the corner of 40th and Pine.

At 40th and Pine there stands a once-beautiful Italianate mansion built in the 1850s. It is a designated historic building, but two hugely insensitive additions have left its form horribly disfigured. The property’s recent history as a troubled nursing home, and now as a Penn-owned vacant eyesore have won it few friends, even in the preservation community.

Since purchasing the building in 2003 Penn has tried to find a way to redevelop the property, and restore the existing building to some semblance of its historic past, but nothing has been straightforward.

Penn and its Spruce Hill neighbors share the hope that this problem property can become something, anything, positive. But a mix of delicate community relations, complicated by interrelated zoning and historic preservation concerns have made redevelopment difficult.

The latest twist: Penn is seeking permission from the Historical Commission to demolish the building at 40th and Pine to make way for a residential apartment building at a scale that the neighborhood can abide. This request has issues of its own.

For nearly 10 years Penn has tried to come up with a viable development proposal for 40th and Pine. They looked into restoring the mansion for residential use (the numbers didn’t work), and then searched for a Penn-related use (no takers). Next the University turned to the development community for proposals. In 2007 developers announced plans to build an 11-story extended-stay hotel on the property, which ultimately included restoration of the mansion as part of the scheme. Some neighbors, politicians and ultimately the Zoning Board of Adjustment had objections to the proposed development’s scale. In 2009 the developer backed out, and ultimately built the extended-stay hotel at 41st and Walnut.

Conceptual rendering of the proposed 11-story extended-stay hotel from 2008. | Atkin Olshin Schade Architects

The latest RFP process yielded a residential development proposal by Equinox Management and Construction. Equinox proposed restoring the mansion and building a new seven-story residential building on the site. Again, neighbors think the scale of this proposal is too big and that the site is overused. This is where things get interesting.

As PlanPhilly previously reported, Penn presented its plans for the seven-story development and restoration project to the Historical Commission in October 2011, which approved the proposal by the margin of a single vote. Neighbors and preservation advocates testified [pdf] against the proposed development, objecting to the scale of the seven story portion, calling it “jarring,” “looming,” and a “monster.” No neighbor spoke in support of the project, instead advocating the demolition of the sad building at 40th and Pine in favor of a “preservation of scale.”

“People are saying, we think a smaller building is a higher preservation accomplishment than the denser project that keeps a building that’s as troubled as this one,” explained David Hollenberg, Penn’s University Architect.

The Woodland Terrace Homeowners Association and Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) do not support the current proposal. They object to the project’s overall size, scale, site plan, conceptual design, and density.

“We don’t think this is going to work,” said Barry Grossbach, chair of the Spruce Hill Community Association’s zoning committee. “If the seven story project that we saw was found to be attractive…I think there would have been some support. We were objecting to what we saw.”

In February, the Spruce Hill Community Association passed a resolution of non-opposition to the demolition.

So despite the Commission’s approval for the seven-story project in 2011, and in light of neighborhood objections to the proposed development, Penn changed direction.

Penn submitted an application for financial hardship to the Historical Commission, which was heard and supported by the hardship committee in late April, as PlanPhilly reported. Penn’s argument is essentially this: In order to build a development that is economically feasible, at a height below 7-stories, the designated building needs to be demolished.

The historic mansion at 40th and Pine in 1963. | phillyhistory.org, Department of Records

“I think we’ve come to this conclusion reluctantly, that there really is no way, given the strength of the opposition, to the kind of project that would preserve the building,” Hollenberg said. “There does not seem to be a way to do so.”

Hollenberg’s reluctance is earnest, and Penn has arrived at this position after exhausting other preservation-minded options. Hollenberg is not only an architect, but a committed preservationist who teaches in Penn’s preservation program. As a student there I learned the concept of hardship in his course. He’s not taking this process lightly.

Given the range of rents which Penn and Equinox would like the residential development to support (a mid-market approach that is geared at graduate students), they have determined that a restoration solution would require a seven-story building. Any five-story solution, which the neighborhood would prefer, would necessitate demolition. The Historical Commission’s financial hardship consultant has agreed [pdf] with the numbers supporting this position.

But Penn’s case brings up a mixed message. Penn has put forward a seven-story project (including restoration) and a five-story project (including demolition) that are both financially feasible. So how can Penn claim a financial hardship?

“I think the financial hardship of this property is its zoning,” Hollenberg explained. Given the property’s R5A zoning, anything over three stories will require a zoning variance. And in order to get that variance, Penn wants the support of the neighborhood when it goes before the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Based on the objections of the Spruce Hill Community Association and Woodland Terrace Homeowners Association, it’s Penn’s calculation that the path of least neighborhood conflict is the one of demolition.

So, as Hollenberg explained, the decision to go for a hardship “comes down to our assessment of community relations,” said Hollenberg.

So the question is: Will the neighborhood support the zoning variances required? Even if Penn could make a compelling case before the Zoning Board of Adjustment for its seven-story plus restoration solution, going against the neighborhood’s wishes is bad politics along Penn’s professed western boarder.

Spruce Hill’s Barry Grossbach affirmed that SHCA took a zoning position here. They remain committed to neighborhood preservation, and have taken the position that no new building over five stories tall will win his committee’s approval. But Grossbach is quick to point out, “We have not signed off on any project.”

That’s because Penn hasn’t formally gone through the zoning process.

40th and Pine's crooked cupola.

“We know it should go through zoning to get approval,” Hollenberg acknowledged. But it’s Penn’s sense that the neighborhood won’t support the proposal. So to go through the zoning process “feels like throwing gas on a burning fire.”

Embers of that fire smolder simply from West Philadelphia’s long memory of Penn’s expansion decades ago.

Penn’s position also assumes that a five-story limit is broadly supported. Even if both Spruce Hill and Woodland Terrace initially agreed on a five-story conceptual height limit, some neighbors are now objecting to that option if demolition of the existing building is on the table.

“If I were to say that there was a set consensus in the neighborhood, I would be lying,” Grossbach told me.

So does that mean Penn’s entire hardship case rests on the idea that there is common ground that may not exist? Penn contends they’ve participated in dozens of meetings, and scores of individual conversations with community members to inform their position.

And more to the point of Friday’s Historical Committee meeting, should conceptual zoning opposition to a project by neighborhood groups constitute a preservation hardship?

In other words can community opposition to a rezoning lead to a demolition that also opens a hole in Philadelphia’s preservation ordinance?

Zoning complaints, much less conceptual community-level zoning opposition, are atypical grounds for financial hardship under the preservation ordinance.

Financial Hardship is an escape valve from historic designation that is meant to account for cases where a designated property “cannot be used for any purpose for which it is or may reasonably be adapted.” It is meant to account for buildings where a broad variety of restoration, redevelopment and reuse alternatives are not feasible. It is meant to be a strict test, and is not an asset test for owners.

“The potential for neighborhood opposition as grounds for hardship could be precedent setting,” John Gallery, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, told me. “It does create an issue that would be difficult for the Commission to defend.”

That point is not lost on Penn, which recognizes that its hardship position is a bit unconventional. “I think [Penn’s case] is made less awkward by the preservation voices speaking out for demolition and by knowing that we’ve tried so hard for ten years,” Hollenberg said.

Losing this badly altered historic building is one thing, setting bad precedent is another.

“What I’m worried about is the precedent for preservation policy, not for the building,” Hollenberg acknowledged. “No one is going to throw themselves in front of a bulldozer for this building.”

The issue is, in part, that this case doesn’t fit neatly into the preservation ordinance’s hardship provisions. Penn’s application for hardship [pdf] acknowledges that this is an unusual case, but the university has spent years exploring development alternatives for this property that would see the original building restored.

There is one major point of agreement: something’s got to change at the corner of 40th and Pine.

“What bothers me more than anything else is the building isn’t contributing a thing to the corner of 40th and Pine, and hasn’t for a long period of time and we want to go ahead and see it do so,” said Ed Datz, Penn’s Executive Director of Real Estate.

Barry Grossbach agrees. “The current site is a disgrace. It is a collapsing, deteriorating building.”

This case is on this Friday’s Historical Commission agenda. The Commission will meet at 1515 Arch Street, room 18-029, at 9am.

2010 "Run to Rebuild" participants crossed the finish line despite the rainy weather - Photo credit: Rebuilding Together Philadelphia

There is still time to register for Rebuilding Together Philadelphia’s “Run to Rebuild” 5K run and 2 mile walk.

The event will begin on Forbidden Drive in Chestnut Hill and loop participants through Fairmount Park on Saturday May 19. The run will generate funds and awareness for RTP’s mission and work throughout Philadelphia.

RTP is an organization dedicated to bringing volunteers and communities together in an effort to rebuild and restore homes throughout the city. This fundraiser will make more home repairs possible, RTP said, and because the proceeds will be combined with volunteer efforts, every dollar raised will translate into five dollars worth of repairs.

The first “Run to Rebuild” was held in September 2010, and RTP hopes to turn the run, which was thought up by a volunteer and avid runner, into an annual event.

The fundraiser is open to new and old runners alike as well as families and teams. Registration for individuals is $30, and registration for teams of five or more is $25 per person. Children 12-years-old and younger run for free. Raffles, prizes and refreshments will await runners at the end of their course.

For complete registration and day-of-race instructions visit http://www.rebuildingphilly.org/runtorebuild.htm

The Dixie Hummingbirds | phillytrax, Eyes on the Street Flickr group

When L&I Commissioner Fran Burns becomes executive director of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority in June, Carlton Williams will take the helm at L&I. PlanPhilly’s Jared Brey reports that Williams is a deputy commissioner at the Streets Department where he has overseen recycling and cleanup programs.

The City Council budget hearing roadshow stopped in Lawncrest on Wednesday, but NEast Philly wonders if can even be called a real hearing with only six council members present? Neighbors called for more L&I enforcement, restored parks funding, a more sensible and transparent approach to the city’s property tax changes, and protested rolling firehouse brownouts.

Huntingdon Yarn Mill in Port Richmond is one of Philadelphia’s rare textile manufacturing survivors, a holdover from one of the city’s strongest industrial sectors. Hidden City Daily pays a visit to the thriving mill, to talk shop with its owners about their vintage machinery, skilled workforce, and what it means to be Made in America.

The Redevelopment Authority is seeking proposals for an 18,000 square foot site in Francisville along Folsom and 18th streets. The Business Journal reports that the land will be sold as one large parcel and development proposals are due on June 21.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.

Art on the Avenue Gallery

The May Second Friday on Lancaster Avenue will kick off with the opening of disTURBIA, an installation and drawings exhibit by Raluca Ungureanu at the Art on the Avenue Gallery at 3808 Lancaster Ave.

Raluca Ungureanu is a New York City-based independent artist and landscape architect known internationally for her drawings and sculptures. Ungureanu’s sculpture and drawing exhibit at Art on the Avenue Gallery is the first in a series of shows featuring Eastern European artists who lived or live in the United States.

Second Friday is a monthly event hosted on Lancaster Ave. Modeled off of popular First Friday events throughout the country, this monthly series is a collaborative effort of local shops and galleries who stay open later and host various specials and events featuring original artworks and live music.

The Fairmount Park Art Association is now the Association for Public Art.

The Fairmount Park Art Association has changed its name for the first time since 1872. Now it’s the Association for Public Art (aPA is how they want it abbreviated), a name which the organization feels more successfully captures their mission.

This week construction started on a new tactical training facility at the Police Academy in Upper Holmesburg, reports NEast Philly. The new facility will serve the K-9, bomb squad, and SWAT units.

What does Vince Fumo have to do with the current property tax debate? The Daily News reports, Fumo passed a bill 24 years ago that would allow City Council to provide property tax relief to long-term homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods. The only problem was that Council couldn’t decide how to do it. Now, in light of concerns about the Actual Value Initiative, Council President Darrell Clarke wants to use the authority given by Fumo’s bill and gear its relief towards low-income residents.

Tom Ferrick makes the case for the School District’s radical realignment based on the academic performance of the majority of 11th graders: “below basic.” He writes, “They are dead when it comes to a future in the job market. They are zombies.” To defend the way the system currently functions, Ferrick contends, is to keep turning out kids who are unprepared and unable to work.

Philadelphia University in East Falls was given $15 million to support its new interdisciplinary College of Design, Engineering and Commerce. The gift from Maurice Kanbar, founder of Skyy Vodka, is the largest in the university’s history, reports the Business Journal.

 

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The children's discovery garden and boat pond in the new Sister Cities Park.

You’d be forgiven for forgetting Logan Square’s old Sister Cities Plaza, but the new Sister Cities Park that replaces it is hard to miss. In an era of slim budgets, most public spaces are opting for ligher/quicker/cheaper improvements, but the new Sister Cities Park is brimming with major interventions.

On May 10, 2011 crews broke ground at Sister Cities Plaza and a year later to the day, this Thursday, Center City District and the City will open Sister Cities Park to the public. The new park is a playful take on the Parkway itself, connecting nature, urbanity, and culture.

Sister Cities Plaza was a stark bicentennial-era commemoration of Philadelphia’s 10 sister cities, set in an easterly remnant of Logan Square. These edges of Logan Square, like Aviator Park and Shakespeare Park are being reclaimed. But the transformation of Sister Cities is by far the most ambitious.

The new park’s design at the hands of landscape architects Studio Bryan Hanes and the architecture firm Digsau packs the space with activity through a fountain, pavilion, and children’s discovery garden.

I’ve been photographing construction since last summer and a few weeks back I was lucky enough to preview the park before the finishing touches were put on. Here’s what I saw then:

Sister Cities Fountain plaza:

Sister Cities Fountain features the names of Philadelphia's 10 sister cities etched in granite around an abstracted globe.

At the park’s southern end is a garden surrounding Sister Cities Fountain, an abstracted globe with Philadelphia at its center. It’s a subtly formal, educational space where the names of our 10 sister cities are etched into the granite pavers making up the globe, and each city is represented by a jet of water proportional in scale to its distance from Philadelphia.  The fountain’s jets are programmable, so they may be steady streams or jump across the fountain. The surrounding benches were made from granite salvaged from the old plaza.

You might be thinking that another fountain at Logan Square is overkill, but the scale is much smaller here. “The star of the show needs to be this,” Bryan Hanes told me, gesturing to Swann Fountain. He added that the materials, tones and textures at Sister Cities Park are distinctly deferential to Swann Fountain. And the site plan focuses much of the action toward 18th Street, while remaining oriented toward the Parkway.

Children’s Discovery Garden:

On top of the rocky hill in the discovery garden, meant to echo the Wissahickon.

The design team wanted to bring elements of Fairmount Park onto the Parkway, and the discovery garden is meant evoke a child-sized Wissahickon. The rocky hill at the northern end – a surprising change in grade– has a trail, logs, and a stream winding its way down to the pool below. The plantings and decorative fence are also expicit nods to the flora and fauna of the Wissahickon.

After being inside the Academy of Natural Sciences or Franklin Institute for part of the day, the discovery garden is “about finding a way for kids to engage… get a little bit wet, a little bit dirty,” said Hanes. Kids can amble along the hill or push rented toy boats around in the pool.

Park Pavilion:

The park pavilion's dramatic overhang is meant to evoke a rock outcropping.

Bridging the formality of the Sister Cities Fountain plaza and the charmingly rustic children’s garden is an inviting, modern pavilion. Digsau’s Jules Dingle described the pavilion as a threshold space, designed to create a “seamless transition from city to garden.”

Dingle explained that the pavilion’s form deliberately echoes “rock forms that might loom overhead and create shelter” somewhere deep in the Wissahickon. The texture and tone of the pavilion’s natural materials soften the design’s sharp angles, and create a critical visual link in the park’s landscape. From inside, the glassy walls provide a 260° vista of Sister Cities Park, Swann Fountain, and the Parkway beyond.

The pavilion’s walls are clad with chocolaty blocks of Emerson Limestone that is either buffed smooth, revealing striations that look like wood grain, or left rough. The ceiling is covered with cedar planks, which move from the building’s interior through the glass walls out onto the underside of the pavilion’s overhanging roofs. Over it all, a green roof pulls the plantings from the discovery garden up on top of the pavilion.

Beyond serving as a unifying design feature, the pavilion will house a Fairmount Park Visitor’s Center outpost and a café operated by Milk and Honey which will help underwrite the park’s upkeep by the Center City District.

Heavy Program:

For such a small area, it’s striking how heavily the new park is programmed. It’s a café! It’s a fountain! It’s a discovery garden and boat pond! It’s a small space, but all of this action is in service of a goal: To create activity and attract people to this part of the Parkway.

“We’re putting uses in there that draw people into the park,” Center City District President Paul Levy told me, contrasting Sister Cities with Aviator Park across the Square, which is more passive. People attract people. So if the area around a park lacks the density and foot traffic then the space can be activated by adding attractions within the park. Think Rittenhouse Square vs. Franklin Square.

The park’s program also makes Sister Cities feels like a place for all seasons. I can imagine putting my hands in the fountain on a hot day, or ducking into the pavilion for a coffee, to watch snow fall on the park in winter. The plan is to keep the park open 365 days a year from 6am-1am.

But is Sister Cities overdone? We’ll have to see how it feels when people start using the park.

“We’re walking a really fine line,” Bryan Hanes acknowledged. He told me this kind of heavy programming is atypical of his work, but the goal here is to attract people. “We’re trying to give this place a job.”

 

The ribbon will be cut at Sister Cities Park on Thursday at 1pm, and it will officially open Saturday May 12th –  LOVE Your Park day – with a day full of family-friendly activities.

———

Pricetag: $4.6 million

Management: 30-year lease from the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation to Center City District

Partners/Funders: Center City District, Department of Parks and Recreation, Pew Charitable Trusts, William Penn Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, State Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

 

 

The 17th Police District Bicycle Registry, an online bike registration pilot program launched in Philadelphia’s 17th Police District, hopes to help the city reduce its rampant bike theft problem.

The South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) safety bommittee, Bicycle Coalition and 17th Police District have teamed up to pilot the new online bike registry for the neighborhoods within Lombard and Moore streets and Broad Street and the Schuylkill River. Residents can now fill in the online registration form and within two weeks of doing so visit the 17th Police District to have a designated serial number etched into their bicycles.

Those piloting the program hope the registration will help police return stolen bicycles to their rightful owners and ultimately cut down on bicycle theft.

According to a 2011 report by the Bicycle Coalition, Philadelphia is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities with twice as many bicycle commuters, per capita, than any other major U.S. city and an increase in bicycle commuting by 151 percent from 2000 to 2009. The 17th Police District in particular has some of the highest ridership figures in the state.

Yet other numbers show a high level of bike theft throughout the city. In 2008, Kryptonite, the popular bicycle and action sport lock company, ranked Philadelphia the #1 city for bike theft.

Though the pilot program is only for residents in the 17th Police District, those leading the initiative say if successful, it will likely be expanded citywide.

The John H. McClatchy Building | photo via Curbed, by Laura Kicey

Take a sneak peek into the new Hotel Monaco at 5th and Chestnut with the Business Journal. Kimpton has reclaimed the historic but neglected Lafayette building and should be finished building out Hotel Monaco this fall.

Meet José M. Almiñana, a landscape architect with Andropogon and member of the Philadelphia Art Commission. PlanPhilly’s JoAnn Greco cruised some Andropogon design projects with Almiñana, from the Kroc Center to Lubert Plaza at Jefferson, and discussed the landscape perspective he brings to the Art Commission.

Kensington Blues reveals a heavy, but human picture of addiction and life on Kensington Avenue. The website is a project of photographer Jeffrey Stockbridge, featuring street portraits of people – mostly women – he meets on and around Kensington Avenue, alongside their personal stories of addiction, prostitution, homelessness, and often the desire to clean up.

Curbed Philly visits Upper Darby’s John H. McClatchy Building and shares a photo essay of the exuberantly embellished historic building at the 69th Street transit hub.

PennPraxis is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In an Inquirer opinion piece today PennPraxis Executive Director Harris Steinberg reflects on Philadelphia’s progressive planning sea change and PennPraxis’ contributions to this shift over the last decade. On Saturday, join PennPraxis for a forward-looking discussion about what the next 10 years should hold.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.