August 30: Pearl replaced by AMC | Archiving open data | Fatal crashes up in 2015

A four-alarm fire consumed a century-old stone Presbyterian church on Lansdowne Avenue near 65th Street on Monday. The Inquirer reports that more than 100 firefighters fought the blaze, which burned for two hours and left the building unstable. Five congregations used the building.

The Pearl Theatre on North Broad Street closed over the weekend and is being replaced by an AMC Theatre, Philly.com reports. Developer Bart Blatstein, whose company built the Pearl, said the AMC would be “high-end” – think plush, reclining seats and better concessions. AMC will start operating the theater this week and renovate it next year.

With more open data online, there are new challenges with preserving these data. Metro reports that Temple Library received a grant from the Knight Foundation to research how to best archive open data on platforms like Open Data Philly.

The U.S. Department of Transportation released 2015 crash data this week, revealing that nationwide 7.2% more people died in 2015 in traffic-related crashes than in 2014. The feds are asking for the public’s help in analyzing these data to learn what’s behind the uptick.

Architectural Digest gives a nod to the impressive environmentally-responsive features at 3.0 University Place, an office building under development aiming for LEED-Platinum.

You can listen back to Monday’s Radio Times on the politics of infrastructure with New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney and reporter Michael Symons, then Nick Timaraos of the Wall Street Journal and Robert Puentes of the Eno Center for Transportation.