Happy Veterans Day | Old West Philly High apartments? | Drexel looks east | Tarken Ice Rink reborn | Winding Rose Park development | formerly homeless housing at Broad and Fairmount

Good morning and Happy Veterans Day, Streeters. In observance of the holiday, government offices and public schools are closed today, and trash pickup is pushed back one day. There are a host of Veterans Day events today, should you be looking to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful day while honoring those who have served our country. Today also happens to be Auguste-René Rodin’s birthday today (thanks Google) so maybe a trip to the recently renovated Rodin museum is in order if you’ve got the day off. 

The Old West Philly High School will likely be converted into 300 rental apartments, reports West Philly Local. At a community meeting the leading bidder for the old school, New York-based Strong Place Partners, said they hope retain as many of the architectural features as possible, including one of the theaters and the gym. The ground floor there will be 15,000 square-feet of retail space, and apartments will range from small studios to 1,600 square-foot lofts geared at grad students and junior faculty from the universities.

Could Drexel expand over the Schuylkill Rail Yard? It’s a tricky but enticing prospect for the space-constrained university, so Drexel has embarked on a feasibility study (in partnership with Amtrak and SEPTA) to fully investigate the possibility of an eastward expansion, the Inquirer reports. Drexel is particularly interested in building over a train storage yard that takes up 55 acres of the huge rail yard, to could create a new link between their growing “innovation neighborhood” with Center City.

Tarken Ice Rink in Oxford Circle officially reopened after a $3.3 million renovation this summer, reports the Inquirer. The renovation enclosed the rink, which previously could only be used during the 12 coldest weeks of the year, and improved the facilities at Tarken beyond the ice. The rink renovation is one of several, financed by grants from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation and state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

A privately owned lot that is part of Winding Roses Park could be developed, and neighbors see the news as another sign of Francisville’s gentrification, reports the Daily News. Since the 1990s community members have come to use Winding Roses Park, at the corner of Uber and Brown, as a community space for celebrations and remembrances. The lot in question – one of five that comprise the green space – was sold by the city to a developer, and neighbors say the city should work harder to swap lots with the developer so that Winding Roses can remain.

As Francisville booms with development and North Broad bubbles with activity, a new 55-unit housing development for formerly homeless and low-income individuals will break ground this week at the triangular lot where Ridge and Fairmount meet Broad, reports Hidden City Daily. The project is a joint effort by Project H.O.M.E, People for People Inc. and the Francisville Neighborhood Development Corporation, with grants from the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation and the Middleton Partnership. Sister Mary Scullion, co-founder of Project H.O.M.E. says, “Over time, this project will give hundreds of people a decent home with supportive services that will allow them to flourish.”

 

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

 

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