SPOTTED: Dilworth Park, Mormon towers, La Colombe, copper domes

Our eyes are ever peeled for interesting sights and sites. Here’s what we spotted this week:

Dilworth Plaza to Park

Construction on Dilworth Plaza – excuse me Dilworth Park (when did that name change happen?) – is entering its final months of construction and work at the ground level is revealing the shape of the space to come. Among the latest improvements are new trees, such as Honey locust, Black locust, Katsura and London plane. One recent rainy day I saw trees being hoisted from a flatbed truck onto the plaza. Now that they’re planted you can see the “tree groves” along with the glassy subway entrance pavilions, which are also taking shape. Their curves and material are meant to defer to and frame City Hall’s majestic architecture. Construction should finish in September.

As for that name change, Center City District, which will manage the new public space, has a new website about Dilworth Park. You can also watch Dilworth Park being built via construction cam. 

Mormon Temple Towers

Over at 18th and Vine the Mormon Temple is rising. In the last few weeks steel structure has been framed and shows a hint of what’s to come. Lately the two towers have come into view. You can follow along with the temple’s construction via photographs shared online. 

La Colombe Cometh

As PlanPhilly reported back in 2013, Philly coffee giant La Colombe won zoning approval to open a flagship store on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown. By the looks of it the project is progressing nicely. This La Colombe will include a café, a roasting facility and a “lab” space. As for that liquor notice outside: La Colombe is sticking with its plans to have a distillery on site for its coffee-filtered rum. On the inside: art by Steve Powers of Love Letters fame.

To The Dome

Last summer when I wrote about the closing of Antiquarian’s Delight, a longtime vintage emporium in a former synagogue on South 6th Street, I was curious about how preservation-friendly the new owners would be. We knew residential conversion was likely but the 109-year-old building is not afforded protection through historic designation. After an extensive gutting, construction has been chugging along. If the gleaming copper domes are any indication, there’s real hope that the building is in good hands. They are spectacular.