It started with a lock and a “No Trespassing” sign. They appeared one day on the fence at Lawrence and Master streets, next to a hand-painted sign reading, “La Finquita,” or…
There never was a Civic Design Review (CDR) meeting that passed without strife, but April’s Tuesday meeting was especially contentious. Two multi-family projects, one on Germantown Avenue in South Kensington and…
The clock is ticking on a project to transform North American Street in Kensington from a barren industrial roadway into a verdant, commercial avenue. If the city doesn’t meet rapidly approaching…
January’s Civic Design Review kicked off 2017 with a bang. During the course of the almost three-and-a-half-hour meeting, the experts on the panel tried to shame a developer into building a…
The Art Commission’s meeting Wednesday began the year with a bang. The contentious proposal to deaccession stained glass bus shelters on Chestnut Street consumed much of the energy, but the rest…
North American Street could become the city’s premiere example of a green street, using the road’s expansive width to soak up stormwater with a 28-foot wide bioswale running up the center…
On Friday afternoon, Clifford Brown planted beet seeds in tidy rows at La Finquita, a volunteer-run market farm in rapidly redeveloping South Kensington. It’s spring business-as-usual for this 28-year-old urban farm,…
Blackstone Development’s proposal for a 76-unit apartment complex on a formerly industrial vacant lot in South Kensington hit a roadblock yesterday, when the Civic Design Review (CDR) Committee asked the developers…
It was a “classic bait and switch,” said Leah Murphy. When City Council adopted the most recent zoning change for the huge vacant lot at 2nd and Master streets, South Kensington…
Philadelphia’s Civic Design Review Committee will consider three residential projects at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. Developers of a proposed apartment complex at 401 Race Street will present for the second…
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission approved plans on Tuesday for two major housing developments scheduled for N. 5th Street in Northern Liberties and South Kensington. The projects, at Fairmount and just…
The image above, taken from the Lower North PCPC presentation, shows proposed changes west of Broad Street. See more maps and other images within the full presentation, included beneath this article.…
The Philadelphia City Planning Commission reviewed district-level comprehensive plans for the Lower North and Central Northeast sections of Philadelphia Tuesday. District-level plans apply the goals and concepts of the city-wide comprehensive…
There weren't big changes in the latest version of the Lower North District plan presented last week at Temple's Howard Gittis Student Center. But reaction to the plan was more positive…
The final large, public meeting on the the Lower North District Plan – which will serve as the city's guide to future development in North Philadelphia, North Central, Norris Square, Olde…
Residents of Lower North Philadelphia have already told city planners the Lower North District-level Comprehensive Plan should support current homeowners. “We've heard what you said,” city planner and Lower North project…
As afforable housing developments age, managing and preserving them, both physically and financially, while neighborhoods change and energy costs rise is becoming a key concern for community developers. Here’s a look…
From the outset, city planners crafting the Lower North District Plan have said its neighborhoods present challenges far greater than those earlier district plans tackled, related mostly to a sharp population…
Blackstone Development’s plan for a 191-unit, mixed-use project on an industrial parcel at Germantown Ave. and Thompson Street in South Kensington was subject to Civic Design Review Tuesday afternoon, and the…