Or if this were Jeopardy, that might be Podge-Pourri. Got an email from the good Doctor G yesterday asking why there was no love for 777 in the mishmash construction update yesterday. I thought this was some weird sysadmin world-writable permissions question and, like so many emails, I shrugged it off saying to myself "yes yes I know Philly Skyline could use blog software and yes I know Wordpress is up to version 2.7 now and every version gets better and the wp-content/uploads folder needs to be chmod'd 777 in order to create the image graphics you see on blogs and blah blah blah but I actually don't mind the html writing even if everyone knows how much easier it all would be." But then I realized Dr G is Dr G-Ho, so he was talking about 777 South Broad. So the photo above is the birds eye perch of that project's progress, or seen together with its pink big brother Symphony House, it might be considered Dranoff Village. 777 South Broad is about as ideal an infill project as we could ask for at that location at this point in our history. It's good looking, it's the right "scale" (if you believe in scale), and it brings a block of the city's most important street back to life after years of waiting on one of Will Smith's Big Ideas to finally fall through. I'm sure the Popeye's Chicken across the street is salivating at the prospect of a whole block's worth of new residents . . . SALIVATING RIGHT INTO YOUR POPCORN SHRIMP. God that's disgusting. * * * It's with a heavy heart that Philly Skyline finally confirms what has been whispered down the line, that the economy has claimed a victim close enough to home that we truly know what all the fuss is about: Conspiracy Showroom is closing. The girls have done an excellent job in the two and a quarter years they've been on 2nd Street, but for all the drinking options nearby -- Standard Tap, North Bowl, Azure/Cantina II, the Liberties Walk places -- 2nd Street just isn't quite the go-to shopping corridor you'd think that neighborhood would have by now. It seems like it should be Main Street Northern Liberties, and by default it sort of is, but for all the positive articles in the New York Times and TV profiles, it still has its bleak spots like the empty lots on the corner of Laurel and the vacant storefronts from deadbeat landlords who don't live in Philadelphia, and the street itself between Girard and Poplar is a veritable drag racing strip. Why there isn't a stop sign at Laurel, or George, or even Germantown, I don't know. It's amazing no one has been killed there yet . . . maybe once Bart Blatstein's development reaches all the way across the former Schmidt's site, it will have some sort of break in the traffic. Anyway, Conspiracy. Rachel, Suzie and Typhaney had a great run and got some great press, and they'll continue making the clothes and jewelry, only taking their respective wares and shops fully online. Tomorrow (Saturday the 7th) marks their final day open and they're having an Everything Must Go sale, and that includes bigtime markdowns on everything -- including Philly Skyline calendars! It's already February and you should have one by now anyway, but if you don't, get em in person tomorrow for ten bucks. As well, there will be 8x10 full color prints of the Philly Skyline by yours truly, also for the low low price of $10. Go send the gals your regards, and come home with a Philly Skyline token. Conspiracy is at 910 N 2nd Street (just above Poplar, directly across the street from North Bowl). * * * I'm disappointed in Michael Phelps. Seriously, significantly, severely disappointed in the eight gold medal having Olympian. Here was the greatest chance norml normal, everyday Americans who happen to smoke pot could engage in a serious conversation with the puritanical generations who've kept this plant that grows in the ground illegal because of decades of reefer madness. But no, Phelps played it safe, listening to his publicists worried about his endorsement deals instead of standing up for himself, and standing up for the millions and millions and millions of us who know and understand that marijuana is a relatively harmless drug. Michael Phelps is a swimmer for chrissakes. I think he understands how his lungs work. I think he's done pretty OK for himself, in spite of smoking a little weed. The dude won eight gold medals . . . I think he's entitled to a couple rips off a two footer. Why some college jackass took his picture and sold it to a tabloid newspaper (a British one at that) . . . well, I guess people will sell anyone out for a dollar. A lot of people smoke it. Like the Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. Like the President of the United States -- each of the last three, for that matter, not to mention the founding fathers who grew and cultivated the stuff. The Washington Post's generally conservative columnist Kathleen Parker gets it. This whole story is ridiculous -- it's a small time crime from a party at a university, and that it's a crime at all is the problem. Instead of calling it like it is -- that pot laws are outdated and need to go, get gone, fully gone, fully off the books, keeping otherwise really relaxed people out of jail -- the mouth breathing media has predictably made a circus out of it, criticizing Phelps for fucking up when he's on top of the world and should be the role model they've made him out to be. Monger those scandals, ye Wolf Blitzers of 24 hour news cycles, we haven't had enough yellow journalism in our lifetime. You know what? I bet Phelps has watched porn before, too. I bet he's even had premarital sex. SCANDAL. Common sense will prevail . . . someday. It has to. Cannabis is a plant. It grows in the ground. You clip the buds from the plant. You roll them up into a big fatty, or you dry them out, grind them up and make really tasty baked goods with them. Super happy funtime magic baked goods. Who is it hurting? Only the people who are being arrested for it, for reasons lost through time. Was it the cotton industry's propaganda? Was it the fear of it being a gateway drug, the biggest myth of all time? I've never done heroin or PCP or meth . . . how'd I manage to stay away from those "harder" drugs in the past sixteen years? Reefer madness is alive and well in 2009, and it is a goddamn shame. C'mon Phelps, grow some balls. For the love of god, LEGALIZE IT already. * * * Speaking of legal highs, Philadelphia's biggest contribution to modern rock & roll is playing a free show today at noon as part of XPN's Free at Noon series. Our good friends Dr Dog take the stage at World Café Live today, so if you were unable to score the free tickets to the show, tune into 88.5 at high noon for a free preview of the boys before they head back out next week for yet another tour across the country. Those dudes are animals, rock & roll dogs with Michael Phelps stamina to be out on the road as much as they are. Go 'head, Dr Dog, and enjoy the scenery. * * * Welp, that's gonna do it for another week here on yr Skyline. I hope you've had as much fun as I have . . . and I hope we've all learned something, grown together. There are some things left that we may not understand . . . why do middle aged men who drive convertibles put the top down but keep the windows rolled up? Why is Market Street one-way between 19th Street and City Hall, and why is JFK Boulevard not two-way? Why do some gas pumps not have the little lock thing so that you can't squeegee your windshield while you're filling your tank, and instead you have to stand there holding it like a jackass? Why do Americans not get the escalator concept of stand-right, walk-left? . . . but like Septa, we're getting there. It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive. It's such a happy feeling, you're growing inside. And when you wake up ready to say . . . I think I'll make a snappy new day. It's such a good feeling, a very good feeling, the feeling you know that I'll be back when the day is new. And I'll have more ideas for you. And you'll have things you'll want to talk about. I will too. Now stop bogarting that thing and pass it to the left -- puff puff give! * * * Peace in the Middle East, vaya con Dios, take 'er easy, and a big shout to my man Dave at the bar -- here's that shot I told you about. –B Love

5 February 09: Catching up with . . .
the stuff we didn't get to on Tuesday

FAST BLAST construction update #4, this time without De La Soul is Dead references. I lied. Come on, everybody let's baseball. Starting above, we see the major progress being made on the healthcare campus mentioned with the South Street Bridge post the other day. With the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine now open and on billboards all along 95, the Research Building and the Proton Center are right behind it. This little area has developed its own little skyline, hasn't it? In Houston, the Texas Medical Center is its own standalone section of the city, not unlike University City but a bit further out. The area grown by UPenn Health System and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in just the past 10 years could easily pass for a mid-sized city's skyline, akin to Wilmington's or Peoria's. Penn Tower, previously the tallest building in the area, is slated to be demolished in the University's eastward expansion master plan and be replaced by a shorter, more modern building, along with the expansion of the Archaeology and Anthropology Museum. * * * Heading down 17th Street, we see that the überest, luxuriousest of the über luxury condo set is now five stories above ground on its way to 31. 1706 Rittenhouse is touted for its robot-valeted parking garage and its 360° views that will include close-ups of the Medical Tower across the street (in background above) and 250 South 17th Street across the alley, close enough that you could borrow a cup of sugar by reaching out your window. Though the tower does sit on Rittenhouse Square Street, it does not sit on the Square itself, and views of the Square from the tower are blocked by the Barclay. However, prospective buyers here will be happy to learn that Laurie Phillips is the listing agent, and her office is on Rittenhouse Square, so you'll at least have a view of the park while you're signing the check for the $5 million new home that will not have a view of it. 1706 Rittenhouse opens in spring 2010. * * * The largest scale demolition in my nine years in Philadelphia (not including Veterans Stadium) is beginning to fill back up with its replacement, the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. This view looks toward 13th & Arch across the full-block construction zone from near Broad & Race. * * * Nothing new from the outside to report at the Architects Building, soon to be the Palomar Philadelphia, but I do like this birds eye view of the poster child of Philadelphia art deco and its terrific neighbor across the street, the First Baptist Church. Built in 1899 and designed by Edgar Viguers Seeler (who was also behind the Curtis Center and the oldest part of the Penn Mutual Building diagonal from it), the church is also home to the Victorian Society of America in addition to its active congregation. * * * Over at an old haunt of da Skyline, it looks like Murano is still looking for retail tenants on its ground floor. Perhaps no pizza shops wish to compete with the Papa John's across the street; perhaps new adult bookstores concede that The Forum is established enough. Of these I am unsure. The last rumor I'd heard was that Mercedes-Benz was looking to open a showroom at Murano, but as a foreign car company, they're not enjoying the influx of free billions from our government the domestic ones are. C'est la. On the bright side, the color scheme on Murano's ground floor is really snazzy! * * * We touched briefly upon the Cira Centre South project on Tuesday and its apparent stall. Aside from the opening of the new flagship post office (which Inga Saffron commented "doesn't deliver"), not much has gone on visibly since the demolition of the 50s-era Post Office Annex. That's not stopping Brandywine Realty from wrapping its Cira Centre shuttle buses in Cira Centre South ads, next to the image of the skyline before its competing Comcast Center opened: However, the IRS' consolidation in the former flagship post office, seen in the next photo, is on schedule to be completed in summer 2010. * * * Finally, just below the former Post Office Annex is the former Post Office Annex's parking lot, currently a moonscape of test borings, dirt and snow. While we've got all this dirt dug up, we ought to drop a time capsule into it with this photo, so that thirty years from now (by which Penn's eastward expansion vision should be realized) to see how far we've come. To get there, just hop across the Goldie Paley Memorial Bridge, head toward the Weave Bridge, and stop somewhere in the middle of Penn Park. You can't miss it. Click that to enlarge that, and say hi to 10 Rittenhouse peaking out in the Philly Skyline. That building had its first February update as well, for those playing along at home. –B Love

4 February 09: Snow Day in old Kensington

Where in the world have you bean all day, Bee Love? I'll tell ya, I got me my snow day so I was out snowin' around snowy Fishtown. Nice snowy night to take the wife out for her birthday dinner night night, Restaurant Week menus tailor made for such an occasion, and have dessert at the ol' bar in the ol' neighborhood, yessirree. Wasn't too crazy about the snowy, slowy cab ride home though, much less the last minute collapse of the Sixers on its radio. Hey hey hey anyway, let it snow. I'm a little late today as I was out for a nice long stroll through Fishtown, making it a point to poke around through the six inches of snow with my eight feet of rod at Palmer Cemetery, or Palmer Burial Ground if you're good and proper. That's an eight foot metal rod, by the way, one used to see if there's room for another casket under there. This is really how it's done. Palmer has been taking the dead for 276 years now, and given its finite space -- the seven acre cemetery is bound by Palmer, Memphis, Belgrade and Montgomery Streets -- ample room does not exactly abound. While Fishtown's famous parochialism is largely exaggerated (at least that I've been able to tell as a relative newcomer, living here for two years now), the rules for acceptance into Palmer Cemetery certainly lend it some weight. To be buried there, there is a rule: you must have been living in Fishtown -- defined by the triangle formed by York Street, Frankford Avenue and the Delaware River -- at the time of your death. But, as long as you meet that one requirement for a spot, your plot is free. The only fee is for the gravedigger's wage, $600 at the time of a nice story on the cemetery by Frank Rubino for the Philadelphia Weekly in 2005. Palmer Burial Ground takes its name from Anthony Palmer, the founder of Kensington and a short term governor of colonial Pennsylvania in the 1740s. Ken Milano, king of Kensington history, has a nice background on the cemetery HERE, and one on Palmer himself HERE. Some of the other names associated with the neighborhood's history -- Adaire, Hewson, Cramp, Shibe -- rest in peace here, in addition to Palmer himself. It's not as well known outside Fishtown as the neighborhood's other green space, Penn Treaty Park, but Palmer Burial Ground is a great little nook. –B Love

3 February 09: Checking in with . . .
South Street Bridge

Please listen to my demo. FAST BLAST construction update #3. And of course right next to the brand new Weave Bridge is what's left of the age old South Street Bridge. The demolition of the bridge began with the closing of traffic on December 8th, and nearly two months in, all that's left of the bridge's deck are the portions that cross CSX', Amtrak's and Septa's railroad tracks and the easternmost portion of the bridge across the Schuylkill River. Looking at the demolition's progress in the photo here . . . . . . it's hard to understand why PennDOT/FHA/Streets Department didn't just demolish the sub-standard left-exit/left-merge ramps and either rebuild them with the standard right side or just eliminate them altogether. Considering the explosive growth of the UPenn/CHOP healthcare facilities just off the western end of South Street, we know for certain that they'd have to be retained for emergencies, so why not rebuild them outright? Sure it would take some engineering trickery, but it's 2009. It could have been done. Then again, so could a world renowned icon linking a major city's residential downtown with an Ivy League university. Dun dun dun. But, here we are, February 2009. SSB's demolition should be wrapped up by the spring, and construction on the new bridge should be underway by the summer. A few photos of the demolition progress, from up close at the foot of the Weave Bridge . . . From the current southern end of the Schuylkill River trail, at Locust . . . And finally, a few from behind Springfield Beer Distributors, where the Schuylkill River trail's next extension will connect it to the new South Street Bridge, bringing the trail itself southward. Take it to the bridge! –B Love

3 February 09: Checking in with . . .
Penn's Weave Bridge

Yo, you don't have to play fly in here -- I can tell you're fly by the weave that you wear. FAST BLAST construction update #2. Just downstream from Drexel on the Schuylkill, or down the line on Amtrak, is the newly-opened-but-not-quite-finished Weave Bridge. The striking bridge, designed by innovative engineer (and Paul Philippe Cret Practice Professor of Architecture at Penn) Cecil Balmond, is a shining diamond in a dirty rough at what will, someday, become the eastward expansion Penn envisions. The Weave Bridge, spanning the Amtrak railroad tracks to bring pedestrians from the main part of campus to the athletic fields and (I ain't no) Hollenback Hall, comes on the early side of Penn Connects, years before another bridge will carry pedestrians across the Schuylkill River and Expressway at Locust Street, and well in advance of the South Street Bridge's reconstruction which, as you may have read on this web site 74 times, Penn put no money toward. The Weave Bridge, however, is a $2 million project that will be interesting to see surrounded by other projects, be they Penn Park or be they new labs/classrooms/halls/whatever. On its own, it's an intriguing bridge, if a little desolate at the moment. In 30-45 minutes there on Saturday, I saw exactly one other person, and he was part of the South Street Bridge demolition crew. I'm sure it's different on weekdays and I'm sure there will be many students using it on their way to the fields behind Hollenback come the spring thaw. Right now though, hooboy there's a big pile of ugly there. Never minding SSB's demolition ongoing above and around the Weave Bridge, the vista includes several parking lots with facilities vehicles, another enormous former USPS parking lot that now has mounds of dirt from test borings, the Levy Tennis Pavilion that looks like a dairy barn in West Virginia, and the reconstruction of the sidewalks around Franklin Field that force you to walk between jersey barriers and the windowless wall of the Ringe Squash Court. All told, though, from the summit of the Weave, the pedestrian is treated to a fine consolation for not having the South Street Bridge's skyline view for a few years. Look up. Philly Skyline. –B Love

3 February 09: Checking in with . . .
Drexel's 34th Street Residence Hall

FAST BLAST construction update #1. This here is Drexel University's latest dorm, going up on 34th Street directly across the street from their Greek Row. The 17 story building designed by Erdy-McHenry breaks that firm's previous dormitory mold which produced Drexel's last dorm just around the corner on Race Street, Temple's Edge at Avenue North, and Penn's Radian. This football shaped building, set to open for the fall semester, is built to house 482 students who will have access to its green roof (and killer view of the skyline). Its ground level is set back from the street and open, thanks to its Citigroup Tower-esque columns and cantilevering. All in all, it's a pretty great looking building -- a significant addition to Drexel's campus described as unsightly by The Princeton Review and ugly by Radar Magazine. Go 'head, Drexel. Go 'head, Philly Skyline FAST BLAST. * * * While we're over here at Drexel, we're gonna check back in with Drexel Park, the community-university compromise at 32nd & Hamilton. As yet there are no benches, no art and no anything but a few trees that have been planted. Benches and tables are apparently coming in the spring. Still, that's a pretty nice view there already. –B Love

2 February 09: Calendar companion:
Church Alley Skyline

Hard to believe we're already a month into 2009. The time, she flies. The new month brings a new subject for Philly Skyline, The Calendar: 2009, or in this instance, three new subjects. Before One Liberty Place blew out any so called gentlemen's agreements, City Hall ruled Philly's stumpy skyline. Before City Hall, the skyline consisted of steeples and smokestacks. There are a lot of smaller cities whose skylines still consist of steeples. Frederick, Maryland's steeples are so engrained into the city's image -- abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of the "clustered spires of Frederick greenwalled in the hills of Maryland" -- that the Blue Ridge Brewery there (now Wild Goose) made a Steeple Stout that is to this date the tastiest stout I ever did taste. The steeples and spires rising over Philly's young skyline were immortalized in many a lithograph, from Scull and Heap to Currier and Ives. Christ Church's was not only the tallest in Philadelphia, but in all the young United States for 56 years. As industry grew the city -- and the city's density -- outward, a second generation skyline of steeples and spires grew with it. The three Catholic churches on Allegheny Avenue -- "Church Alley" -- still stand proudly as Port Richmond's own little skyline, three communities serving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Lord in three different languages. The Philly Church Project is a somewhat recent discovery to me, and they have done a good job checking out different churches around town and telling their story, architecturally, historically and personally. Check it out HERE. I mention this because their depictions of the three churches of our February 2009 calendar subject are better than I could put together, short of attending mass in a religion I don't practice and a language I don't speak, so in the descriptions of the photos below, I'll include a link to PCP's sections for each. * * * We'll begin here at Our Lady Help of Christians, or as a friend of mine says, Our English Help of Headache. It was founded as the Diocese's German parish, but services are no longer offered in German. With the Nativity BVM (more on it in a moment) already well established just down the street, attendance here has dwindled as the German population has died off or moved elsewhere. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful, gothic building with a single spired clock tower. NAME: OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS. ALLEGHENY AND: GAUL. FOUNDED: 1904. OPENED: 1908. ARCHITECT: ALBERT LEH. PHILLY CHURCH PROJECT: HERE. * * * Next up is the Nativity BVM, Port Richmond's longtime English speaking Catholic church. This baroque brownstone beauty is at the center of the Allegheny trifecta. It absolutely glows in the late day sun. NAME: NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY CHURCH. ALLEGHENY AND: BELGRADE. FOUNDED: 1882. OPENED: 1890. ARCHITECT: EDWIN FORREST DURANG. PHILLY CHURCH PROJECT: HERE. * * * Finally, we have St Adalbert, the Polish speaking, Polish Cathedral style church in the Polish speaking, Polish eating neighborhood. This is probably the most well known of the three major churches on Allegheny, thanks to its enormous size and proximity-visibility to I-95. Its twin spires certainly don't hurt, either. NAME: SAINT ADALBERT CHURCH. ALLEGHENY AND: THOMPSON. FOUNDED: 1885. OPENED: 1898. ARCHITECT: LOUIS H GIELE. (Thank you, Trudy!) PHILLY CHURCH PROJECT: HERE. * * * Prior to this year, the three churches each had their own respective K-8 school, but as of this year they are consolidated as the Our Lady of Port Richmond Regional School. So though all three have their own built-in communities and traditions, they're united not only by their goals, but now by the school they share. St Adalbert, Nativity BVM and OLHC, Port Richmond's Church Alley. They're here, left to right, in this Philly Skyline Allegheny Avenue Skyline. –B Love

2 February 09: Everybody has a mania

File photo: Pittsburgh skyline, summer 2007 You're going to have to forgive this quick trip to the west side of the state. The Super Bowl was unbelievable last night, and the catch by Santonio Holmes will go down as one of the best in the game's history. And as Sam Donnellon points out in this morning's Daily News, it's pretty gratifying to watch the Arizona Cardinals mount an amazing comeback only to have it yanked right back out from under them, exactly as they'd done to the Eagles two weeks ago. Congrats, Pittsburgh, and congrats, Steelers fans. About 85 miles northeast of the Burgh lies the town of 6,000 whose day is today, February 2, every year. Punxsutawney PA has been hosting Groundhog Day parties since 1887, and the goofball German weather tradition dates back to the 17th century. There are a ton of ripoffs -- Wiarton Willie, General Beauregard Lee, Staten Island Chuck -- but Punxsutawney Phil is the real deal groundhog meteorologist, the woodchuck we Pennsylvanians can trust. Bill Murray didn't make his movie in Wiarton, Ontario, now did he, Wiarton, Ontario. The wife and I went to Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day seven years ago, 02/02/02 (the Phillennium). There aren't many hotels in Punxsy and the main event is at 7:30am, so in turn it's a nonstop party up on the hill -- Gobbler's Knob -- from sundown on the 1st to the moment Phil emerges. It's a hoot, and I'm sure last night's Steelers victory made the celebration that much more a carnival. Phil saw his shadow this morning, meaning six more weeks of winter are in store for us. If that's true, I hope it actually acts like winter and socks it to us with a snowstorm or two. Real snowstorms, not this one inch, wispy dusting crap. I'm talking bona fide blizzard here. Hot damn, it's a good morning for Pennsylvania. There's a song that goes right with it . . . and right here it is! –B Love

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