You certainly wouldn’t know it by looking today, but the stretch of Chestnut Street between 11th and 12th was once quite the happening nightspot.  Today, even the buildings that aren’t vacant are most certainly not open at night.  In its time though, 1116 Chestnut St. clamored with celebrities and revelers.  But let’s

A hundred years ago, it made plenty of sense to have warehouses and factories located in the middle of residential areas. The Washington Avenue of the past, with its lumber mills and coal yards, makes today's forklift-laden obstacle course seem extremely tame by comparison. When the Philadelphia Traction Company had

In fits and starts, the 100 blocks of Alter and Ellsworth Streets have been under construction for over a decade. It started around 2006, when five homes went up on Alter and another five rose on Ellsworth. Then there was nothing for a few years. Over the last couple of

Over the years, we've beaten you over the head with stories about redevelopment just north and west of Penn, near Lancaster Avenue. Baring Street in particular has been an unprecedented source of Naked Philly stories, from the slow and steady transformation of the 4000 block to the recent news of

Yesterday, a reader tipped us off to a Gizmodo story that led us to a longer story from the Architectural Record, which got us thinking about development possibilities in Philadelphia. In short, Walmart is taking a dramatic shift away from their traditional suburban big-box model and is now attempting to create

Way back in 2011, we told you that a row of five homes were being demolished on 15th Street, just north of Christian Street. Based on the ownership records of those properties, we joked around and speculated that music legend and Universal Companies founder Kenny Gamble would be building himself

When we mention Northern Liberties on this site, we're usually talking about the newest demolition, construction or adaptive reuse in the neighborhood. It's experienced so much gentrification over the last decade plus, but it has a distinguished history, unique from the rest of the city. "From World’s Workshop to Hipster

Over the years, several readers have asked us about the northwest corner of E. Moyamensing & Washington. If you've ever passed by this corner, perhaps you too have wondered about the odd, windowless building that stands about thirty feet tall and looks like a miniature version of the tower from

In gentrifying neighborhoods, a common theme has been the demolition of old churches and the construction of new homes in their place. We've seen this pattern repeated at 20th & Fitzwater where six homes replaced a church, at 19th & Catharine where ten homes rose in a church's place a

A few weeks back, we told you that a fence had appeared around a long-vacant former bar at Taney & Poplar. We hoped that this meant that the building would soon come down and be replaced by redevelopment. But considering the track record of the property's owners, we recognized that