The rapid growth of car ownership in the early 20th century came with a host of businesses to service the country's growing fleet of cars and trucks. Dealerships, gas stations, and repair shops popped up across America, with every city and town picking up these sorts of businesses. A garage

Stop us if you've heard this story before: a developer wants to turn a former industrial site near the Manayunk waterfront into a mixed-use building.Longtime readers will note that we've been covering the gradual conversion of the land-use along the Schuylkill River and the Manayunk Canal for years. Just a

For as long as we can remember, we've been banging the drum about Washington Avenue, dreaming of a remapping of this underused corridor. Especially west of Broad Street, Washington Avenue was once such a significant industrial corridor that it was home to coal yards, lumber yards, and a smelting plant.

Other than one particularly notable building (yes the one you're thinking about) we haven't spent much time covering development in Nicetown. To be frank, we haven't had many opportunities, given the paltry number of projects in the neighborhood. So we were pleasantly surprised to see zoning permits approved at 3725-37

Germantown has experienced a bit of a development boom recently, so we weren't shocked to hear about another apartment building working its way through the City's permitting process. Developers went to the ZBA this week, looking for approval for a 21 unit building at 70-80 E. Wister St., a short

It's often taken for granted in Philadelphia that opposition from the local neighborhood association and city councilmember is sufficient to kill any proposed development project in need of a zoning variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. But a recent successful appeal regarding a vacant lot near Norris Square serves

The urban environment of Philadelphia's commercial corridors was once so much more interesting than the one we see today. This makes intuitive sense, as consumers historically had to rely on catchy signage to know where to do their shopping. These days, we hardly even notice signs for businesses, thanks to

You may not make it out to Overbrook Farms very frequently, unless you're visiting Saint Joseph's University out on Hawk Hill. Sure, the hawk will never die, but posted CDR documents let us know that an interesting mixed-use redevelopment project is proceeding on the 63rd Street commercial corridor in this

When fire strikes, our first, second, and third thoughts go out to the building's residents, tenants, and/or owners, as well as the brave fire fighters, with the hope that everyone is OK. In the days that follow, assuming that everyone is alright, we start to wonder about what might come

What neighborhood would you consider the intersection of 40th Street, Haverford Avenue, and Lancaster Avenue? Belmont? North Haverford? West Powelton? Whatever name you assign this pocket of West Philadelphia, there's no doubt that it's gone through a physical transformation over the last few years as new infill projects have replaced