Let's agree, life under the El isn't exactly peaches and cream. It's dark, noisy, and the years have not been kind to many of the buildings. Still, with the explosive growth in South Kensington and Fishtown, some properties under the El are starting to get some love. Remember, we told

If you're heading down 8th Street in Bella Vista, your eye is easily drawn to the handsome Columbus Hall building just south of Fitzwater Street. Located at 744-46 S. 8th St., the building was home in recent decades to Mama Yolanda's restaurant, now out of business. It was initially built

The last few days have been agonizingly hot to the point that leaving an air conditioned home, office, or car quickly seemed like a sweaty bad idea. Today, the skies are a little gray and we've seen a little rain fall, but we're finally getting a respite from the high

The building at 771 S. 2nd St. immediately strikes the passerby as distinct from its surroundings.  In a neighborhood of attached single-family residencies, this building is unattached and set back from the street in a gated and tree-filled yard.  According to Hexamer & Locher’s 1858 Philadelphia Atlas, the building in question was occupied by

In the spring, we burst everyone's bubble when we reported that a Wegman's seemed less than likely to appear in a planned commercial development on the northeast corner of Broad & Washington. In case you don't recall, this was Tower's proposed plan for the long-vacant, extremely depressing lot at the bottom

Remember yesterday, when we told you about plans for twenty new homes on Mascher Street in South Kensington? Today we have a much smaller project to share nearby, which is also replacing a long vacant lot. For quite some time, 176 Cecil B. Moore Ave. looked like this:In the pastThough

Last summer, we told you about a plan to completely renovate Ralph Brooks Park, located at 20th & Tasker. This park, which is currently is pretty rough shape, is most easily identified by the large mural listing names of people in the neighborhood who have been impacted by violence. It's an

South Kensington has no shortage of big vacant lots. Slowly, plans are emerging to transform those lots into buildings. Even more slowly, those plans are being realized. It was over a year ago that we first told you about Soko Lofts, a mixed-use project on 2nd Street with hundreds of

Fishtown, Fishtown ― there's a lot a building going down in this area. And while it's not all large-scale or multi-unit, like plans for Moyer Court or the IceHouse project, a string of one-off projects are peppering the plate of revitalization in the riverwards. Today, we look at a pair of

It seems we've been waiting for the redevelopment of the northwest corner of 17th & South forever. It was almost three years ago that we first broke the news that a four story mixed-use building would be replacing a vacant lot at this site. Then there was a whole lot