Philadelphia used to be a home to a thriving industrial economy. Many factories that once buzzed with the work of daily life in Kensington, Old City, or the loft district are now apartments, transformed by developers with an eye toward the city's history.

A building that has yet to be transformed

Over a year ago, we first told you about plans for the renovation of 1107 S. 6th St., a double-wide husk of a building that sat directly to the south of a recently built dentist's office and in between two large Asian shopping centers. Plans at the time were for

Last summer, we told you about efforts to rehab 1600 Frankford Ave., a building with some interesting architectural details that we hoped would be preserved. We happened upon the building yesterday in the rain, and while it appears that the owners were able to preserve some aspects of the building,

As we often do, we were perusing the ZBA calendar the other day and noticed that owners of 1204 S. 12th St. were hoping to construct six new single-family homes with carports and a shared driveway. It was only when we swung by this address that it occurred to us

In Northern Liberties, a new project is slated for a prime location once a few last details are tweaked. Members of the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA) zoning committee recently approved plans for five single-family homes at the northwest corner of 3rd & Brown, across the street from the well established North 3rd. We recommend

As any Temple student or regular reader of this site is well aware, there's been a tremendous amount of new development in the area surrounding Temple in the last several years. So when we spotted a ZBA notice for a new development at 1901 N. 19th St., we figured it

A little over a month ago, we lamented the closing of the famous and wonderful Carman's Country Kitchen. Carmen's decision to close her doors after twenty-three years represented the end of an era, and left long-time regulars scurrying for a new brunch place to call their own.

At the time, we

Back in the fall of 2011, we first told you about plans for the Olive Townhomes at 808 Carpenter St., half a block from the Italian Market. To refresh your memory, this project includes four large new homes facing a private courtyard, each with impressive green features. At the time,

A couple of readers have checked in recently, noticing zoning notices posted at the southeast corner of 2nd & Reed. This has been a vacant lot for many years, though it seems that this will change very soon.

The lot was purchased back in 2006 by Pad Associates. We aren't sure

Though the Spring Garden neighborhood has experienced tremendous improvement in the past two decades, a handful of blighted properties remain. Take, for instance, 1516 Green St., a property right near the Chapel Lofts, which surprised us when we passed by on an unseasonably warm afternoon this past weekend.

From what we understand, AHA