There's a certain charm in being afforded the opportunity of walking a block or two to the local coffee shop for your morning coffee, bagel, or tasty pastry. In our urban environment, cafes represent a detached sphere. They remain the same and are moved neither by the rites of spring

It's true that Frankford Avenue has come a very long way in the last few years, with new construction, renovation, and new businesses opening all the time. There are, however, still a number of vacant lots remaining on Frankford in Fishtown, with some of those lots being massive in size.

Along North Broad Street, things are looking better than they have in decades, and more changes are coming. There’s construction near Temple, numerous condo and apartment conversions, and the award-winning Osteria. It’s as if Broad Street blight, once as rampant as morning traffic, has become a Broad Street boom.

The west side of the 800

If you've spent a summer in Philadelphia, it's likely you've ended up at Penn's Landing at some point, perhaps perusing a flea market, catching a concert, or simply visiting with the purpose of lamenting its inaccessibility, its unfortunate design, and its spectacularly wasted potential. Yes, Penn's Landing coulda been something special,

It's sat vacant for two decades and though Brandywine Realty Trust purchased 1919 Market St. for $9.3M early in 2011, two years later its vision and any action pertaining to active development of the lot have apparently stalled.

The site has been featured in various plans since it was first razed to make room for a

In recent years, the number of local coffee roasteries in Philadelphia has exploded. Chestnut Hill, One Village, Green Street, and L'Aube are just a few of the local roasters that have contributed to the evolving coffee scene in our fine town. Another local roaster, ReAnimator Coffee, recently moved to a new

Last March, we told you about two homes replacing two vacant lots at 949-51 N. Lawrence St., in Northern Liberties. Typically, when we share info about projects like this, we expect them to be in the ground a couple of months later, with framing after that, and the homes going

As the Philadelphia2035 process progresses and a second round of public meetings ensues, themes and target areas identified in earlier meetings will be shared and developed.

For the University/Southwest District Plan, which includes neighborhoods from University City, to Mantua, Walnut and Spruce Hills, Kingsessing and more, that means a focused discussion on

The Delaware Valley Intelligence Center (DVIC) has been six years and $20M in the making. When it (hopefully) opens near 20th & Johnston this February (it was supposed to open years ago, though exactly when is unclear), it will house 130 employees and serve as an anti-terrorism hub. Or, that’s at least

You would think that by now there wouldn't be any vacant lots left in Bella Vista, which is a fairly established neighborhood. Yet here and there, a handful of vacant lots have persisted, with developers slowly picking them off and building on them over the years. Notable examples include the