When they walk out of the Quad and head north, freshmen at Upenn gawk at the Wistar Institute at 3601 Spruce St., wondering what goes on inside the strange building in the heart of the campus that's totally unaffiliated with the university. The Wistar Institute was founded in 1892 and has

We got a tip about some construction on the 1200 block of Mount Vernon St. in the West Poplar neighborhood, so we checked it out and snapped a couple of pictures for everybody to enjoy. Previously, 1217-19 Mt. Vernon St. were empty lots, but quite a bit of progress has

This building in the Spring Garden neighborhood was built fairly recently and it looks like nothing we've ever seen. Surrounded by rehabbed warehouses, this skinny building sits among several currently vacant lots.

The building contains two condo units. One has been on the market for more than a year, with 1500

In July, we celebrated the five-year anniversary of the announcement of a plan to construct a W hotel, plus condos, at the southwest corner of 12th and Arch Sts., across from the Convention Center and the Reading Terminal Market. If you've walked by that corner at any point in the

Don't ask us what we were doing on the Mantua/Belmont border. Whatever you might hear, we were positively not lost or confused, and we absolutely know exactly how to get to the Spring Garden bridge.

Anyways, we were around 38th and Folsom Sts., and got a weird feeling, like we had

This weekend, head to Main St. and check out the 2nd Annual Manayunk EcoArts Festival. This event will bring eco-conscious people together to highlight local green initiatives in business and the arts. Dozens of eco-friendly businesses and merchants will have booths to highlight their unique and earth-friendly approaches to what

Today, we snagged a delicious lunch at Paesano's and were reminded of a rather large empty lot in the middle of the Italian Market, just south of Carpenter St., on the east side of the street.

The address of this lot is 1009-11 S 9th St., and it's been vacant for

Months ago, we mentioned a zoning hearing for Ali Tifrani, who intends open a take-out restaurant in the former Dairy Queen location at 514 South St. We're now hearing that the space will (eventually) contain the first downtown location for the New York Bagel Cafe & Deli, which currently has

Penn Park, the new $46.5M outdoor space located between railroad tracks and railroad tracks on the eastern end of Penn's campus, officially opened last week to much fanfare. The park, covering 24 acres and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, contains play areas for both formal, organized sport, and informal

We got a tip from a reader about a newly poured foundation on the 2000 block of Ellsworth, and we discovered said foundation at 2040 Ellsworth St.

The builder, Quaker City Properties LLC, is out of New Jersey and also has a couple of other properties in Pennsport. They purchased the