In West Philly

We've seen student housing sprout up all over West Philly in recent years. We've seen it in a concentrated area near 40th & Baring. And we've also seen it pop up at various Mantua locations, sprinkled around the neighborhood in projects large and small. Most recently, we told you about

If you've followed the University City thread here then you're likely familiar with the flash of redevelopment that whipped through the 4000 block of Baring Street two years ago and kept on going to the 4100 block, transforming a block of vacant lots and older homes into student housing. Located just

A reader tipped us off last week that a rowhome had been demolished on the 4200 block of Chester Ave., around the corner from Clark Park and next door to the District 3 Health Center. We passed by the other day and discovered that the old building at 4213 Chester

We've lost count of the number of churches that have been demolished by developers in recent years in favor of residential development. We've seen it in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood (repeatedly), West Poplar, Francisville, and may soon see it happen in Fishtown. Though it's surely happened, we can't recall a

Over three years ago, we made our first visit to the 4000 block of Baring Street. Back then, developers were building the first wave of student housing on this block, and the tide of new construction has continued pretty much unabated ever since. As we speak (er, type) there are

When we passed by 42nd & Woodland across from University of the Sciences a couple of weeks ago, we were shocked to see a big pile of dirt and a tractor instead of the tables and landscaping that made up Woodland Green. You may recall, this pedestrian plaza was fabricated at

Tasteful development in West Philly is tough. If you're Penn or Drexel and you're building massive dorms or research buildings, you can get away with just about anything because of the scale of your development. But most of the architecture that we've seen from private construction has been somewhere between

Almost two years ago we shared news that University City District was planning to renovate the 40th St. Trolley Street Portal where Baltimore, Chester and Woodland Aves. meet in University City. The station serves as a gateway to West Philadelphia. Improvements will green and vegetate the currently-concrete-laden portal, install storm-water

We've been following the efforts to green the playground at Lea Elementary at 47th & Locust for a couple of years now, and it seems as if we're finally seeing some concrete (no pun intended) results. Recently, we got an email informing us of an "early" construction project taking place right

Two years ago, we came upon an ivy-covered warehouse on the 3100 block of Hamilton Street with a Cease and Desist notice on its door. Workers were apparently removing underground tanks without the proper permits, which led to the ceasing and desisting and such. Eventually though, the violations were cleared