In West Philly

Just around the corner from the artisans space The Cedar Works project we informed you about a few weeks ago, an abandoned home takes up half of a duplex on the corner of 50th and Pentridge Streets. The same owner owns an abutting vacant lot.

An available sign has been posted at this unkempt,

Now that a bidder on the old West Philadelphia High School has hosted a community meeting and revealed plans to renovate the 1912 building into mixed use studio and loft apartments, we wonder what the future will bring for the vacant lot across the street on the southwest corner of 48th & Walnut.

In

It appears we could be seeing redevelopment at the old West Philadelphia High School very soon.

A bid from New York-based Strong Place Partners (SPP) to purchase and renovate the building at 4700 Walnut St. into a mixed-use development featuring studio apartments and lofts aimed at graduate and junior faculty at nearby universities

A year ago, we first told you about the likelihood that the Fortieth Street ME Church, located at 125 S. 40th St. would be demolished sometime soon. The church, which was built in 1872 and designed by Sloan & Hutton, housed three different congregations over 135 years. The currently empty

While West Philly has been home to various urban innovations, from co-ops to urban farms to the Dirt Factory, one thing developers in other areas of the city, specifically in Port Richmond and Fishtown, have been more active in revitalizing is repurposed old buildings. Not to mention the Loft District.

In the river

If you can’t judge a book by its cover, can you judge a neighborhood by its structures?

At Aksum, just outside of University City at 47th & Baltimore, owner Saba Tedla combined two storefronts, a former African and Asian grocer and an African clothing store, gutted the interior and made renovations concordant with

While we were out taking photos along Woodland Avenue, and of a charming, and locked, pocket park in West Philly, at 48th and Chester, we came upon these blighted units in a strip of homes located just south of Chester Avenue on 47th Street.

According to October 2009 Google Earth images, the

While Drexel University works to expand its capacities and improve its reputation with projects like the construction of a new business school, and new housing at the $97.6M Chestnut Square, it’s also looking to better its capacities for community outreach.

Last month, Drexel announced plans for The Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships,

Woodland Avenue is a developing West Philadelphia thoroughfare less mentioned. At the 40th Street Trolley Portal, across the street from Woodland Walk and Penn, the route 11, 13, 34 and 36 trolleys stop, and the road turns southwesterly and passes by Woodlands Cemetery and through the University of the Sciences.

At 42nd Street, it

The apple, it seems, was tempting, but not tempting enough. Now, the building is for sale, and the apple could end up falling very far from the tree.

After receiving strong community support, as well as some opposition (perhaps a one-man show style opposition, according to this City Paper story), developers from Iron-Stone got zoning approval back