Northern Liberties : Development News

Along the post-industrial corridor of Northern Delaware Avenue sits an abandoned trolley garage where Philadelphia's oldest transit assets were once serviced. So when architectural salvage firm Provenance decided to relocate to accommodate more retail customers, they couldn't think of a better location than a garage that once restored rolling symbols of Philadelphia's past.

"We feel that a lot of the material that is pulled out of the city is part of the fabric that makes this city cool," says Provenance partner Scott Lash. "We're hoping that people will start looking at stuff that was probably put in other buildings at the time their buildings were built."

The team at Provenance has expanded in the last year, offering flooring and many salvaged items for home and garden projects. While the floor is still concrete and the showroom still has a warehouse feel, Lash believes the place has a much more retail feel, with more organization and better lighting, allowing easier browsing.

With the new space, Provenance hopes to offer home improvement classes and First Friday events, like the Happy Hour they hosted on October 1. Making connections in the tight-knit Northern Liberties neighborhood, Lash believes, will stimulate foot traffic and draw not only DIY weekend warriors but also artists and designers looking for vintage pieces and custom home projects.

"We hope to be doing art work in our space on a permanent basis," says Lash. "We want to display painting, old architecture and elements from buildings we've torn down because we feel like that brings out some interesting ideas."

Source: Scott Lash, Provenance
Writer: John Steele

In science fiction novels and books about the future, a few technologies are boilerplate: flying cars, meals in pill form and the ability to teleport instantly from place to place. National commuter rail company Amtrak took another step toward teleportation on Tuesday with its announcement of a high-speed rail vision plan. In Tuesday's news conference from University City's 30th Street Station, with Governor Ed Rendell on hand, Amtrak officials laid out their goal to create a line with average speeds well over 130 mph, saving passengers between one and two hours on average.

"Amtrak is putting forward a bold vision of a realistic and attainable future that can revolutionize transportation, travel patterns and economic development in the Northeast for generations," says Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman.

The plan, entitled A Vision for High-Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor, proposes a full build-out to be completed by 2040. Its construction, Amtrak says, would create more than 40,000 full-time jobs annually over a 25-year period, building new track, tunnels, bridges, stations, and other infrastructure. Predictably, the cost for such a project is high, $4.7 billion annually over 25 years. But Amtrak's feasibility studies peg the Northeast as a "mega-region" capable of drawing the type of rail traffic to make such an investment profitable. And with some premier legislative voices like New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg and Massachusetts' John Kerry already voicing their support, we may be teleporting out of 30th Street Station sooner than we think.

"Amtrak's High Speed Rail plan will create jobs, cut pollution and help us move towards a modern and reliable transportation system network in the Northeast," said Kerry in a recent statement. "As countries around the world continue to build out their transportation systems, we
cannot afford to fall further behind. This is an important down payment on the massive commitment necessary to bridge our infrastructure gap." 

Source: Joseph Boardman, Amtrak
Writer: John Steele