In The News

PlanPhilly launches new website

PlanPhilly Tuesday, January 15, 2013

PlanPhilly has launched a new website. They hope the fresh, innovative platform will help them better connect to the city's community of planners, designers, developers and residents.

"PlanPhilly gave us a chance to explore the relationships between organizations, issues, projects and people in a way that hasn't been done before," said Tom Boutell, lead developer, P'unk Avenue (punkave.com). "We also enjoyed pursuing responsive design, delivering a great experience across phones, tablets and desktops. Rich content is what we're all about, and finding the right way to showcase the depth and breadth of PlanPhilly's content challenged us in new and intriguing ways. We're also excited about the site's community-powered features, like professional profiles and the ability to submit new organizations for inclusion in the directory."

Original source: PlanPhilly
To visit their new site, click here.

Opportunities for development after death of Forum Theater

The Philadelphia Inquirer Tuesday, January 08, 2013

The closure of the infamous Forum Theater opens up a world of development possibilities on an underserved stretch of Market Street.

"Those [2100 and 2200] blocks of Market Street are kind of one of the last significant gaps in the quality of the streetscape," said Alan Greenberger, the city's commerce director. Drexel University's eastward expansion and the transformation of the west side of the city near the Schuylkill from industrial to commercial and recreational uses are "all suggesting that there is a wave that is going to happen to get the west side to meet the east side" of the city, Greenberger said.

Original source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Read the full story here.

The Atlantic Cities compiles the year's best #cityreads

The Atlantic Cities Tuesday, January 08, 2013

The Atlantic's urban site puts together a list of the best writing on urban issues from 2012. Topics include transportation, energy and architecture.

It's not just your lousy memory: the end of 2012 was much busier than the beginning. Just since July, we've seen a U.S. presidential election, a once-in-four-centuries hurricane, four horrific mass shootings, riots and warfare across the Middle East. Our #Cityreads of the year follow the news cycle -- into a high-rise housing project after Sandy and the Republican party's relationship with cities -- but they also veer off course, into the weirder corners of rail construction, charter cities, and more.

Original source: The Atlantic Cities

Read the full list here.

The New York Times reviews 'Dancing Around the Bride"

The New York Times Tuesday, January 08, 2013

The New York Times takes note of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's much-lauded dance exhibition, "Dancing Around the Bride," an exploration of the collaborations between Merce Cunningham and the artists John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Many moments in these solos are like the sudden exclamations and figures of speech that make some Shakespearean soliloquies so present-tense. As a dancer re-examines a step or a position — although there’s nothing that could be labeled acting — we might be watching the movement equivalents of Angelo’s “What’s this? What’s this?” in “Measure for Measure” or Hamlet’s “Ay, there’s the rub.”

Dance performances connected with “Dancing Around the Bride” run through Jan. 21 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Original source: The New York Times
Read the full review here.

New York Times lauds local drop in childhood obesity

The New York Times Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The New York Times takes note of urban success stories in the war against childhood obesity. Philadelphia is among the most promising cases, mostly thanks to school-based initiatives.

Philadelphia has undertaken a broad assault on childhood obesity for years. Sugary drinks like sweetened iced tea, fruit punch and sports drinks started to disappear from school vending machines in 2004. A year later, new snack guidelines set calorie and fat limits, which reduced the size of snack foods like potato chips to single servings. By 2009, deep fryers were gone from cafeterias and whole milk had been replaced by one percent and skim.

Original source: The New York Times
Read the full story here.

CDCs add billions to Philly economy

Philadelphia Business Journal Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A recent study found that community development corporations have had a $3.3 billion impact on the Philadelphia economy over the last two decades.

The research found that the money CDCs have spent over that period has added $28 million to the city’s tax base, created 12,000 jobs and increased wealth for neighborhood property owners by $680 million by transforming blight. The report shows roughly $2.2 billion of the $3.3 billion affected neighborhoods through new construction and rehabilitation of homes and commercial and public spaces. In addition, the research found that CDCs have added $5.1 billion to the state’s economy during the last 20 years, generated 37,100 jobs and brought in $118 million in state tax revenue.

Original source: The Philadelphia Business Journal
Read the full story here.

Wallpaper interviews FWM artist-in-residence Daniel Arsham

Wallpaper Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Wallpaper chats with Fabric Workshop and Museum artist-in-residence Daniel Arsham about his new exhibit "Reach Ruin." The show runs through March 15, 2013.

"Much of the work goes back to an experience that I had 20 years ago: a very strong storm in Miami, where I grew up, where I watched the demolition of architecture and the reformation of space in a very quick and violent way. It has always been something that is prevalent in my work but I have never explored it directly. There are a lot of works in this show that relate directly to that, such as the reformation of shuttered or broken materials back into objects."

Original source: Wallpaper
Read the full story here.

TechCrunch digs local startup SnipSnap's new features

TechCrunch Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Philadelphia-based startup SnipSnap's new features get some holiday-time props from megablog TechCrunch. Their eponymous coupon clipping mobile app has gotten significantly better.

But first, the biggest change. SnipSnap 2.0 takes what social elements were present in the original and expands on them greatly — unlike before, new users are asked to create accounts and can link them with Facebook or Twitter to connect with other coupon-conscious friends. From there, those users can also select their interests from a list so SnipSnap can provide them with some starter coupons — apparently, new users of SnipSnap wouldn’t know what do once they installed the app, and the starter coupons were intended to help them a get a feel for using it. Smart.

Original source: TechCrunch
Read the full story here.

Fabricating and coworking at The Factory in Collingswood, NJ

CollingswoodPatch Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tom Marchetty and his team are creating a mecca for creative types in the old Collingswood Theater in Collingswood, NJ. When complete, "The Factory" will feature tools for woodworking, jewelry-making, ceramics, metalworking and other DIY ventures. Locals can either rent studio space or pay a monthly rate to use the over $200,000 worth of equiptment.

"So I started thinking, what if I put all of this equipment into a location for people that don’t have a garage or basement? They don’t have a place to build and create, and now they can come here and actually make their dreams into reality.
“That’s why I call it The Factory," [Marchetty] said. "We produce and make whatever we want. Anything you want to make or build, you can do it here.”

Original Source: CollingswoodPatch
Read the full story here.

The New York Times notes a lack of diversity in school lit

The New York Times Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Many young latino readers are noticing a dearth of diverse protagonists in available books. The New York Times visits a Philadelphia-area school to examine this issue.

At Bayard Taylor Elementary in Philadelphia, a school where three-quarters of the students are Latino, Kimberly Blake, a third-grade bilingual teacher, said she struggles to find books about Latino children that are “about normal, everyday people.” The few that are available tend to focus on stereotypes of migrant workers or on special holidays. “Our students look the way they look every single day of the year,” Ms. Blake said, “not just on Cinco de Mayo or Puerto Rican Day.”

Original source: The New York Times

Read the full story here.

Business Journal names "The Philadelphia 100"

Philadelphia Business Journal Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Philadelphia Business Journal releases their list of the region's fastest growing private companies. The list includes 50 first-time companies.

M. Therese Flaherty, director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center, said that after years of recession pressure on company growth rates, local entrepreneurs are finally seeing things return to normal. During the recession, growth rates at the bottom of the 100 were close to zero. This year, the No. 100 company achieved 56 percent growth, near the historic norm.

Original source: Philadelphia Business Journal
For the full story click here.

CHOP's innovative treatment for Leukemia shows tremendous promise

The New York Times Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a disabled form the AIDS virus to treat a young girl's leukemia. The results have been remarkable for 7-year-old Emma Whitehead and her family, and constitute a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. Doctors hope the new treatment, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation.

The treatment very nearly killed her. But she emerged from it cancer-free, and about seven months later is still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a long-sought goal — giving a patient’s own immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer.

Original Source: The New York Times
Read the full story here.

The Wall Street Journal celebrates Rosenbach Museum & Library

The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, December 04, 2012

The Wall Street Journal highlights the Rosenbach Library & Museum, an amazing private collection of books and manuscripts located on a gorgeous, out-of-the-way street near Rittenhouse Square. Gems include the manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses, early editions of Chaucer and a huge collection Maurice Sendak's paintings, illustrations and editions (including original drawings of Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen).

To handle scholarly materials, the Rosenbach requires not the usual white gloves demanded by other libraries but a good old-fashioned hand-washing (latex can do more damage to delicate paper than clean, oil-free hands). I couldn't resist asking to see and touch one piece that stopped my heart and brought tears to my professorial eyes. It was the manuscript whose purchase got A.S.W. Rosenbach started on the final, and greatest, chapter of his buying career. In London in 1885 Sotheby's had sold at auction the manuscripts of six letters of John Keats. Oscar Wilde, enraged by the salacious intermingling of art and commerce, wrote a protest sonnet. Thirty-five years later, at Manhattan's Anderson Galleries, Rosenbach bought the poet's penultimate letter to Fanny Brawne, his fiancée, dated July 5, 1820, before his departure for Italy, where he died of tuberculosis seven months later. The great poet was also a typical, temperamental 24-year-old young man who, finding his girlfriend flirting with his roommate, wrote to her with envy, jealousy, rage and sadness, "I will resent my heart having been made a football."

Original Source: The Wall Street Journal
Read the full story here.

Report details big population bump in Center City

The Daily News Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Thanks to national trends and an increasing urban vitality, Center City is experiencing a big population increase. According to a report released last Tuesday by the Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corp., the population of "greater Center City" rose 10.2 percent from 2000-2010.

Philadelphia now has the third-largest downtown population among American cities (behind New York and Chicago), the report notes. That trend boosted both the volume and price of residential sales and rentals, and spurred more construction and renovation, the report shows.

Original Source: The Daily News
Read the full story here.

Who vandalized the beloved Dox Thrash mural?

The Atlantic Cities Tuesday, December 04, 2012

An iconic mural of artist Dox Thrash, located in western North Philadelphia, was recently destroyed. The Atlantic Cities investigates.

The Thrash mural, located on the side of an abandoned house at 2442 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, depicted the artist working in his studio in a style mirroring his own beloved carborundum process. Eric Okdeh and Calvin Jones painted it in 2001 to coincide with a Thrash exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Later, it became part of MAP's public tour of 47 murals that “uniquely capture the rich African American experience in Philadelphia,” featuring a podcast narrated by none other than ?uestlove. So why did it mysteriously disappear?

Original Source: The Atlantic Cities
Read the full story here.