New Jefferson Building Update-- July 9th

Wocka Flocka Flame Center

901 Walnut Street

 

             Well, here we go again. The Wocka Flocka is going up even faster than before. The crane is gone, which means that anything too large or too heavy to be brought up by the external elevator is complete. The mechanicals and foamy shit seem to be almost all the way to the top. Green insulation is being installed from floors 4 to 7, and the fake-ass brick paneling is up to the 10th floor. At the bottom, some kind of ugly beige crap has been attached. The fake cornice and white bricks/cladding/whatever still hasn't been installed.

               In case you forgot, this building will be called the Health Professions Academic Building Jefferson Clinical Research Center, which is a foolish name. The new state budget that was just passed threw 10 Million dollars at Jefferson for a "new research building in Center City". Do they mean the Wocka Flocka or do they mean the mysterious buildings that Jeff is planning for 9th/10th and Sansom? 

               

Once again... fake-ass brick panels on the left, skillfully masoned real bricks on the right.

                     The connection between the Wocka Flocka and the 84-year-old Edison Building next door has not even really started yet. There's still some wall and windows fucking-up to be done. This just reminds us that the Wocka Flocka is really just an expansion of the Edison and 903 Walnut that will connect all three. Here's another obligatory look at the rendering:

What, did you forget already?

                Thirty-two blocks west on the same street, there seems to be quick steel-framing happening. The 4100 block of Walnut has a new friend about to be built.

The birth of a Butt-Fugly Building.

          This is the construction of the new butt-ass ugly Homewood Suites that'll be going in over here, right across the street from U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah's suspiciously hard-to-find office. They've only just begun so there isn't much to it yet, just a pile of girders. We'll get back to this one when there's more to it. Here's the rendering, try not to throw up:

Homewood. Yeah, I had that this morning.

New Jefferson Building Update-- June 13th

Wocka Flocka Flame Center

901 Walnut Street

Those wooden construction elevator doors make a more interesting facade than the one it's gonna have!

                     Well the Health Professions Academic Building Jefferson Clinical Research Center (try to say it all in one breath) a.k.a. Wocka Flocka Flame Center is getting slapped together rather quickly. Bricks (or panels with bricks glued to them) and some kind of stony cladding have started to grow out from the bottom. An endless maze of mechanicals go up to the fifth floor. Sprayed Foamy Shit all over up to the ninth floor. Steel girders seem to be topped out.
                    Only the red and dark red brick is being put up so far. White bricks will also be used, according to the rendering. Of course, renderings are often highly inaccurate compared to the final product so I might be completely full of shit on that. They could have tried harder making this thing match the beautifully facaded Edison Building attached to its rear but oh well. Here's more pics:

Seems a little redundant to put bricks over steel girders but shut the fuck up, we have enough glass boxes.

Plasticky bricks glued to panels on the left, hand-laid bricks in kick-ass patterns from the Edison Building on the right. Shouldn't have bricklaying gotten better in 84 years, not worse?

Just in case you forgot what it's supposed to look like.

                     

New Jefferson Building Update-- May 22

901 Walnut St.

The 7th floor is wearing it's Sunday Best.

                    Well well well. It looks like the new Jefferson Building at 9th and Walnut is coming along nicely. The bottom floors are getting mechanicals installed, the middle floors are getting their girders sprayed with that foamy shit, and it looks like it should be topping out pretty soon. The only part that seems to be left is the top boxy floor that will say "Jefferson" on it.
                       The full name of the building is the Health Professions Academic Building Jefferson Clinical Neuroscience Center. Why such a ridiculously long and confusing name? People will just end up calling it "the New Building". I would prefer if they call it the Waka Flocka Flame Center. Then it'll sound interesting. Some Jeff student will be like "Where do you have that class?", and another student will be like, "Waka Flocka!!!".

Part of this construction will be a un-fucked-upping of the 903 Walnut facade. Good fucking luck.

This is what the Waka Flocka Flame Center will look like when it's done. It better fucking glow like that.

 

New Jefferson Building Construction Update

901 Walnut St.

So there will be a new giant light-up Jefferson sign perpendicular to the other one? Interesting how the smoke stack nex to the Edison Building is missing!

              In an attempt to make the 900 block of Walnut look less like shit, Jefferson decided to knock down the little fleabag 70's era building at 9th and Walnut and build a new 11-storey education and welcome center. I had the privilege of seeing renders for this box 2 years ago at a Washington West Civic Association meeting. The best part was when one of the old NIMBY's asked if the building would have a Green Roof and the Jeff dude chuckled "nooooo".
       

The crane operator is like "You've stolen my soul!!!"

          The box will be connected to the garishly colored building next door at 903 Walnut and the Edison Building (an upcoming Old-Ass Building of the Week) to its rear. The facade on the right side of the east-facing part of the box will be arranged to match the Edison Building. The facade of the building at 903 Walnut will be re-colored to match the new box. As I was taking pics of the construction I suddenly remembered that the original renders I saw 2 years ago had a supplementary box cantilevering over 903 Walnut. Sure enough, it's there:

Also in this picture, observe 903 Walnut from the What Were They Thinking era of architecture.

            Jefferson also plans to fill the future Empty Lot of the Week found at the corner of 9th and Sansom with two more boxes, but that construction is probably far off. So how long do you think until Washington West is renamed to compliment Jefferson? What do you call it? The Jefferhood? University Shitty? Midtown Fillage? Oh well.

Butt-fugly Building of the Week

Jefferson Alumni Hall

1020 Locust St.

Yeah, really invites you in.

              Ok, look… I know the 60’s were a bad time for architecture, but there’s no excuse for this giant piece of rat shit. Jefferson isn’t exactly known for great buildings (though two of their buildings, the Main Building and the Curtis Building aren’t bad), but this is by far their worst. This Orange Orangutan of Bricks looks like a Super-max Prison, not an education building. Where were the NIMBY’s (and I happen to know this neighborhood has them in abundance) when this Great Wall of Fuck-ups was thrown together?
              I thought this building was bad when there were parking structures across the street… then when they built that Lubert Plaza, I realized its full fucked-uppeditude once I could see its full frontage straight-on. Look at those super-tiny windows. Must suck to have an office with a window a mosquito couldn’t fit through. I appreciate that it is surrounded by a garden, but the garden is 4 feet up in the air on top of a dirty-ass pile of concrete that will only look worse with time.
             I got excited last fall when this shitpile was covered in scaffolding. I thought they might be sprucing up the façade with SOMETHING that would make it better. All they did was re-point bricks and put a new sign on the front without removing the markings left by the old sign. They also installed those weird blue flags that are on every Jeff building nowadays. IT ACTUALLY LOOKS WORSE THAN BEFORE!
             In 1968, I’m sure this building looked modern as shit. People were like “Yay! 6-inch wide windows! That’s what every building should have!” and “Yay! If the University folds, they could turn that into a Maximum Security Prison!” and “Yay! This reminds me of my domicile in Soviet Belarus!”
              The problem is that buildings like this just don’t age well. They look dated in a year and once they get dirty, forget it… they look like a baboon’s ass. Remember that the next time you think about buying one of those ugly-ass newfangled rowhomes with boxes all over them.

Jeez... even on a sunny beautiful day it looks like a bum's rotten foot.