Philly Live! Construction Update-- August 5th

Philly Live!

1100 Pattison Avenue

Ah jeez, here it comes. 

                     I don't even know why I'm bothering to talk about this highly unnecessary pile of dogshit. Philly Live! is a huge entertainment complex planned to fill almost the entire space between the Wachovia Center and Citizen's Bank Park. The part they're building now is "Phase One", which in Philadelphia, usually means "Only Phase".

Still waiting for Phase II

                

Stuck on Phase 1.5

                  Philly Live! grew out of the need for an entertainment venue that suburbanites who were too scared to walk around Center City could go to and spend money before and after games. Developers noticed that other cities who don't have whiny-ass civic associations up the ying-yang were able to build their stadiums downtown, causing local commercial establishments to reap the benefits of suburban visitors. The solution? Build a Downtown Simulator in the middle of that sea of surface parking that would serve as an attraction for before and after games.

The original plan from 2008. Notice they don't show a daytime scene.

                 The original plan was pretty ambitious and seemed to be absolutely massive. Many who looked at this wondered who the fuck was going to go to this thing, and even more stymieing, plans called for it to be open on non-game days as well. What is this? Gallery South? Pier 70: Landlubber Edition? I don't fucking get it.
                 When the economy started to tank, the plan got smaller.

They didn't even need to knock down the Spectrum for this one!

                        This is what we'll probably end up with if we're LUCKY and all the phases get built. The construction photo at the top of the article is for Phase One only, which is pretty pathetic-looking.

That's IT. There's no daytime rendering for a reason.

                       Face it, this will be the only phase that is built. I can't understand why in a million years they would ever want to build this thing. So it's a suburban half-stripmall with bars and restaurants and shit next to the stadium and it's called Philly Live!?!? What's with the exclamation point? There's no need for punctuation in the name of a building. Live? Live what? This thing will be dead from day one. There's nothing "Philly" about this. It should be called Greenwich Island Live!, since that's technically where the Sports Complex is located. Fucking morons.

Blank wall facing Pattison Ave. sidewalk. Dead trees.

No it won't.

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.

 

Holy Shit! Is the Fergie Tower back?

1213 Walnut St             

Destroy! Destroy!

                     In 2009, Philaphiles will remember that there was a proposed mixed-use 29-storey hotel/apartment/5 screen movie house to cover a shitty lot at the 1200 block of Walnut St. The amusing part of the plan was that the developer was planning building AROUND Fergies' Pub. Therefore, the plan was affectionately called the Fergie Tower. Here's a photoset of renderings: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbrome/sets/72157618897498407/
                      Well, I walk by early this morning and see the old thrift store with building permits from 1996 being destroyed and started to wonder.. will the Fergie Tower get built or are they just extending an already shitty lot? Sheeeeeeeeeit.

This better be for the Fergie Tower!

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.