Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- February 26th

Bridge Hall/Welcome Hall/Convention Hall

Straddling the Schuylkill River between Market and Chestnut Streets



East/West facade. Image from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

              This proposal is insane now and was even more insane in 1910. Its hard to believe that the idea of a Convention Hall built over a river would EVER be taken seriously, but here we have one that was designed down to the last stitch in a time period where a project like this would seem nearly impossible.
             Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!

Empty Lot of the Week-- February 19th

Chinatown College of Pharmacy Lot

139 North 10th Street/ 100 Block of North Hutchinson Street

From the Hutchinson Street side.

                        Here's another Chinatown lot that doesn't make any goddamn sense. Though its actually three lots combined, the center property on this location has been a surface parking lot for over 70 years. Though mostly hidden by buildings, any empty space in Chinatown becomes extremely conspicuous, due to the rest of the neighborhood's crowded nature.
                       Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!!

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- February 18th

Greenhouse Market

1324 Chestnut Street

               This little building, kind of boring today, used to be a kick-ass trust company HQ. Wait 'til you see the Dead-Ass Proposal for an addition to it! Read more at the Hidden City Daily! Here's a pic of it's original configuration:

Its all the way to the right.

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- February 12th

Philadelphia CityCenter

1301 Market Street

The only picture of it is from this model of an unrelated Dead-Ass Proposal. Its the one with the two goofy rectangles at the top.

                 Ever wonder why there's a big empty hole at 13th and Market? Less than a block away from City Hall? Prime real estate that can't get moving on ANYTHING and has been empty for nearly 20 years? Well, this is it. This is the reason that piece of fuck just sits there parking cars night and day, embarrassing the fuck out of the city. It all started in the late 1980s.
                Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!

Empty Lot of the Week-- February 5th

South Street Bridge Lot

600 Block of Schuylkill Avenue

                 Hopefully this lot is only temporary. While I've informed you about empty lots that have been empty for over 80 years, this one is only about two years old. That shit doesn't matter. This lot still has no damn excuse to exist and there's a possibility that this patch of dog dung may last for decades to come.
              Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!!

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- February 4th

Caledonian Hall

1239 Spring Garden Street

            This beautiful building at the northeast corner of 13th and Spring Garden is the fucking bomb-diggity. Find out more about it at the Hidden City Daily!

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- January 29th

Philadelphia Federal Center

2901 Walnut Street

No surviving rendering, so here's a conjectural one transposed onto an aerial photo from its time. Original image form Google.

                 During the late 1980's/early 1990's building boom in Philadelphia, scores of office building proposals were getting built with little to no effort. West Market grew like a motherfucker and there was no end in sight. Nonetheless, the wall on development had to come down sometime, and, like 1777 JFK and the Corestates Financial Center, some proposals got their asses kicked out of existence. Unlike those two, this one, if built, would have been a massive disappointment and would have probably looked like shit. Not only that. Philadelphians were against this one the day it was proposed.
                Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!