Empty Lot of the Week-- December 15th

The CHoP Hole

Between the Colket Translational Research Building and the Fisher Translational Research Center

It's deeper now than it was in this pic from October 2011.

                          Does this even count as an empty lot? It's not even a lot, its a hole. A very deep hole that seems to be getting deeper by the day. Every time I see it, I'm floored by how much deeper it has become. What are they digging for? Is this Gold Rush Philadelphia? What the frick!?!?!
                           For the history of this lot, look no further than the Butt-Fugly building article here. I still don't know what the fuck Translational Research is. Wait a minute... this hole almost seems like a construction site. Could CHoP's South Campus Master Plan actually be a go?!?!? If it is, what form will it take? There have been a shitton of renders of what would be built on this spot over the years.

Obviously an old one. The Civic Center is still there.

This one has the Colket Tranlational Research Center in it but it looks all weird.

Here's the same configuration of buildings as above but with goofy colors.

                      

The accompanying text said that this was an 8 storey building.

                         The other clue that makes me think that its a construction site is the recent news that CHoP has issued a 270 million dollar bond sale to "fund future expansion projects". Now that could mean anything, since in July they released the news that they would be building a whole new set of shit on the other side of the river from the Hole, but the articles about the bond sale also mention "a new five storey Ambulatory Care Center."
                          I guess that's what's going on... but the question still remains... why the fuck do they need to go so deep over a five storey building? Also, the deepest part of the hole is in an area that every rendering has as a grassy open space. I know that this area of land has had its share of landfill applied in the early to mid 19th Century... maybe that's what is being removed.
                           You have to be pretty impressed with an organization says "fuck you" to the Great Recession and sells off a bunch of shit to get their buildings built. Though the future South Campus Complex will probably pale in comparison to the old master plan for it, it is another step in the right direction for the city. Oh, and kids' lives will get saved too... but fuck that, this is an architecture blog.

The least deep section of the hole as of yesterday.

Lost Mystery Building of the Week-- December 14th

Philadelphia University of Medicine and Surgery (aka Pennsylvania Medical College)

252 S. 9th Street

Pretty frickin' cool! Image from the PAB.

                          This cool-looking building rocked the corner of 9th and Latimer Streets for 120+ years but no one seems to remember anything about it. This building was a gem that probably wouldn't have been demolished in the present day, but was considered shit that needed to go in the 1960's.
                        The early history of this thing is known.. its what happened later on that no one seems to care about. In the early 1840's, Doctor William Paine founded and administrated the Philadelphia University of Medicine and Surgery, known locally as just Philadelphia University. This was just one of the medical schools in a time when they were popping up and fizzling out every few years. The medical schools that we currently have in the city are vestiges from that era... the ones that survived.
                         By the mid 1840's, this particular medical school was doing pretty well and the leaders of it decided that they needed a brand new headquarters building that could not only function as a school but as a medical museum of sorts as well. They got the Megagrandmaster of Highway-Speed Crotch Kicks Thomas Ustick Walter to design them this castle of the medical arts. Though only two stories, this beast seems massive.
                        After it was built in 1849, it became a meeting place for the entire medical establishment of the city and beyond. By the 1860's, after the school became part of the Pennsylvania Medical College, doctors from far and wide would come to an annual conference that was held there. The museum portion of the building displayed anatomical, pathological, and surgical specimens, sort of how the College of Physician's Mutter Museum does today.
                       Pernnsylvania Medical College didn't last very long after that. The University of Pennsylvania was pissed that there was a another college called "Pennsylvania", so they worked hard to get the place shut down just because they had a similar name. Pennsylvania College was absorbed by the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, which was a school that was based on a form of quackery called Eclectic Medicine. That place was shut the fuck down in 1939 for being about bullshit.
                      During and even after the Philadelphia University of Medicine and Surgery's existence, the school was embroiled in a national controversy at the time: Bogus degrees. A company was making diplomas (they called them "Matriculating Tickets" back then) that said "Philadelphia University" on them and selling them to anyone who wanted one. After the school lost its charter and became part of Pennsylvania College, bogus degrees with the school's full name on it got spread across America.
                    After all that, I can't find shit about what happened to this building, other than these shitty photographs of it:

1961. There it is on the right, extremly altered and with an addition. SOMEONE cared about this thing.

Aerial photo from 1931.. the alterations and addition are present in this photo as well.

                           I have found some records of people listing this place as their home address in the late 19th Century. Was it turned into a private residence or maybe apartments? I'm sure there are some oldheads out there that remember this beast... WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO IT!?!?!?

Butt-Fugly Building of the Week-- December 13th

CVS/Pharmacy #1545 (aka Acme Markets, aka Thriftway, aka Food Rite aka Tyson and Griswold Residences)

1500 Spruce Street

Surprised? Image from Google.

                         I've always hated this building... its dirty, outdated, and scars a spot that should have a much taller building. This building, like the old Crane Company Showroom, confirms that butt-fugly buildings definitely existed before 1940. The construction date of this building is actually quite shady, because it is really the super-mangled form of two really old mansions. Real Rap.
                        This corner started as two massive homes that were built some time between 1830 and 1850. Though many different families flourished in the two gigantic houses, the most famous people who lived in them were super-businessmongers Frank Tracy Griswold and Dr. James Tyson. Some time between 1917 and 1930, the first stage mangling began. The Philadelphia-based Acme Markets took on the properties and formed them into this ugly supermarket, leaving the upper floors of the Tyson residence somewhat intact. The row of mansions on the rest of the block got knocked down to be the parking lot some time in the 40's.

How it looked in 1950.

                     The spot uglied-up the corner of 15th and Spruce for decades, finally reaching its ultimate form in 1977, when the building went through seven months of renovations and all evidence of the Tyson residence was removed.

This 1986 picture pretty much sums it up.

The interior after the grand reopening in 1977.

                       The 1977 interior stayed relatively unchanged all the way up into 2007 or so, though it looked like a decroded piece of crap by then. Acme gave up on this building by the early 90's and the spot became a Thriftway and later the crappy-ass Food Rite Market by the end of the 90's.

As Thriftway in 1995.

                     For some reason, this piece of shit is historically certified... though the file for it has no architect or build date listed. I'm guessing it's certified because this dirty piece of shit is one of the only remaining Acme Market buildings from the era when they had neighborhood stores. I'm not the only one who thinks this thing is shit... the Avenue of the Arts Master Plan from 1999 demolishes this motherfucker and replaces it with a pocket park.

I'd call it Shitzod Park, but that's just me.

                         Like many of the things in that Master Plan, it never fucking happened. A few years ago, CVS/Pharmacy rolled in and renovated the building into Store # 1545. They TRIED to make the place look nicer, re-windowing openings that the Food Rite Market closed up and painting over the fucked up bricks from the 1977 renovation. Good try, but this building is just beyond help. Even when you go into that CVS you notice how the floor is all crooked and uneven. Just put this fucker out of its misery already.

The only picture I could find from the Food Rite era. Check out how dirty the place was. This pic is from some blog article from the late 90's about where you could find Jolt Cola. Anyone have a pic from the exterior of Food Rite?

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- December 12th

The Pennsylvania Building (aka Robinson Building aka Penn Building)

1501 Chestnut Street

Nice work, motherfucker.

                      Here's a cool building that people just walk right by or use the storefronts of but never notice. This shit right here is the real deal from the skyscraper boom of the very late 19th Cenutry and very early 20th. Nobody respects this sexy bitch today but back when it was built, it was a big fucking deal.
                      In the late 1890's and early 1900's, shit was going pretty fucking well in good ol' Philadelphia. The Gilded Age was in full effect. The population of Philadelphia broke a million and was continuing to grow rapidly. The richest motherfuckers in America were still living in the city limits and the largest building in the world was being constructed in the center of town.
                     Speculative office building construction was going gangbusters based on the fact that this super-massive city hall was going up. The business district of the city, for decades before based in Old City and later just a little bit west of that, would now move itself over to what was previously a pretty quiet part of town. Not only were they building office buildings, these office buildings were the tallest any Philadelphian had ever seen.
                    The cool thing about this particular building that could never happen today was that it did not have an anchor tenant lined up when it was built. The Land Title and Trust Company just built it on pure speculation, knowing businesses would move in just to be in the new commercial district. They would say, "Fuck the Drexel Building, are you gonna stay in the old business center and not move to a brand new fireproof super-modern skyscraper? Of course not! Move here!".
                    The building started construction based on the kick-ass design from a brand new Philadelphia architect named Henry Lewis Adrien Jekel on February 10th, 1902. The building was so badass that they would name it after the Commonwealth. They called it the Pennsylvania Building.

Under construction.

                        Once built, it became a marvel of the city and the country. It was so fireproof due to it's foot-thick terra cotta floors and water nozzles on every floor that it got its own three-page article in Fireproof Magazine. That's not a joke... there really was a periodical called Fireproof Magazine. It was considered ultra-modern because it had sidewalk lighting, bathrooms on every floor, and what they used to call "Direct Steam Radiation" for heating.

The Pennsylvania Building when it was knew. The cornice is giving you the finger like 100 times. Pic from the Philaphiles over at the PAB.

                    This pile of kick-ass has stayed in continuous use after countless alterations and renovations for 102 straight years... the building's facade is pretty close to the original configuration except for the mangling of the ground floor. This building has managed to keep most of its kick-ass cornice which is rare for buildings of this age.
                    Jekel loved his own design for this so much that he made a smaller version of it for Washington, D.C. five years later called the Westory Building. That building is also still kicking ass and taking names to this day. Jekel wouldn't get anything else built in Philadelphia but went on to design a bunch of shit for San Fransisco, Buffalo, NY, and Riverside, California. Good job, buddy.

The Westory Building, the PA Building's little sis. Picture by StreetsofWashington.

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- December 8th

Parkway22

501 N. 22nd Street

Pictured: Something that will never happen.

                        This would have been a cool building to have around... instead we ended up with that shitty-ass Best Western. The worst part is, this proposal strung us all the fuck along until the last second before going kaput. It wasn't like other dead-ass proposals that just faded away... this thing seemed like it was ready to go.. then it wasn't.
                          Parkway22 started as a 2006 proposal for a tall-ass residential skyscraper called the Barnes Tower in anticipation of the new Barnes Foundation Museum that was going to be built nearby. NIMBYs from two neighborhood groups went fucking ballistic over the idea.

The Barnes Tower. Should have called it the John G. Johnson Tower.

                        Their main concern? Shadows!!! NOOOOO not the shadows!!! Son of beeeeeech!!! Anyway, the NIMBYs didn't move to a city to have tall buildings be built within site of their homes. They took the developer V & H Hotel Associates to task, even getting corrupt politician Vincent Fumo involved. When the NIMBY problems were all said and done, they lopped off over 100 feet from the tall tower, made it into two smaller buildings, and called it Parkway22. A sales office opened up in April 2007, and actual demolition of the shit-ass Best Western/Franklin Motor Inn began.
                        Folks couldn't believe their fucking eyes. Not only did an actual skyscraper plan get approved in a NIMBY stronghold, the plan was actually going to be built!! Then... the market tanked like a motherfucker. The sales office closed in May 2007 and the project was put on hold "until market conditions returned to normal." The developer popped back up 2 years later with a new plan that would start with the shorter building being built first... that idea didn't go much farther than the initial presentation.
                       Its almost unfair to say that this is a Dead-Ass Proposal because technically it could still potentially happen... the building is approved... but it probably never will happen. Fuck.

It's over, Johnny! It's OVER!!!!

Lost Bridge of the Week-- December 7th

Girard Avenue Bridge I

Spanning the Schuylkill at Girard Avenue

That's one hell of a bridge.

                      Sometimes a bridge can be really nice looking but turn out to be completely useless. This is one of those bridges. It was one of the most important arteries over the Schuylkill in its time, but managed to be so fucked up that it was demolished in less than 20 years. Talk about a shitty bridge.
                    In 1852, City Council argued about the need for free bridges over the Schuylkill. The current bridges were crowded as fuck and became more of a burden than a benefit. On March 27th, 1852, the Council passed "An Act to Authorize the Erection of Free Bridges over the Schuylkill", initiating the creation of both a Girard Avenue and Chestnut Street Bridge. The cost was not to exceed $175,000 for each one.
                    For the design, the city went with the German-educated Philly resident engineer Rudolph Hering. He designed a triple-spanned bridge that obviously went further for style points than functionality. The builder was Aldophus Bonanzo, and he took his goddamn time. Construction began in early 1853 and was taking forever. In the middle of 1854, Council complained about how the bridge was taking too long to build and how the Chestnut Bridge hadn't even started yet.
                     They shouldn't have been so surprised. Other Schuylkill River bridges that had been authorized in earlier decades (especially one that was planned at Arch Street numerous times) never materialized. The bridge finished construction in 1855 and that Chestnut Bridge didn't even start until 1857. The Girard Avenue Bridge came in waaay overbudget at $267,000.

Painting of the bridge by Thomas Eakins. It's the one behind that railroad bridge.

                       As the bridge came into use, people figured out pretty quickly that it sucked. It was too thin and way more people were using it at any given time than it was designed for. Trolleys started running over it in 1859, the same trolley line that exists as the Route 15 Trolley today. By 1871, the bridge was literally falling apart. It was in desperate need of repair but interests that used the river didn't want it blocked for the construction, namely the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. They sued the city in that year for not stopping the repair and lost.
                      Despite the repairs in 1871, the bridge was all fucked up again a year later. With the Centennial coming up, the city just said "fuck it" and destroyed the bridge in 1872. The bridge that would be built to replace it was the widest in the world and lasted nearly a century.
                     Even though he was a shitty-ass engineer, Hering went on to become very well-known later in life due to his involvement with the reversing of the Chicago River. There's awards and metals and shit named after him now. Not bad for a fuck-up.

Butt-Fugly Public Art of the Week-- December 6th

Major by Charles Fehlen

Northwest corner of 8th and Locust

Major? Major piece of shit!! Pic from philart.net.

                   What an ugly pile of assfruit. Like the most butt-fugly buildings, this dung arch is made of concrete. Unlike most of the public art in the city, this one was actually designed by a Philadelphia-based artist (!!!!!!!!!!!)... too bad it looks like crap.
                    The year was 1983. At that point, the ugly-ass American Postal Workers House (now part of HUP) had been complete for 6 years without satisfying its percent-for-art requirement. They commissioned local artist Charles Fahlen to put together anything ugly enough to distract your eyes from their disfigured-ass structure... and he gave them this giant concrete Duplo Block Disaster.
                 The Postal Workers House was built away from the corner of 8th and Locust, probably because the PATCO train turns under there. It's logical to assume that they didn't want so much weight over the train tunnel. Well that whole theory goes to shit considering that this monstrosity weighs 53,000 goddamn pounds!!!! It's just a matter of time before this thing just falls straight through the sidewalk... and that day will be glorious.

                 Not much is known about what this crap is supposed to represent... this piece is called Major, but if there's anything we've learned about public art so far, it's that the title doesn't mean shit. You could say its some kind of monumental arch... but is it for a dog or something? The opening at the bottom is tiny, considering this thing is like 14 feet tall. Major? Major what? Like the military rank Major? Wow Fahlen, way to take a huge shit on our armed forces!
                I like to think that Fahlen drank a bunch of wet concrete and ate some tacos. He then shit out this giant fucknugget the next day. When he was done, he was like "Wow, that was a MAJOR poop!", and named the sculpture after it. Maybe he was building a new dog house and kept fucking up... after the third time he just piled them all up and submitted it as his newest sculpture. He named it Major to say how much of a major pain in the ass it was to build a dog house out of concrete.
                No matter what it means, its still garbage. A statue of a guy jerking off would be more appealing than this fading bunch of concrete blocks. Feh.