Soapbox
A Monument To Ignorance
What's that Plains Indian doing in our woods? Ethan Wallace reveals the wrong identity of the statue of the Lenape chief Tedyuscung on the Wissahickon's "Council Rock" > more
The Other Parking Problem
Bike to your neighborhood grocery store? Good luck finding parking, says Sandy Smith > more
O’Neill’s Attempt To Repeal New Commercial Zoning In NE Advances; Here’s Why It Matters
Castor Avenue is poised to become the Northeast's "downtown"--the kind of a walkable and engaging shopping district the growing Northeast deserves. Maneuvers in City Council today may mean another wasted opportunity, argues writer--and Oxford Circle resident--Sandy Smith > more
Rethinking The Hazardous Waterfront
What's the most unhealthy part of Philadelphia? A new study says anywhere along the Delaware River. In a Soapbox column today, Chris Mizes argues that while planners are taking into account public health by promoting mixed uses and walkability, when it comes to the waterfront especially, we're missing the bigger issue > more
If The Parkway Were A Pizza, It’d Be Awfully Plain
The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the city's most prominent "institutional ghetto," is at a key juncture says urban designer Greg Meckstroth. An "action plan" being crafted by the City will create some liveliness, but more transformational investment is ultimately needed > more
Memo To SEPTA: Why Not “LevelUp” For Fare Collection?
As SEPTA struggles to come up with a new payment solution for Regional Rail, Sandy Smith says the technology exists already to avoid turnstiles and confusion--and to make transit riding rewarding > more
A Case For An Urban Expressway
Turn Roosevelt Boulevard into a submerged expressway with a subway in the middle, argues veteran journalist and new resident of the Lower Northeast Sandy Smith > more
SEPTA Buses Not As Green As They’d Like You To Think
SEPTA's recent sustainability award and it's advertising claims belie a bias against clean electric trolleys and electric trolleybuses, says writer Mike Szilagyi. Even hybrid diesel buses, he says, are hardly green > more
Still Learning From Venturi: An Appreciation
With this week's announced retirement of the seminal postmodern architect Robert Venturi, we're still learning from his (and Denise Scott Brown's) Learning From Las Vegas, writes designer Jason Lempieri > more
What To Do With The City Branch: Return It To Transit As Light Rail
With planning to begin on the underground City Branch railroad connecting to the Reading Viaduct, we asked our contributor Stephen Stofka to provide an alternate vision for light rail extending from the heart of Center City to Fairmount Park and beyond. He says it could cost a fraction of the cost of green space and is practically "shovel ready" > more
What To Do With The City Branch: Make It Part Of A 3 Mile Linear Park and Non-Motorized Transitway
With planning to begin on the underground City Branch railroad connecting to the Reading Viaduct, we asked Paul vanMeter of ViaductGreene to present his vision for turning the railbed into a linear park--a search for authenticity and connectivity in the changing city > more
In Defense Of Zoe And Her City
PhillySkyline.com's Brad Maule returns to Philadelphia to catch Zoe Strauss' Ten Years at the PMA. He entered, and left the exhibition, which closes on Sunday, beaming with Philly pride > more
Louis, We Hardly Knew Ye
Ben Leech traces the undeveloped connection between Philadelphia and the great architect Louis Sullivan to forgotten plans for Island City, an amusement park that was to be built on Petty's Island > more
Heartache And Violence
"It really could be something," said the former owner of the Buck Hosiery building that burned Monday. Now, four years on, the neighborhood is burning up piece by piece. Nathaniel Popkin condemns our failure to protect neighborhood and industrial architecture > more
Think Neighborhood Park
With construction on a first phase of the Reading Viaduct park planned to begin next year, we invited the Center City District's Paul Levy to give readers insight into the planning process, scope and costs. Don't think of the project as a connector or trail, but instead as public space for a neighborhood without it--space with awesome views > more
Hoist Up Your Azure and Maize
Today, on Philly Flag Day, architect and Hidden City Daily contributor Michael Burlando wonders if it isn't time to reconsider the design of the city flag > more
Mr. Mayor, Seal This Building
If the City doesn't start keeping a closer eye on the Divine Lorraine, a fire like the one that occurred there yesterday could happen again--with far more devastating consequences > more
Confessions of a “Ruin Pornographer”
Call it "ruin porn" if you like, but for Abandoned America's Matthew Christopher, photographing lost places is an act of interrogation--there are no answers, he says, only questions > more
North Broad’s Other Tower
The Divine Lorraine is getting a lot of attention from the city and the media (ourselves included) these days. But as Ethan Wallace points out, there is another magnificent apartment building rotting in relative anonymity a scant three miles up Broad Street > more
Second Time’s the Charm?
As ground was broken on the new Dilworth Plaza, we look back at what went wrong the first time around > more
In Roxborough, Will Land Use Mistakes Follow Ethics Violations?
A developer's proposal for the former Ivy Ridge Personal Care facility, which closed in 2009 after massive criminal violations, falls short of our urban expectations > more
South Philly Crosstown Bus Is A Mistake
Here's a transit-minded counter-thesis--and a way forward to leverage the wonderfully dense, but also hidden, bus network > more
Make No Small Plans
On the elusive potential of the Ben Franklin Parkway and the necessity of thinking big (while recognizing the value of small interventions and organic change) > more
When Caesar’s Palace Meets Publisher’s Clearing House
Fishtown's near run-in with a casino den last week was a first, but by no means will it be the last. Here's how a "sweepstakes cafe" operates and why we should worry > more
Still Trashing Ourselves
A lament for the lost buildings of the year, and a reckoning for a city that isn't quite serious enough > more
City Controller’s Plan to Demo Schools Short-Sighted and Uninformed
The vast majority of empty schools are anything but threats to the community--they're architectural assets waiting to be leveraged > more
At The Foot Of The Mountain
Why "traditional architecture" isn't necessary at the Museum of the American Revolution and how the new Acropolis Museum in Athens can point us in another direction > more
Sign of the Times
Why is the city ignoring illegal bandit signs, which clutter vulnerable neighborhoods and prey on the poor and desperate? > more
Friends In High Places
Furness Week, day two: Frank Furness was architect to the post-Civil War stars, the super-rich who built the city we occupy today > more
Sexy-Ugly
First up for Furness Week here at Hidden City Daily we have Paul VanMeter of Viaduct Greene with his take on the Philadelphia architect's life and work: complex, powerful, and almost "deliberately perverse" > more
Not So Bad For An S.O.B.
Development imminent, the writer reconsiders his long held impression that the building is a failure > more
Designing Together
With 500 projects in 20 years, the Community Design Collaborative shows us how to get it done > more
Opportunities Lost
We've given away our power to wow, delight, and inform. Perhaps more than art or literature or even film, architecture is a barometer of the times. Post-Franco Spain exploded with ambitious, progressive-minded buildings; post-Reagan America fizzled into pastiche, cheap materials, and poor memory. > more
Rowhouse Revised
An innovative affordable housing project in North Philly transcends its suburban appearance > more
A Beer Garden, Philly-style
A look at the German restaurant's architecture, which blends 19th century industrial ruin with 21st century beer garden > more
Blunt Needle
The new Penn Park transforms the landscape on the western side of the Schuylkill River in central Philadelphia, but is it really more than a university athletic complex? > more
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