Possible City
Upping The Ante At Hawthorne Park
Lager Raabe Skafte Landscape Architects' brilliant design for the new Hawthorne Park sets a new standard for neighborhood public space--and proves we can build smart and beautiful > more
Which Contexts Matter?
In the Museum of the American Revolution, Robert A.M. Stern set out to design something that "could never have been built anywhere else." The result is the exact opposite--and a lost opportunity for Philadelphia > more
Looking For Revolutionary Architecture? You Won’t Find It At The New Museum Of The American Revolution
Design for the new museum, at Third and Chestnut, to be revealed Tuesday, is far more reactionary and narrowly construed than was even expected > more
The Next Question
On Friday, the Historical Commission gave the green light to the Episcopal Cathedral's desire to demolish two 19th century brownstones at 38th and Chestnut. Now that the expected verdict has been handed down, it's time to focus on what's to come--and to demand it be worthy of preservation in the future > more
In Praise Of Sister Cities
A game-changing installation on Logan Square becomes an effective hinge between Center City and the Parkway and a powerful argument for enlivening our public spaces > more
(Sky) Lines And Memories, Redoubt
In memory of Maurice Sendak, Nathaniel Popkin explores the urbanism of the great children's author and illustrator, who died this week > more
Gods of Water
Not since the creation of the gardens of Babylon in the first or second century BCE, has a city sough such delight (and the affirmation of engineering) in reflecting pools, jets, mist, tumbling water, and spray > more
Let’s Get To Work
If we want buildings like Buck Hosiery to be assets rather than catastrophic liabilities then we need to create preservation tools for workplaces, mills, and factories. With another historically important mill sitting vulnerable across the street, the imperative is now, says Nathaniel Popkin > more
Dead Men Speaking
With the help of the New York Times, Popkin talks existential doubt, preservation, and Chicago's bold vision for its future > more
Why Fever 1793 Resonates
It's a story of global interconnections, 18th century style, says the film's writer Nathaniel Popkin > more
The Long View
From the once capital of Sicily, 882 years in the shadows, Popkin ruminates on the growth and decline of the City of Brotherly Love--all cities lose population, he discovers > more
Zaha Fantasy
Hadid's architecture is urbanism of the future--and it's happening right now all over the the world. Shouldn't Philadelphia take part? With the Iraqi-English architect's show at the PMA closing Sunday, imagining her visit next time > more
Look Up, Philly, 1 Or 2 Lessons From Triumphant NY
Name a city that has shrunk by 700,000 from its peak population--answer Manhattan and we're on to to something > more
Late Afternoon In The Impossible City
A beautiful Sunday, a blue river, and the heroic vision of a trail through dystopia > more
The Surprising World of Google Street View
Artist Jon Rafman collects the bizarre, the frightening, the absurd, the beautiful by combing Google Street View > more
Old Story, New Chapter, No Resolution
The Governor's antipathy toward the city goes back three centuries and has successfully divided us against ourselves > more
The English Garden Beneath The Barnes
The almost finished new museum is on the exact site of Thomas Penn's manor house Springettsbury, named for his mother Gulielma Springett > more
A Day In The Possible City
Antidote for the winter blues? A day exploring the newest section of the Schuylkill Banks and then the Reading Viaduct > more
Not So Literate City
Philadelphia ranks painfully low among the American cities in an index of literacy created by Connecticut State University > more
The Real Valley Of Sorrow
Never mind the response to the death of Joe Paterno. Once a day, someone in this city is killed. Everyday in Philly we weep > more
Cities Without Beginning Or End
By 2030, the UN forecasts 36 mega-cities, a billion urban Chinese in 221 cities of a million or more, 6 Indian mega-cities... > more
2012: No Predictions, Only Questions
Here are the questions--some big, some small--we're asking as 2012 begins > more
Wistful For Modern
Forget the colonial city or the 19th century city, what happened to the muscular city of the mid-20th century? > more
Parking Dreams and Parking Nightmares
In a nation of some 500 million (or more!) surface parking spaces, gratitude for a little progress > more
Market Dreams
Seeking stories, pictures, stories, memories, locations, buildings, ghosts of food, dry goods, and flower markets in Philadelphia > more
The Other Grid At 200
Our grid a compromise with nature, New York's "obliteration," and a "creative template" > more
Answering Roosevelt Island
With the $350 million gift to Cornell University fueling a New York City high tech resurgence, wither Philadelphia? > more
Václav Havel at Independence Hall
In his speech before several hundred, Havel imagined human rights embedded in "transcendence" of religious and cultural differences, "a single interconnected civilization." > more
Origin Of The 99 Percent?
Not Stiglitz or Marx, but Philadelphia's own crusading novelist George Lippard, 1849 > more
Battersea But Better
Philadelphia Electric Company's monumental power stations on the Delaware: truly "palazzos of power" > more
How To Start A Week
How do we understand the city--in stats, in rankings? Borges has another idea > more
Removing Highways and Stitching Squares
The campaign to remove 3 miles of I-95 through Center City and putting a lid on a small section I-676 through Logan Square > more
Can We Stay And Chat A While?
We aim to explore, expose, and elevate and we want to keep doing it with you > more
What’s Your Favorite Public Space?
We at Hidden City would like to hear a little bit about those spaces--big or small, central or far-flung, hidden, forgotten, or forlorn--that make city life so remarkable. > more
High Speed Buses?
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a relatively cheap and transformative investment, is under consideration for the Roosevelt Boulevard > more
The Literal City
A simplistic interpretation of history is dumbing down our architecture and making this city seem a whole lot less interesting than it really is. > more
Sea Foam City
We asked for a metaphor for the form of Philadelphia. The winning idea gets to spatial patterns as well as relationships among neighborhoods and the city to the outside world > more
How We’re Moving Apart
A damning series of maps on how Philly represents the nation's growing spatial inequality. No longer the industry-driven bastion of the middle class, our neighborhoods are increasing very rich or very poor > more
Recipe For Success
Q & A with Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. "People are eating their way through the city," she says. Plus Levitz on the way the city has changed and the hope for the new Museum of the American Revolution > more
Rise Up
A billion people live in high rises world wide, says HIGHRISE, an engaging planning and documentary film project > more
Go West Young Man
Frank Furness loved the west, but he was hardly the first Philadelphian drawn there > more
Thanks, Frank
Frank Furness taught me how to the see the city; he offers us another lesson for today > more
Cantonese Connection
While Governor Corbett declines to be a leader on transit, our old friends in Guangzhou build a metro model for the world > more
Scrambled? Another Contest
An British architect posits the egg theory of cities, but we don't think it fits Philadelphia so we're asking you to do better > more
Cultchah!
Philly nails the top five in all categories for culture in Travel and Leisure's reader survey of best American cities and was voted number one city for culture in America > more
If All The World Were A City…
...everyone would fit in Texas (if we lived at the density of New York) > more
Power to Transform
DesignPhiladelphia's Hilary Jay on NYC's success in employing design to enliven the city > more
Power of Place, the Sobering View
New research corroborates what seems obvious: your neighborhood impacts your life chances > more
City Hall Matters
Even before its completion, City Hall was the stage for protest against greed and inequality > more
Copenhagenize Us: Next Year
The urban bike experts are watching Philadelphia's progress, likely to crack the rankings in 2012 > more
Breathe Easy?
Philadelphia's air quality (amazingly about the national average) is about equal to that of Montreal and New Orleans, and is discernibly better than that of > more
Imitation May Be Worse Than Flattery
Gauging the meaning of the new Mormon temple on Logan Square > more
Guerrillas Gone
With urban farms and farmers markets on the rise, wither community and "guerrilla" gardens? > more
![[E]merging Visions](/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Viaduct.jpg)
Pedal On
How does bike and pedestrian transportation in Philly stack up against global cities? > more
Class in the City
Teaching Philadelphia: dissent, missiology, sexuality, migration, and museums > more
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