Architecture

Neighborhood Libraries Step Into The 21st Century

One of the city’s most important assets is our sprawling system of neighborhood libraries. These indispensable, community hubs, 52 in all, are beginning to receive desperately needed TLC after years of financial and structural neglect. Contributor Grace Diliberto gives us the details on two citywide initiatives to revive and reboot libraries for contemporary uses, followed by an extensive survey of some of the city’s most architecturally distinct book lenders

Architecture

Modernist Monument To Midcentury Expansion And The Rise Of The Northeast

The Northeast Regional Library on Cottman Avenue was built with a Modernist eye and a civic mind. Part of the Free Library’s 1956 Regional Plan to put a library within 15 minutes of every Philadelphian’s doorstep, the branch was also the first in the area, officially unifying the relatively new neighborhood with the rest of the city. Molly Lester looks at the origins of Northeast Philadelphia expansion through the lens of this award winning Mid-Century mainstay