In West Philly’s Mill Creek neighborhood, bricks and blight are a dime a dozen, but the new West Village Apartments are splashing “happy” colors at 48th & Brown–and with a patriotic flare

From its three-masted ship atop a golden domed cupola, the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Building has watched over its West Philadelphia neighborhood for 85 years. In telling its history, Sam Robinson finds the relationship between building and neighborhood tenuous. As the City makes plans to relocate the Police headquarters and Public Health offices there, the relationship might continue that way