Hawthorne Hall (Photo from grayareaphilly.org)

Down every street, and around every corner, we see Philadelphia’s history chronicled in the old brick roads, the abandoned trolley tracks, and every lot overrun by foliage.

Most of all, we see the city’s history in the timeworn foundations of its older buildings. Be it the imposing Provident Mutual Life Insurance building or the grandiose Divine Lorraine Hotel, Philadelphia’s antiquity is forever sealed in their unique brickwork and beguiling design.

But how we preserve the architecture of that history has become uninspired, if not non-existent. Instead, Philly’s historic buildings are bulldozed to make way for shopping centers and luxurious townhouses. Or they’re left abandoned—nothing more than waning icons relegated to the pronoun of “I wonder what that used to be.”

That’s where GRAY AREA comes in. Supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, GRAY AREA is an experimental project launched by the University of the Arts and DesignPhiladelphia of the Center for Architecture that looks at “historic preservation in the modern city.” Currently in its third phase, GRAY AREA aims to engage both design and development experts and the public at large in envisaging creative ways to maintain and repurpose the city’s older buildings so they’re moments of revitalization in their communities.

As part of its third phase, known as GRAY AREA 3, a multi-disciplinary cohort of experts and community partners spent most of last year studying two historic buildings: Hawthorne Hall (3849 Lancaster Avenue) in Powelton Village/Mantua, and the Max Levy building (212-220 Roberts Avenue) in Germantown. Armed with a series of questions raised during GRAY AREA’s first two phases—a panel discussion and a facilitated conversation, respectively—the team researched the buildings’ history and their cultural significance in an effort to cultivate ideas for “eventual interpretation, reuse and design.”

This Wed, May 28, the GRAY AREA 3 team will gather at the Catalyst for Change Church (3727 Baring Street) to share their findings on Hawthorne Hall with the West Philly community. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., will serve as the third phase’s final community meeting in which they will test a preservation toolkit developed for “encouraging meaningful dialogue, making unexpected and new connections, and generating ideas,” GRAY AREA Project Director Elise Vider told West Philly Local.
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Here’s a summary of news coming out of our neck of the woods in the past few days and a reminder on a couple of community events this week. Editor’s Note: The meeting on the potential sale of the University City High School has been postponed until Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building. (Archived photo/West Philly Local).

• Another hurdle has been cleared for the plan to move the police headquarters into the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 46th and Market Streets. Last Thursday, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell introduced two bills that would allow the city to borrow up to $250 million for the project, according to a report by Philadelphia Inquirer. The 87-year-old building has been vacant since 1983, when Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. moved out, and has been put on the endangered properties list by the Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia.

• A rally was held on Saturday, Feb. 8 to protest recent purse snatching and shootings in Philadelphia. The rally was held at 53rd and Market Streets, the site of the most recent purse snatching, when a 29-year-old woman was shot to death and her companion, a 34-year-old woman, was wounded. Dozens of people attended the event, organized by Handbags 4 Piece, and many people spoke out, including the mothers of the victims (check out the Handbags 4 Piece Facebook page for photos and videos).

• Ground was broken last week at the site of the new high-rise apartment building at 36th and Market Streets. The 28-story 364-unit mixed-use structure is a joint project of the University City Science Center and Southern Land Co., of Nashville. The project, which will also include 14,600 square feet of ground-floor retail space and parking for 200 cars and 140 bicycles, is expected to be completed in spring 2015.

• Residential burglaries are still a cause for concern in University City, according to the latest crime update released by the University City District. Over 20 burglaries took place in the area in January, which is a double of the number of burglaries in December. Three burglary-related arrests have been made. UCD also reports that there were about a dozen robberies in the area, four of them at gunpoint, with arrests made in nine of these cases. August and September were peak months for robberies in the area, with over 30 incidents reported.

• Great news for fried chicken and gourmet donuts fans: Philly’s super popular chain Federal Donuts is close to opening their location in University City. The awnings to their new shop at 3428 Sansom were recently complete:

Awnings at 3428 Sansom, complete! Nice and bright to lead you straight to lunch. pic.twitter.com/ZFpucdlUOC

— FederalDonuts (@FederalDonuts) February 6, 2014

Another tweet by Federal Donuts said that the new location is opening “very soon” but the date hasn’t been announced yet. We’ll keep you posted.

• Two meetings on the sale of vacant schools and other School District of Philadelphia properties in West Philadelphia will take place this week: on Tuesday, Feb. 11 you can learn more about the future of Shaw Middle School (54th & Warrington) and on Wednesday, Feb. 11 (postponed until Feb. 26) there will be a meeting on the potential sale of the University City High School, Drew Elementary School and Walnut Center buildings. Click here for more information. If you missed our story on the Wilson School building’s future, click here.

 
Mayor Michael Nutter revived plans yesterday to renovate West Philadelphia’s landmark Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 46th & Market into a new, “state of the art” police headquarters. The sprawling 86-year old building, which sits on 15 acres, has been partially vacant since 1983 when the company abandoned it and was featured on the endangered properties list.

“This is a smart consolidation which will allow us to sell existing assets, create new opportunities for development at those sites, and revitalize part of West Philadelphia much in need of investment,” Nutter said during his annual budget speech during a City Council meeting yesterday.

Under the plan, the building would also host the City morgue and Health offices.

The move would leave the current headquarters, the aging “roundhouse” near 7th and Race streets, empty. Its sale could help offset the renovation of the Provident building.

The plan, which would have cost about $70 million, was originally proposed in 2008 but was shelved due to the recession, Philly.com reports. The cost of the current renovation project will be determined during the design process in the next year. The building renovation may take up to two years.

The city is also building a juvenile detention center on five acres at the site.

City and private planning officials last night unveiled an “action plan” to turn 500 acres of vacant lots, desolate schoolyards and derelict parks into revitalized green space.

Green2015: An Action Plan for the First 500 Acres is the result of cooperation between the city and PennPraxis, the hands-on branch of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design. It’s ambitious and expensive, although the city maintains that the costs will be kept low thanks to private and community partnerships and the fact that many of the sites under consideration will be relatively easy to green-up.

The idea is to create green space where there isn’t much, particularly for the 200,000 or so Philadelphians who live further than a 10-minute walk from a public park. A caveat: These spaces won’t necessarily be turned into “parks.” Some will be spruced up school playgrounds, for example. Many are an acre or less.

The city is inviting citizen feedback here.

Here are some “opportunity sites” in West Philly that the plan mentions:

• Walnut Hill Community Park and Farm (pictured left). This project on a quarter-acre lot near 46th and Market is actually already underway and will include a pocket park and an urban garden (p. 79).

Green 2015