Now for some updates from our sister site, Curbed Philly, your go-to source for all things real estate, neighborhoods and architecture...
Photo courtesy of Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund
WEST PHILLY—The Knight Arts Challenge winners were announced this week, and among them was the Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund, which will turn several West Philly lots into funky skate parks with public art. It's Ed Bacon's dream come true. Oh, and there's a kid in the rendering who looks high. Sick!
CRUSTPUNKVILLE—A Philly squatter who's employed as a cook was featured this week by Vice. DJ Pommerville runs the website Look At the Fucking Oogle (LATFO), which Vice says is like "Larry Clark's Tulsa reborn through self-documentation and crowd participation." We have some images of squatting interiors from LATFO.
FISHTOWN—There's a $1.1 million house in Fishtown that looks like it was airlifted from somewhere in California—it even has a pool. That's what caused Kensington's anti-bandit-sign activist Christopher Sawyer to do some investigating, which then caused people on Philadelphia Speaks to get mad at him, which then raised a bunch of philosophical questions, which ... well, just read it.
SOCIETY HILL—There are two mid-century modern homes for sale, both designed by locally prominent architects in the 1970s who were responsible for large public projects (New Market, the Liberty Bell Pavilion). Both are having trouble selling in a down market. The one at Fourth and Cypress started at $2.5 million last year, and—like its turreted cousin at Fourth and Spruce—is now listed at less than a million.
LAND OF STUPIDITY—How is it possible that a local news channel could go to a crumbling, abandoned building in West Philly and talk to neighbors and take footage and then come back and produce a segment saying the house is in North Philly? Ugh, don't answer that. It's too depressing.