“Before restoration efforts began, chunks of the stone facade of the Frank Furness-designed 19th Street Baptist Church were crumbling to the street and the roof was caving in.” | Photo: Alex Lewis, for NewsWorks
- NewsWorksconsiders the “scrappy, but functional approach” in historic preservation employed by professor Aaron Wunsch and Deacon Lloyd Butler in the stabilization and weatherproofing of the Frank Furness-designed 19th Street Baptist Church in Point Breeze. Although the University of Pennsylvania, Partners for Sacred Places, and National Trust for Historic Preservation lent some organizational and financial assistance, the endeavor was largely grassroots, validating Wunsch’s opinion “that we’re lacking this kind of middle strategy for fixing things.” The work completed thus far “has cost far less than the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would have taken to demolish the church.”
- Councilmen Mark Squilla and Kenyatta Johnson will send a bill to the Planning Commission next week that “would require IRMX projects to include non-residential uses, incentivize artisan or light-industrial uses, reduce the maximum lot coverage, and ease parking and loading regulations,” says Plan Philly. This would mollify significant post hoc fears that the zoning code’s overly inclusive definition for the IRMX category might encourage condos at the expense of the active mixed-use projects, live-work spaces, and artists’ studios that Squilla and Johnson are actually seeking.
- The Roxborough Development Corporation is soliciting feedback from residents, employees and visitors to Ridge Avenue for Roxborough 2020, its “strategic planning initiative” for the Lower Northwest’s main commercial corridor (Domino Lane to its fork with Main Street). To take that survey, click HERE.
- Writing for the Philadelphia Business Journal, Min Suh, a partner at the law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, opines that in at least one aspect of the contentious national immigration debate, a bipartisan deal is attainable in encouraging more skilled labor “of all levels for the high-tech sector.” The measures within the Immigration Innovation Act of 2015 would benefit Philadelphia by allowing more STEM-educated foreign workers to stay for longer periods, she explains.
- CBS Philly flashes back to this date in 2000, the day the City formally assumed control of the Navy Yard from the federal government when the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID) purchased the 1,200-acres.
About the author
Stephen Currall recently received his BA in history from Arcadia University. Before beginning doctoral studies, he is pursuing his interest in local history, specifically just how Philadelphians engage their vibrant past. Besides skimming through 18th century letters, Steve is also interested in music and travel.
