Pumpkin Carving Tradition lives on

Lauren and Greg carving

The Boss making an architectural pumpkin

Izzo and Knepley's creation, good enough for #2 place!

Jen and Sam's porcupine, a tie for second.

Dave and Katie's owl, the grand champ.

It wouldn't be October if we didn't have our annual pumpkin carving contest in the office. This year was sort of the exception. Technically, we did our pumpkin carving this year in November due to some big deadlines, but that didn't stop the fun. To be fair, partners were randomly selected from a hat, and each team had an hour and a half or thereabouts to complete their creation.  Some were good, some were better.  This year Katie Robinson and Dave Urffer stole the title for best pumpkin from last year's reigning champ Katie Brill.  If you didn't already know, Katie Robinson is the new Katie Brill.  (marriage) Check out some of this years pumpkins on our Facebook Page.

Jerry Makes a Cameo on 6ABC

Jerry Roller made the news last night on 6ABC speaking to the viability of turning old abandoned Philadelphia Schools into new exciting residential developments.

Philabundance Opens Supermarket in Chester

Grand opening celebration

Philabundance, the local food charity that has been doing great work in the Philadelphia area feeding the hungry for years, has upped the ante and built the first non-profit supermarket in the country.  We were lucky enough to help them along in their efforts to rid Chester of the dubious distinction of being a food desert.  After a few tries, we finally got the plan right, and we had the good people at Sullivan Construction knock it out of the park building it. 
Check out some news stories here: Philly.com and here and one more here.

ICSC Convention in Atlantic City

The International Council of Shopping Centers' convention was held this week at the Atlantic City Convention Center where Dave, Paul and Jerry were doing their networking thing late into the evening showing off our best work in hopes of landing the next big project.  It's an IDEA exchange, so hopefully they got some good new ideas, and dished out a lot of good ones to potential clients.

Annual Phillies Outing

You need a drink before you see the Phils these days.

After a minor rain delay, the Phils got back to beatin on the Cubbies.

Butch hooking up the specials.

Serious Sergi and a photobombing Jose.

the Boss getting his birthday on.

If it seems like our office is a lot of fun, that's because it is.  In keeping with our yearly tradition, which started way back when the Phillies were actually good; last Thursday we had our annual JKR day at the Phillies.  This year was special in that it was also the Boss Man's 65th birthday.  He took full advantage of his newly granted senior citizen status and wisely got his subway ride to the ballpark for free. With age comes wisdom I guess. And like we always do, we all went back to our second favorite watering hole where we got our celebratory drinks.  The drinks taste much sweeter when the Phils win big. 

Southstar Lofts Groundbreaking

The Southstar Crew:Paul Horning from Clemens;Jerry, Broh, Izzo, Carl Dranoff of Dranoff Properties; Zach, and Josh Weingram also from Dranoff

Ain't nothing more delicious than a Southstar Lofts Tuna Salad.

The Phanatic giving Carl a big wet one.

It's been a while since we had some big news with our Southstar Lofts project, but yesterday was our official groundbreaking held at the Suzanne Roberts Theater.  The Dranoff team held a knockout event, complete with all the important politicians and movers and shakers, even the Phillie Phanatic was there.  Clemens Construction has already been hard at work at the site a few blocks away.  We're almost done digging.  Check back for more updates.

Philabundance takes on Chester Supermarket

Izzo Here:  Jerry and I have been working with Philabundance on their latest endeavor to put a food market in Chester, PA.  They have a pretty awesome concept to bring fresh food to the residents of Chester who have been without a supermarket for the last decade!   Chester is an area that the USDA is referring to as a food desert.  Anyway, the Philabundance crew had their official ground breaking for their Fare and Square concept last Thursday, complete with the Action News crew and all the local bigwigs including Jerry.  You can spot him at 0:31 in the video clip.click here for ABC news Video

Team Jerry

Laura Here: Our team had a lot of fun walking (and only walking) around the city during the scavenger hunt.  It was actually a nice tour through Philadelphia; we walked by places I haven’t been to in years, such as the Betsy Ross House.  Jerry, Tiff, Zach, and I represented JKRP well, as you can see by the above picture.  We may not have won, but we sure played smart. 

Building Happy Hour

KIM! With a BEER!

Sean bringing in the backup

Friday, we closed up shop a half hour earlier than usual and invited our new neighbors upstairs down to our new deck for a few drinks.  It was nice to finally meet the new people from Arcadis, and Nicholas Cosmetic Dental. It was getting a little lonely being the only tenants in the building.  The weather got better, the drinks started flowing....Just to give you a sign of how well it went, Kim even stayed!

Northeastern Hospital lobby renovation nearly complete

before

after

Izzo Here:  Jerry and I have been doing a bunch of renovations to the former Northeastern Hospital on Allegheny Ave, in Northeast Philly.  In addition to a few tenant fit outs, we're just about to finish the renovation of their main entrance lobby.  The space was used as the main entrance and a general waiting area for patients.  The owner wanted the space to feel like a lobby for all the tenants and not just a waiting area.  A big improvement.  Still waiting on an awesome new light fixture to get installed where the fluorescents currently are. Oh... and the old desk in the foreground will be removed.

bad boys of architecture?

We're revamping our partners page on our website.... and we're not messin' around! Look out peeps, we takin' over this city!

The Stoogeum

Dave here: Recently, my family and I visited a shrine to one of the most well known comedy teams of all time – the Three Stooges. The venue is called the Stoogeum, located in a small building within an office park in Spring House, PA. The building was originally an old stone barn, which had been converted to an architect’s office (more on that later), which was then renovated and expanded to create the museum. Inside are three floors chronicling the history of the Stooges, with displays ranging from photos to movie posters to arcade games.  There is also an 85-seat auditorium continuously showing the Stooges’ shorts.

As mentioned, the building was previously an architect’s office. While that may not seem significant, it was the firm that Jerry, Glenn and I had worked at previously. My desk was located where the gift shop now stands. Jerry and Glenn sat where the auditorium was constructed. I love the irony.

The Stoogeum is open one Saturday a month, and admission is free. Check out their web site for more info and their schedule. ( www.stoogeum.com ) Any fan of comedy will enjoy a visit to the Stoogeum!

Philabundance Project on the Boards!

Izzo Here: Philabundance has asked us to come up with some schematic plans for their new space in Chester, PA only a few blocks from the new PPL Park soccer stadium.  Their plan is to put a new Philabundance food center in an existing building which is now attached to a Dollar Store and is very close to an adjacent parking lot in the rear of the building. The idea was to create a pedestrian walkway between the parking lot and the store softening up the approach to the entrance, while providing a functional outdoor plaza for seasonal vendors. Hopefully we can carry out these ideas in the near future!

Mighty Mississippi

Jerry Here: While attending the AIA National convention in New Orleans, we had a steady dose of rising river reports. My cousins, who live in Baton Rouge, thought we ought to see things up close, and they took us to see the Bonnet Carre spillway. This is one of the flood control devices used to divert water from the Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain and thence to the Gulf of Mexico. The spillway is the wide swath of land shown in this picture. Apparently, in normal times, there should be no water in this picture and everything should be green.

Dee Dee Here:  Jerry, Matt, Samantha, and I attended the Preservation Achievement Awards this week.  The luncheon was held at the Crystal Tea Room at the Wanamaker Building.  Presser Senior Apartments received a Grand Jury Award for the renovation of this National Register-listed building.  Next up is the adjacent Nugent Home, which is also slated for rehabilitation!

We Have Stone!

Dee Dee Here:The Stone is going up at the Stern Hebrew High School addition in Merion Station, PA.  Blake, Jerry and I have been working with the Kohelet Foundation  on the former Akiba Hebrew Academy site for the past two years.  Phase 1 of the project focused on updating the existing facility while Phase 2 included building the Beit Midrash addition, which will be used as a work/study space.  The students relocated to the existing school last fall and construction of the addition is on its way to being complete in June!

This is how we do an office meeting

Blake Here: Cinco De Mayo office meetings with margaritas are always better than office meetings without margaritas.  MC Jerry Roller is resident mixologist... look at the tequila in that thing! Slammin'!