Sometimes you just need to post some pictures from a cool site visit.

PECO Power Plant

Old Delaware Station PECO Power Plant

PECO Power Plant

PECO Power Plant

PECO Power Plant

Incredible Space

Brewerytown is BOOMIN' Tour

Last Friday, a few of us took a break from the grind and headed over to Brewerytown to see some of our newest projects taking shape for MM Partners.  MM as you may know, has been developing/redeveloping block by block, that part of the city just north of Fairmount Ave. The neighborhood is ripe for good development; it's a great location close to the Art Museum, Fairmount Park and Center City, it has a nice commercial avenue on Girard Ave, a trolley line, and most importantly, it's affordable.  It's really a clean slate as far as redevelopment is concerned and the neighborhood has been very receptive to MM's plans according to Jacob Roller.
MM has gotten noticed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Business Journal recently as well.  We're happy to be a part of their team on their latest projects. We toured Cambridge Row; Three townhouses on, wait for it, Cambridge St. and 30 Baltz on, wait for it, 30th and Baltz Street, and their upcoming project Girard27, uh you guessed it, 27th and Girard!  Their new Braverman building, a 5 story mixed use project, is the first to take advantage of new zoning along Girard Ave which allows them to go up higher than most existing buildings along the strip.  The tour ended at their latest venture, Sarah's Place, a former nuisance bar that was recently rehabbed and made "new" again or at the very least cleaned up. Much of its original character has remained unchanged.  Here are some snaps.

Cambridge Row, Brewerytown

nice wood bay

Jacob Roller leads the tour

The new Braverman Building

North 28th, another JKR Partners project

Sarah's Place Bar

upstairs at Sarah's Place

Interior of Cambridge Row

A room with a view at 30 Baltz

Just in time for the Holiday

In a funk? Not in the spirit yet? Well, there's only a few days left so get it in gear! Maybe this could help.  Dave Urffer's performance yesterday at the annual Tuba Christmas at the Kimmel Center. He's big time. 

8 on Race project coming along.

before

currently

future

A few months ago our 8 on Race project began and what was once a derelict old building is rapidly becoming a fancy new residential development. There will naturally be, wait for it..... 8 private residences! Here is a picture of what it was, what it is currently, and what it will be in the near future.

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.

ACE Mentoring

Our ACE students hard at work

As is our company policy, we give back whenever we can; and we're continuing that trend with this year's ACE team.  Dave, Nichole, and Lauren represented JKR this year helping to nurture the next generation of architects, contractors and engineers. Today was the scholarship breakfast where all the major companies who participate in the program can get together and meet each other and help raise money for scholarships for the student participants.  This year our team was fortunate enough to have  TWO students win top scholarship prizes of 10,000 dollars!

CANstruction Update

WHOA!

Whoa! Do we have some awesome clients and family and friends or what? We can't begin to thank everyone for really getting behind our CANstruction team and donating their hard earned cash for a great cause! We are really proud and humbled! It really is an amazing feat that we were able to surpass our fundraising goal in a few short days! The outpouring of support and generosity really means a lot to us. It is a true testament to our mission statement of "Building continuing relationships through quality design and responsive service." We are very grateful of the relationships we have built with each of you! Stay tuned for updates on our build!

Breaking Ground at Cottman & Castor!

Dave and Elisa with their golden shovels.

all the people that make the projects happen

Clover in the mid 80s?

bringing the site into the 21st century

1954... the original

Dave, Elisa, Katie and Mike Schmitt have been working diligently for the last few months to get the Cottman and Castor job off the ground for Kimco Realty. This morning, ground was sort of broken for the project, if you count just holding a ceremonial golden shovel as breaking ground.  Other than no ground actually being broken, it was your typical celebratory event complete with all the local politicians and deal makers.  There was a ceremonial sledgehammer to take down some of the existing building.  Although this particular project isn't the most glamorous, it is a pretty big deal for the Great Northeast. What was once a Lit Brothers store eons ago, then a Gimbels, and then a Clover store, and then JC Penny for a short while, then just a vacant building for a long time, is now going to be given new life as a Burlington Coat Factory, a Bob's Discount Furniture and a soon to be TJ Maxx if everything goes as planned.  So the site has a long and storied history as a retail anchor in the Bustleton neighborhood.  This is a game changer for this area, which believe it or not happens to have the highest concentration of retail in Philadelphia outside of Center City.

Movers and Shakers

One of the coolest dudes ever. Him, not me.

B-Mac (Bob) and I were at the Center for Architecture last night for the award of the annual Ed Bacon Prize honoring national individuals who have advocated for excellence in urban development, planning, thought, and design through conviction of vision.  The first awardee was former Philadelphia mayor and then Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell.  He was a pretty cool dude as expected.  We talked about football, the olympics, politics, and some hotel gossip surrounding the new Comcast building and moving the Four Seasons Hotel.  He added a good story about how he convinced J.W. Marriott to build the Marriott on Market Street back in the day.  But of all the traveling he's done, believe it or not, he still thinks the Airport Marriott is one of the best hotels he's ever stayed in.    Guess who else was there... wait for it..... Ed Bacon's daughter.  That makes Bob and I only one degree from Kevin Bacon!

Bank Street project in Old City

Tucked in a hard to find little oasis right off Market Street in Old City lies a new little 4 townhouse gem. In a small lot on Bank Street, between Second and Third Streets where the former 5 Spot used to entertain late night revelers before it was destroyed in a fire, is our new town home project.  Steve and Jose worked diligently on this one to make sure it really fit in with its classic mercantile federalist style neighbors. The new places have all the conveniences of a new place, with their gourmet kitchens, high ceilings, and roof decks but they also have that old world charm that makes Old City, well.... Old City.  Check out the rendering and some local press.

Southstar Lofts Sneak Peek

zach and Dave check out the mocked up corridor

talk about natural light

Broad Street view

Today was pretty frigid, but we managed to field a group of 10 people to tour our new Southstar Lofts project which is under construction at the corner of Broad and South Streets.  The 85 unit apartment building is about three quarters of the way done.  We were able to view the construction at various levels of completion since each floor is a little bit more done than the next.  see all the pictures from the tour here.

Progressive Grocer awards Fare and Square store of the month!

 
Progressive Grocer, the premier voice of the retail food industry, recently awarded our Fare and Square project for Philabundance its store of the month.  Read about how the design of the small store helps boost sales and keep people healthy at Progressive Grocer! 

Whoa! Eckberg is FAST!

Did you know that Lauren Eckberg runs? Did you know that she runs really fast? Were you curious just how fast? Well, Lauren ran her first marathon ever this weekend and did some serious damage to her competition.  I'm not sure of her overall place, but she had to beat a few thousand people. I mean, her mile pace got increasingly faster over the course of the race! How sweet is that?

Point Breeze project moving along

View from Capitol Street

A week or so ago you may have read about our latest project planned for Point Breeze in Naked Philly.  There have been tons of comments both good and bad about the project, either way, we're excited about the project and can't wait to get it started.  If last night's design review meeting with South Philadelphia H.O.M.E.S is any indication, the project was very well received. Can anyone say standing ovation? The project replaces an old warehouse with 50 new single family homes. We really tried to be contextual with the neighboring buildings, by matching materials and heights, while still giving the houses their own contemporary identity.  Let us know what you think.

Green Treks teams up with JKR for informational video

Tiff, Izzo, and Ferro

This past Monday, Green Treks, the award-winning Philadelphia-based nonprofit communications company teamed up with JKR Partners to film their upcoming educational series about STEM careers.  If you aren't familiar with STEM, it's an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  The short film is geared toward high school students that might be interested in a job in these fields but may be too scared to ask the questions they really want to know.  Tiffany and I were interviewed by a local high school student, and we quelled her fears about how much Math architects really use. Contrary to what most people think, we really don't use much complex Math.  After filming in the office,we headed to one of our construction sites around the corner where site superintendent Dave Ferro from Clemens gave us some hands on experience.

Bridgeview Project gets big press

The empty lot that rests at the corners of Columbus and Catharine Streets has been getting a lot of attention this past week after Jose presented our project to the Central Delaware Advocacy Group. This particular site has been bouncing around our office in some form or another for at least the last five years with nothing but fruitless pie in the sky dreams.  This site is too good to be sitting idle for so long.  Bridgeview, a 75 unit residential development, has been planned by our designers to give future residents equal access to the city and the river.  It will be especially nice if they build this.  This area is ripe for redevelopment! We'll be updating more as the project progresses in a few weeks.  In the meantime read more about the project here.

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.

More good news for Broad Street Walgreens

Our flagship Walgreens continues to get rave reviews! Check out the full story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

N.Broad Street looking up

nice welcoming stair

pretty sweet courtyard if you ask me

love that brick pattern

with views like this, there's some incentive to take a few years to graduate.

You gotta give credit where credit is due.  MGA Partners did a bang up job on their new Morgan Hall complex at Temple University.  North Broad Street has been on the up and up for the last few years, but this project will put it over the top.  This project will finally put people on the street, Broad Street in particular and really put Temple back on the map as not just another commuter school.  It looks like they pulled out all the stops with great materials, great views, great landscaping, and pretty good urbanism.  Check out the photos here and here by Bradley Maule.

Welcome to Walgreens?

Blake here:  On the last day of July in 2013 Philadelphia opened the doors to a new breed of Walgreens, and the first of its kind in the state of Pennsylvania.  Located at the corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets welcome to Walgreens on steroids.  I mean when was the last time you got fro yo at a Walgreens?  Or used a digital interface to see how a certain makeup would look on your gorgeousness before you made the purchase, ladies?  Well you can here.

Then - as Borders

Previously this was a place to feed the mind as Borders.  Now you can feed it all with food, cosmetics, reading materials, and medication within the newly renovated 3-story space.  And to add to the Philadelphia experience inside you'll find areas dedicated to local favorites such as the Crayola, Philadelphia Water Ice, Hershey's, Center City Pretzel, and Just Born companies.  Check it out for yourself, this is no ordinary Walgreens.