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.

Nugent Senior Apartments Wins Preservation Award

Before

After

Our Nugent Senior Apartments has won another award.  Not only have we won a Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia grand jury award, now we've also won a Preservation Pennsylvania Award. We're not stopping there however, we're also in the running for an AIA Philadelphia and AIA Pennsylvania award.  Dave, Sam and DeeDee have continued their award winning work.

 

Make that 3 more registered architects!

Our latest happy architects

You might recall Blake's gross beard. You might recall his unusually gruff personality lately. Well, we're proud to say Blake is back to his old self. After months of agonizing over his exams, he became our office's latest registered architect.  He joins Marissa and Sam, who have also passed all their exams in the past month or so.  The weird thing is, they all near each other in the office. Something in the water over there? Maybe. Cheaters? Impossible.  They just have great support for one another and are always encouraging.  Look at that love!

Annual JKR Phillies Outing

Some new Threads for everyone! a new tradition.

A motley crew

The Rooches, Diana and Greg.

Sean keeping his fivehead free from sunburn.

It's not all work and no play around here, although it may seem like that.  We really do work hard.  We just need some recuperation days to reconnect with our colleagues and have some fun. It's been 8 or 9 years now that we've closed down the office for the afternoon and have gone to the Phillies game for a business persons special.  Then, as always, we head down to our favorite dive bar Bob and Barbara's and get the other kind of special... A beer and a shot. This year we had another beautiful day and actually saw the Phils win a game for a change! Check out all the photos on our Facebook page.

Sam Kim Becomes our Latest Registered Architect!

Sam Kim is our latest team member to pass her final architecture exam and become a registered architect. It's no easy feat.  In addition to playing a major role in every aspect of our office culture, she has been quietly knocking down each test with regularity.  Usually you hear of everyone complaining about how hard the tests are, or how unfair they are, or how much they have been studying for them and consuming their lives, but Sam always kept her head and plugged away at them with her positive attitude.  We now have an impressive THIRTEEN registered architects in our talented office! Way to go Sam!

Nugent Update

Nugent

terra cotta tiles getting installed

the panelized new addition

A few weeks back we updated you on the Nugent Senior Apartments going up in Germantown.  The National Park Service just granted full approval for our revised historic details so now construction is in full swing and given the much better weather, things are getting done much more quickly.  The roof is getting its new terra cotta tiles, (real terra cotta tiles!) and the first level of the panelized addition is up.  More to come in a few weeks.

Walgreens without Borders

Remember this? The dvds were in the center, and off to the left were the architecture books. The chandeliers are staying.

Demolition underway.  The old color scheme is out.

Free advertising on Broad Street.

It's always sad when a bookstore closes, but it's more sad if a building in a prominent location sits empty. Before you say, "Aw man, not another Walgreens!" this isn't just any old Walgreens.  This is like a luxury drugstore for famous people. I mean, when was the last time you went to a drugstore and thought, "I'm just going to pick up some Q-tips and maybe get some sushi and a carrot smoothie for lunch while I'm there."  It's kinda like a bricks and mortar Craigslist.  It's got everything. This is another Sam and Dave undertaking, transforming this former Borders Books on the corner of Broad and Chestnut in the city into a flagship Walgreens like they have in NYC and Chicago.  Should be pretty awesome when it's done. 

Nugent Senior Apartments underway

Sam and Dee Dee showing off their new hard hats.

Dave inspecting some potential areas of concern with the roof.

The vandals left their mark stealing most of the copper cornices.

A new floor will be replacing the old uneven floor.

The original building in all its glory.

Foundations for the new addition have been poured.

Dave, Dee Dee, and Sam have been working on this project with Nolen Properties for the better part of at least the last three years. We blogged about this a few months back when we had the ribbon cutting ceremony to commence the construction.  Nugent Senior Apartments is a 57 unit affordable senior housing project in the Germantown neighborhood of Philly.  Demolition is complete (thanks to a lot of vandals for helping out with the copper removal) and repairs are underway.  After years of neglect, we'll be restoring this back to its original splendor.  This is our second restoration/renovation project with Nolen; the other being the award winning Presser project. 

wow

It's not officially the holidays until you get a gigantic Whitman Sampler.  20 minutes later... no more Whitman Sampler.

Nugent Senior Apartments Ground breaking

old meets new

All the big wigs at Thursday's ground breaking

Nugent Senior Apartments on West Johnson Street in the Mt. Airy section of the city is a new project we're working on for Nolen Properties.  We're converting this beautiful building back to it's original luster creating 25 units in the old building and adding 32 rental units in a new addition in the rear.  It was originally built in 1895 for the care of elderly Baptist ministers and their wives, and in 2006 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Last year we did a similar successful conversion like this for Nolen with our Presser Senior Apartments. 

Pretty in Pink!!

Hum... Better late than never??

 On December 23 (at about 11:09pm) our very own Samantha Chan Kim gave birth to a beautiful little girl named Isabelle!
Isabelle weighed in at 6lbs, 4oz...

The perfect little package right in time for Christmas :)




Sam - Here are a couple of thoughts from your JKRP family -

1. You are not allowed to combine Isabelle's birthday presents with Christmas presents.
2. Isabelle is not allowed to learn AutoCAD until she is at least 12. That would be child abuse.

We would like to send our Love and Congratulations to Sam and her husband Ed on their little miracle!!

JKR goes to Gettysburg!

Dee Dee here: Marissa, Sam, and I attended the 2011 Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Awards last Friday in Gettysburg.  Presser Senior Apartments received the Multiple Family Residential Construction Project Award.  Presser, which is located in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia was completed this spring and contains 45 independent living senior apartments.  While in Gettysburg we learned about fertilizer and had really good cake!

Happy Birthday Dear PauJaSaGreggg!!!!

Tram Fun here:  Last week, the office got together for a little pizza party on the deck to celebrate our June birthdays.  Don’t worry I won’t reveal identities or ages of our two milestone birthdays!  Despite all of this celebrating, our “singing” was just as pitiful as ever.  Everyone quickly came alive again when reaching for a delicious piece of chocolate glazed chocolate pound cake from Cake and the Beanstalk.  yummy!  Happy Birthday Paul, Jason, Sam, and Greg!!!