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. 

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.

ReInvention AIA, DC

Robert Gurney Associates Glass House

City Center Washington DC

Four Pavillion House

SeaUA

E/L Studio

E/L Studio

Salt and Pepper House

Salt and Pepper House

City Center rooftops

Robert Gurney Associates Glass House

Robert Gurney Glass House

Izzo here: Jose and I recently took part in the the AIA's Reinvention housing convention in Washington, DC where we toured some good residential architecture and sat in on some informative lectures.  Highlights of the event were the awesome tours of housing by local architects.  SeaUA, a shipping container multifamily project by Travis Price Architects started the day.  Pretty interesting.  Next up was a huge housing project on the site of the former DC convention center right downtown.  A massive project, it had some of the most awesome roof decks I had ever seen. These were half apartments and half condos with over 300k sf of retail on the ground level which is already leased up! An amazing feat in and of itself. This project was designed by Shalom Baranes and Foster Partners. A single family house by KUBE Architects dubbed the Salt and Pepper house (no relation to  Salt n pepa) started the single family dwellings. Not a huge house, but it certainly had a lot of fun surprises around every corner. Another live work house by E/L Studio was on the tour. A small architecture office on the first floor, and a small living quarters on the second floor.  Really nice use of tight quarters and really cool ceiling details.  The Four Pavillion house by esteemed architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen designed in the mid 1970s and restored recently by Richard Williams, AIA.  Another great small house within a very private suburban lot.  Really well done. And last but certainly not least, an over the top mansion in Georgetown by Robert Gurney Associates. I mean, check out that kitchen and wine cellar!

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.

 

Our team keeps growing

Maybe it's the economy, maybe we are just  awesome, maybe it's a little bit of both, but we've been seeing some impressive growth over here at JKR.  Projects keep coming in, large and small, and we're doing our very best to keep up with our clients' demands. We're proud to announce the addition of Michael Buckley to our already talented design staff.  He's helping alleviate some of the day to day pressures on our other established designers.  Mike hails from UPenn where he's earned his Masters, and also brings some good experience from some top local firms.  Right now he is working on some of our residential projects.  We're happy to welcome him to our team! 

JKR takes a field trip to the Museum of Art

opening up the great stair hall

checking out a serious rendering

Ten of us took a little field trip over to the Museum of Art to check out the new Frank Gehry exhibit Making a Modern Classic on view til September 1st.  The anticipation has been growing over some of Frank Gehry's new proposed designs which would cut a large chunk out of the iconic stairs.  We waded through the exhibit, passing through gigantic sectional models and proposed courtyard cutouts. Overall, I think our crew was impressed with his schemes.  We talked it over afterward over some drinks in the new pop up garden at the Oval and took a vote.  The verdict is out: we had three votes for the proposed cut out, and six votes against the cut out, and one member abstaining for no known reason. We all pretty much agreed that all the other plans should definitely be done.

view under the main courtyard

gigantic sectional model

post game deliberations

 

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.

Annual JKR Family Day dials in the fun.

Our office is fun. We do fun stuff. We work hard during the business day, and often times after the business day is over, so naturally we like to take an afternoon off every once in a while and enjoy each others company. We shut down around 1pm, load up our cars, and head to the plateau where e'erybody go. Volleyball, bubbles, footballs, giant jenga, cornhole, ladderball, plenty of food and booze. What more could you ask for? Enjoy all the photos on our Facebook page.

Anthony Wayne II opens to great fanfare!

Our Anthony Wayne II project, affectionately know around the office as T-Wayne or Tony Wayne had its grand opening yesterday afternoon after a few months of operation.  The project provides affordable housing for seniors in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of Philadelphia.  Nine years ago we completed the first phase which converted an old school into affordable housing.  The success of that project lead to this project, which has added 46 more units to the mix.  Even more units are planned in a third phase which is currently waiting in the wings.
Lisa Thomas-Laury of 6ABC was at the site reporting live as councilman Kenyatta Johnson joined developer Brett Altman of Altman Co. and other dignitaries as the ribbon was cut.  See the coverage here from 6ABC and at The Inquirer

New Hires

Connor, Alli, Meg, Greg, Dan

We've been busy working and been busy expanding our team!  In the last month or two we've added 5 new employees to keep up with our crazy schedules.  The new additions ain't no slouches either. Top quality people doing top quality things from top quality universities!  We've got Connor Pritz... halfway to a Pritzker Prize already. We've plucked Alli Rametta from a boutique firm in NYC. We've snatched up Meg Brennan from UPenn. We've got Greg Curran from Penn State, and last but certainly not least we've snagged Dan Flesher all the way from Idaho.  A good diverse mix of people to bring some fresh perspectives on our work.  We are excited about all of them!

Celebrating 30 Years!

Last week we had the privilege of celebrating our 30 years in business with all of the people that have afforded us the opportunity to be of service to them.  We shared the moment atop the Hotel Monaco with all of our great clients, friends and consultants. What started as a small one man operation back in 1984 with Jerry Roller at the helm, has transformed into a architectural force to be reckoned with, boasting 36 employees today. The projects have gotten better and better, the people sharper and sharper, and overall, it's just a great place to work! See more great images here from Aux Collective.

Educational Video about a Career in Architecture Starring JKR Architects!

Izzo Here: A few months ago, Tiffany (formerly of JKR, but still a close ally to the office) and I embarked on some uncharted territory.  We were approached by an awesome organization called GreenTreks to star in short film about careers in STEM or science, technology, engineering and Mathematics. This was the result.  Hopefully this will inspire you or someone you know to become an architect! Grab some popcorn!

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!

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.