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

Anthony Wayne II, Subsidized Senior Housing

TWayne awaiting his brick, hardie board, and stucco exterior

3^rd floor unit view

View from the 4^th floor corner unit 

Glenn, Tiffany, Lauren, and Laura have been working on a 46-unit apartment building that will provide subsidized housing for seniors in the Grays Ferry Area.  Anthony Wayne II neighbors Anthony Wayne I, which JKRP previously renovated.  Construction is well underway on TWayne (as we’ve affectionately nicknamed it), despite some acts of trespassing, vandalism, and theft.  TWayne has 1 and 2 bedroom units, as well as two community rooms and a number of communal sitting areas.  The large window systems that have been installed will give these seniors plenty of light and nice views of the Center City skyline, as well as nearby fields. 

Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corp gets new offices

the Before (the former Club Jag)

The after.

OARCs new Office

The welcoming entrance

OARC, the organization responsible for a lot of great revitalization projects along Ogontz Avenue in West Oak Lane, including the West Oak Lane Charter School that we recently completed, called on us to design their new headquarters and administrative offices.  JKRP designed a complete facelift for the former Club Jaguar at the intersection of Ogontz Ave. and Cheltenham Ave.  While the old photo makes Club Jag look really good, we thought it could still use some help. Whereas the nightclub operated mainly after dark, numerous window openings helped to transform the building and provide abundant daylight to the new office areas.  Greg and Glenn did a great job transforming the place and giving it some new life. 

JKR's Second Annual Drink and Draw

Sean showing off his skills.

Nicole, still early in the night with her right hand.

Glenn imparting his wisdom.

Jose and his off hand.

Laura's feeble attempt at drawing "chalk" "you know, it's a driveway, and an infant!"

Tim justifying his horrific attempt at drawing "Long Island"

Kathleen drawing something.  Musta been a gem based on Mike's reaction. 

Farinella's terrible terrible terrible attempt at drawing a cave. 

We've got a great relationship with the Irish Pub across the street from our office; On the good days, we celebrate there, on the bad days, we wallow there.  Last night, we upheld what will surely become a JKR tradition,  the annual Drink and Draw.  Pictionary with food and booze.  Now let's be clear, Pictionary isn't much fun between smart architects like us, so to make it more interesting we handicap ourselves with shots and beers and then we draw with our non-dominant hand.  It makes for a much more fun, and funny evening. 

MLK Day of Service

G-dubs hard at work on his corner

Rooch and Izzo, supervising

measure 7 times, cut twice

Laura and Tiff show off their schmutzin' abilities

Yeah, we're a week late on this one, but it's still blogable. A good majority of the office dedicated a day of work to help out the Philadelphia chapter of Habitat for Humanity while a select few held down the fort at Walnut Street.  We've started to make this a little JKR tradition.  Usually we'll lend our architectural services to Habitat, but this time around we put in some physical labor for some families in need.  We split into three small groups and worked on a few houses within the city.  It was a good time, and we felt good doing it. 

La Vita e Bella

Fresh off the boat from Italy, Glenn Werner brought back some delicious ice cold limoncello for us all to enjoy...well, at least the few lucky ones that happened to be enjoying lunch on the deck with him.  I can't wait to see what Dave brings us when he comes back from his European vacation in a few weeks.  The standard has been set.

Kitchen renovation by yours truly...G-dubs

Among the features that enticed us to purchase our house in 2002, anything to do with the kitchen was absent.  It took quite a while for the enthusiasm to do much of anything about it to arrive, except for replacing a 2 x 4 wraparound light fixture and the garbage disposal.  When the enthusiasm finally did arrive, it was accompanied by serious global recession.  So our renovation plans became more "resourceful".  We kept the stainless sink and the almond color- core counter.  Paint and new hardware for the cabinets.  Replaced the wall tile with painted wood paneling.  Recovered an impressively durable but fashionably outmoded Armstrong embossed sheet vinyl product with Parterre vinyl planks:  faux bamboo!!  Metallic ceramic tile base.  These economical alternatives allowed for some more interesting accent materials:  an acrylic  Lightblocks counter with Chemetal face panels and maple trim.  Labor, excepting flooring installation, by yours truly.  A little more enthusiasm and I’ll soon complete the lighting soffit.
-  Glenn W, May 2012

            

AIA Golf Outing, and Jose Got Robbed!

JKR Partners manhandled the annual AIA golf outing at Huntingdon Valley Country Club on Monday. G-dubs, P.Georges, Jason Wistreich, Hoser Hernandez and Shizzle my Izzle represented the JKR squad. I can speak for my foursome, we played really well and impressed our clients; We even won something-or-other for the course we played.  Jose pretty much got robbed on the straightest drive contest though. Someone had to have moved the rope.  But I gotta say, that rope wasn't straight. It just so happened that Jose hit the crookedest drive that lined up with the straight rope.

With spring, comes a new deck, new furniture, new flowers

After many years of walking out on the "dock," the tired deck boards could last no longer. If it lasted one more day, there could have been a slapstick comedy filmed up there with one of us stepping on a board,only to have it flip up and hit us in the face. The deck's days were numbered. The landlord graciously replaced the deck with a brand spankin new one, and then good things followed. An employee, (to remain nameless), pumped up the beauty factor with some fresh new flowers, and G-dubs and Michael Jack finally retired that pile of plastic and dirt we called patio furniture with some bangin' new deck furniture. Cuatro de Mayo watch out, we're having a deck party!

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!

History Is Made

Wednesday night saw many firsts for the JKRP softball team.  We had Dave's first 2011 appearance (he was 3 for 3), we had our first 9-run inning, and, for the first time in history, a pitching change was called for.  Glenn Werner, amassing a pitch count of 57 on his first batter, was pulled in the top of the third inning by interim manager/center fielder Mike Izzo.  The side was quickly retired after the change.  "The first one was right down the middle," said Werner on the bench, "but he didn't swing.  I guess he didn't want them like that."


There aren't many rules in slow-pitch architectural softball, but it felt like we were up against the entire ASL rulebook last night.  Two outs at the plate were nullified by a vocal Ewing Cole bench.  One in a "slide or surrender" situation (in which the runner neither slid nor surrendered), and another because "the foul tip didn't go over the batter's head."  Despite the bad calls, Marissa turned in some All-Star caliber play at the catcher's position.


What the team lacked in Krevolin brothers it more than made up for with grilled meats and cake balls.  Aggressive base running was not slowed by the pounds of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and cake we ingested.  We were in it until the end, but ultimately walked away with a loss.  Only four more games to go before the 2011 season comes to a close. 

Roof Plank Is Here!!

Mike S. Here:  Glenn and I were out at our weekly construction meeting over at West Oak Lane Charter School.  The roof plank had finally arrived and was being put in place.  It will add much needed classrooms, computer lab, library and gym to the growing school.