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.

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

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.

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!

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?

North 28th gets new Art Piece

Our North 28th project at, you guessed it North 28th Street, in Brewerytown got a sweet new art installation by noted artist Stephen Powers. You may recognize his work riding along the Market Frankford El trains. He did all the Philly love letters. I'm not sure what this particular piece is about, but it looks to me like it's some sort of engagement. Guy on one knee with a pizza? Or is that an abstract diamond? Either way, it's still pretty cool.

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.

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. 

The Broad Street Run

Tim here - JKR Partners had quite a showing at the Broad Street Run last Sunday (May 5th).  Five of us from the office ran in the race (Laura, Lauren, Izzo, Tim, and Sean Sean Sean Sean).  Everyone did a fantastic job in this 10-mile race through the heart of Philadelphia, and did JKR Proud.

 I had to take a very important call immediately after the race. 

Laura thought that the crosswalk was the finish line.

Lauren smoked us all with a race time of 1:12:18

Not pictured: Sean Sullivan (Sean lost his numbers while rocking out to "Sweet Caroline" at the start line.)

Mike Izzo (Izzo ran into some technical difficulties.) 

Team Jose Scavenger Hunt

Lauren here representing Team Jose! Our team, which also included Dee Dee and Markos, had a great afternoon taking photos throughout the city. We took some shortcuts and got our pictures with Boathouse Row and the Rocky Statue using postcards at the AIA bookstore. Our entire hunt was done on foot and we hit a lot of the spots on our scavenger list, including a refreshing dip in the fountain at LOVE Park.

Montreal

Lauren here:  Last week I took a train trip to Montreal with my siblings.  Despite the rainy weather we had a great time exploring the city.  Here are two photos from the trip.  The first was taken at the sculpture garden at the Canadian Center for Architecture.  We saw an awesome rainbow after walking two miles to the museum in the rain.  The second photo is from the Biosphere museum.  It is housed inside the geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller as the US pavilion at Expo 67.  In the foreground is a solar house designed by Montreal students for the 2007 Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C.

ACEtastic Final Presentation!

 

Marissa Here:  Last week Dave, Lauren E., and I watched proudly as our 13 ACE students presented their final project at the ACE Student Presentation.  Since meeting the students in early November, they have worked on developing a mixed use project as part of Philly LIVE! Complex.  It has been a wonderful experience to watch the students develop concept layouts and embrace the “Rocketship” design.  They have learned to produce bubble diagrams, column-beam diagrams, truss (not truffle) designs, and elevations.  As a new ACE mentor, it was an added bonus to learn more about the other mentors’ professions.  Great job Team 5!!!

Check us out @ the ACE Breakfast

Lauren Here: This year's ACE Scholarship breakfast was held at the new National Museum of American Jewish History on Independence Mall.   Jerry, Paul, Dave, Marissa, Tiff, Mike and I attended.  After the breakfast we were free to take a tour of this awesome building!  We checked out some of the display areas and got a closer look at the cool architectural details.