In West Philly

Taken literally, the name Dirt Factory sounds like the place where Miracle-Gro makes their soil. And perhaps with a lower-case 'd' and a lower case 'f,' that would indeed be the case. Alternately, it could have been the name of a punk band in the 1970s, and it's quite possible it was, but

We've covered several Orens Brothers projects over the years, like their successful redevelopment of Croydon Hall at 49th & Locust. Shortly after they wrapped that project, we told you about another significant project from this developer on the 4400 blocks of Chestnut and Ludlow Streets. The plans called for roughly

The 76ers have played their home games at the Wells Fargo Center since 1996, having spent the previous twenty-nine seasons at the Spectrum. Well, that's not exactly accurate. In point of fact, the arena was known as the CoreStates Center when it first opened, then got the First Union Center moniker (loved this one), transitioned to

The footprint of the University of Pennsylvania has slowly but surely expanded over the decades, pushing out to a western boundary of 40th Street in the late 1960s and a bit more recently, to a hazy northern border at Chestnut Street. Though the formal campus of the university probably isn't

We've complained on numerous occasions in this space that college kids have it way better at present than we did back in the day. Most of our kvetching has come on the subject of student housing. Back when we were in school, dorm rooms didn't have air conditioning, and one year,

When Iron Stone Real Estate Partners introduced a plan in 2011 to redevelop the Apple Storage building at 780 S. 52nd St. into a significant residential development, we felt like the project was a bit ahead of its time. And wouldn't you know it, even through the project got zoning

Several months ago, we directed your attention to the 3600 block of Haverford Avenue, where we spied some heavy machinery moving dirt around. At the time, we took the opportunity to remind you about the recent history of the block. For those not in the know that don't feel like

Michael's Custom Cuts is a little barber shop/hair salon in West Philly where we've been getting our haircuts for longer than we can remember. And many people can say the same thing, as we're pretty sure this business has been operating out of a space near the corner of 40th

The Garden Court Plaza building at 4701 Pine St. possesses an altogether unique presence in West Philadelphia, an Art Deco building standing fourteen-stories high in the middle of a mostly low rise residential area. The building was designed to be the centerpiece of the Garden Court neighborhood, which runs from 46th

We were perusing the ZBA calendar the other day and discovered that 4108 Haverford Ave. is tabbed for redevelopment. This property looks like it was originally built for industrial purposes and probably got some use as a warehouse at some point early in its life. Most recently though, the building