CENTER CITY QUARTERLY Newsletter of the Center City Residents' Association Vol.Vol. 3 No.5 No. 4 December1 Spring 2015 2013 Contents Living History Living History Annual Meeting to Feature Vincent Feldman ........1 President’s Report ........................................................3 CCRA Annual Meeting May 20 to Feature It's Academic Friends Select Hosts LGBT Events ...........................2 Photographer and Author Vincent Feldman David Meketon on the Psychology By Philippa H. Campbell of Achievement ..............................................................7 CCCulture Artist Leroy Forney Paints and Recently published photographer Vincent poignant illustrations of older buildings and Explores New Media ....................................................4 Feldman will be the featured speaker for their declining purposes. Sue Eisenfeld to Speak at Athenaeum ..................5 the CCRA annual meeting scheduled Rona Fisher, Award-Winning Jewelry Designer .... 9 in May (watch for details in weekly Not only do the needs for some buildings Writer Art Fischman Discusses Living Memories Project..........................................................11 eNewsletters). For many years, he has become obsolete, but tastes in architectural PTC Debuts Theatre Masters Series .....................19 photographed abandoned buildings design change and fall out of public New Koresh Work Premieres Here .......................27 throughout Philadelphia, some of which favor. Some buildings may be “saved” Town Square remain abandoned, others of which have from abandonment or demolition through Burst Pipes Shut Down PCI in December ............9 since been demolished, some of which have transformation into new uses. Take, for CCRA Begins Zoning Remapping Project .........12 been saved. His book City Abandoned is a instance, the school district’s Board of The Parking Muddle ..................................................12 compilation of photographs that were also Education Building (at 21st Street and the Crosstown Coalition Works Toward Common Goals ............................................................17 recently exhibited at the University of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway), designed in Board Works with Crosstown on Arts. Inga Saffron, architecture critic for The 1932 as offices for a nationally recognized Candidates Questionnaire ......................................21 Philadelphia Inquirer, calls City Abandoned School Board and its acclaimed school Our Greene Countrie Towne “a deeply moving survey of the great civic district. By 2001, the Board was abolished, CCRA’s 2014 Beautification Campaign...............10 structures that Philadelphia erected, then offices were moved, and in 2005 the Street Scene Competition Expanded in 2nd Year .....................................................................11 neglected.” At the CCRA annual meeting, building was sold to a developer who The Ground Beneath Our Feet ..............................14 Feldman will share these unusual and often Continued p. 2 Shop Talk Nuts, Bolts, Paint and—Cookies? .........................13 Merchant Members Discount Program .............13 Dining Scene Tria Café Opening in Fitler Square .......................19 CCStreetwise Feldman Vincent Walking Alone at Night: Do You Feel Safe? ......23 What's Going On Spring Calendar .........................................................25 Out & About Celebration of Center City Living! ........................28 CENTER CITY RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION 1600 Market Street, Suite 2500 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-546-6719 [email protected] www.centercityresidents.org Known as "Rindelaub's Row," this now-demolished quartet of historically registered buildings along the block of South 18th St. once stood where the 10 Rittenhouse Condominium now looms. Continued from p. 1 transformed this wonderful art deco areas in the years after the post-World War Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian building into a condominium. II period. The photographs are described Museum of American Art, and the Free as representations of an urban ideal and Library of Philadelphia. City Abandoned But others may not be so easily re-purposed; collectively ask “how Philadelphia, once received a Silver Award in the Graphis abandonment often leads to destruction by the center of American History in politics, International 2015 Design Annual competition. neglect, with final demolition necessitated by culture and industry, became so careless Join other CCRA members at the May annual safety or other concerns. in the stewardship of such a great historic meeting to experience these award-winning legacy and empowering identity?” photographs of Philadelphia institutions, and Two decades ago when Feldman began learn more of the history they capture. photographing abandoned buildings, he Feldman lives and works in Philadelphia. His noted that many represented no-longer- photographs are owned privately and included needed civic uses due to the decline of urban in many museum collections including the Vincent Feldman Vincent Feldman Vincent Feldman Vincent The Board of Education Building (1932), 21st & the Parkway, Oliver Bair Funeral Home and Warwick Apts, 1900 block of Another Center City jewel, the Hale Building (1887) at Chestnut & which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now Sansom, and both on the Philadelphia Historic Register, have Juniper, is listed on the Philadelphia Register and still stands houses luxury apartments. managed to fend off demolition to make way for a massive as an emblem of Gilded Age architecture. parking garage. It’s Academic Friends Select School Hosts a Series of LGBT Events By Sarah Schmidt, Associate Director Marketing, Communication Friends Select School mounted a photographic legendary drag diva Martha Graham-Cracker Tina Dougherty exhibit titled “Portraits Inside/Out” in the at the William Way Center. school’s Select Gallery. The exhibition, which was comprised of black-and-white portraits All proceeds were split between the Attic of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth Center and Friends Select. Funds raised individuals, aimed to reflect the wide range of will support the safe space and community- LGBT people who have inspired the school's building opportunities the Attic Youth Center wonderfully diverse and unique community. provides for LGBTQ youth. In addition, funds The show ran for a month in January. will help support Friends Select’s David A. State Rep. Brian Sims; Chair of the FSS Parent Association’s Wood Scholarship, which provides financial LGBT Affinity Group Abby Schrader; and Head of School Rose Philadelphia State Representative Brian aid to a lower- or middle-school student from Hagan, at the "Portraits Inside/Out" Exhibit. Sims visited Friends Select to view the an LGBT-headed household. exhibit and chat with students about his cultural heart of Center City, the school traces personal LGBT heroes. Friends Select School is a coed, college its roots to 1689. At every age, students visit preparatory, Quaker day school in museums, attend cultural events, participate Also in January, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Philadelphia serving 550 students in grades in community service, and experience the and Transgender Affinity Group of the Parent pre-k through 12. Friends Select believes finest educational resources Philadelphia has Association of Friends Select School hosted that education can be fascinating. Located to offer. For more information, please visit an LGBT-themed Quizzo Cabaret with on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, in the friends-select.org. Page 2 Center City Quarterly | Spring 2015 CCRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS President’s Report Jeffrey Braff........................................... President Maggie Mund ...............Executive Vice President Primary Election, Search for Board Candidates, Charles Goodwin .......................... Vice President Judy Heller ................................... Vice President April 13 Celebration Event, eNewsletter, Zoning John Maher................................... Vice President Committee Reports, and Several Disclosures David Rose .................................... Vice President Dawn Willis ........................................... Secretary Virginia Nalencz ....................Assistant Secretary By the time you read Do Not Read the Following Paragraph If Walter Spencer ..................................... Treasurer this, the Primary You Receive Our eNewsletter Each Friday. Election will be just Michael Axler ........................Assistant Treasurer two months away. Apparently, some members have not DIRECTOR (term ending) Arthur Armstrong (2017) (Full disclosure: I am been receiving our weekly eNewsletter, Guy Aiman (2016) a Judge of Elections at a helpful resource that provides updates Emmeline Babb (2015) Jeffrey L. Braff, CCRA President the Greenfield School.) on Center City programs and events; lists Philippa Campbell (2015) Of particular interest the merchants offering member discounts; Elena A. Cappella (2016) to our neighborhood will be candidates for and includes the usually witty, sometimes Phil Consuegra (2017) Mayor and City Council. Do you know irreverent, and always informative, "What's Kevin Dunleavy, Zoning Co-Chair where the candidates stand on the issues? New in the Neighborhood" column. If this Bill Faust (2015) CCRA has been working on ways to help applies to you, please email centercity@ Richard Gross (2017) find the answers. First, we organized a centercityresidents.org with "eNewsletter"