NYT Features Old City, Celebrates DesignPhiladelphia


The same day the Times did its fourth writeup of Fishtown, the newspaper’s website covered Old City in a scroll-y interactive fashion that induces almost as much motion sickness as iOS7. The Four Square Blocks feature, written to coincide with DesignPhiladelphia, calls the neighborhood a “cradle of artisanal and manufacturing culture.” It also offers an idiosyncratic description of Old City that’s a nice summary:

Old City dishes up thick slices of a history, layering muscular industrialism and modern loft living on its Colonial origins. This is no neat terrine, and the mixture can be surprising. When the Betsy Ross House screened a movie the other evening, it wasn’t “1776.” It was “Night of the Living Dead.”

Local urbanist and author Nathaniel Popkin, co-editor of Hidden City, is quoted, which — along with the celebration of DesignPhiladelphia — is very lovely for our town.

Four Square Blocks: Philadelphia [NYT]