This three-bedroom home on 6 acres is the only Frank Lloyd Wright home in Delaware. It’s called the Dudley Spencer House, after its owner, and has many original built-ins designed by Wright himself. It was one of the last homes he designed, and is priced at $1.35 million. The gallery is below.
Photo: Llenrock Group blog
A blog entry from the Llenrock Group, a local real estate advisory/investment banking firm, dubs the Post Bros. company “Schlemiel of the Week.” For those who aren’t up on their Yiddish, here’s the definition from the Yiddish Slang Dictionary:
Shlemiel
a clumsy, inept person
This is similar to the word “klutz”, but rather than coming from German, comes from the Hebrew word שלא מועיל (shlemil) meaning “ineffective”.
Photo by Julia Rowe via Flickr
Despite the Pennsylvania Convention Center website touting “the superb quality of the design aesthetic, detailed down to custom-designed carpets with 15 different geometric patterns,” the expanded state-owned Convention Center that opened in March 2011 isn’t exactly the Taj Mahal. But the intention wasn’t to create a thing of great beauty; rather, it was to bring in significantly increased convention business, that would, in turn, grow hotel business and retail and restaurant as well. As a preview to the opening, the Philadelphia Inquirer asked a number of salient questions, some of them necessarily contradictory: Would all the taxpayer millions on the expansion be worth it in the end? Would there be enough hotels to fill the demand of increased conventioneers?
As Tom Ferrick points out in today’s column for AxisPhilly, worries about the latter question have turned out to be largely moot. He minces no words: “The newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center is turning out to be a dud. With a capital D-U-D.”
This is a unbelievable. This young gent, who studies architecture, lives in Manhattan in 78 square feet. Not only that, but he likes it, is good-natured about it, and with some sweat equity and a few trips to Home Depot, has made it pretty darn livable–even a bit enviable. There’s not really any reason that human beings take up so much space, if you think about it.
On the other hand, it’s shocking to hear how much he pays for the place. Only in New York.
Call it whatever you like–a fixer-upper, a diamond in the rough, a house needing TLC–this one could be a rather good deal. The intersection of 49th and Osage is prime property in University City, right between pretty Pine Street and lovely Larchwood and within walking distance of Clark Park, Baltimore Avenue, Cedar Park and trolley access to Center City. It’s an area well known to Eds & Meds students and professionals, whose presence brings increasing new businesses.
A smaller home–also an investor’s special–at 49th and Larchwood sold a couple months ago for $340,000, and that wasn’t the only fixer-upper in the area that had a higher asking price than this one. This is an especially low price, even for a complete mess.
The contested Woodcrest Country Club was won at auction this morning by Cherry Hill Land Associates, which prevented Philadelphia’s Union League–as well as Camden County–from acquiring the land. The Union League had pledged to keep Woodcrest as a golf course, while the mayor and county officials were interested in preserving the land as green space.
This is a terrible blow for Cherry Hill’s mayor, who launched a fierce campaign to raise enough money for the bid. It’s unknown what the developer, a subsidiary of First Montgomery Group AMO, plans to do with the land, though they have said it won’t be golf-related.
Businesses can’t get enough of the Navy Yard, but at least this next one isn’t leaving Center City or forsaking a downtown possibility. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Subaru of America is looking at the Navy Yard as a spot for its North American headquarters, which would require 225,000 square feet. There is a question of incentives and eligibility for them, but the whole thing could be resolved and built within the next two years.
Photo: Union League
That august institution founded in 1862 by President Lincoln, Broad Street’s French Renaissance Union League of Philadelphia is getting an interior makeover. A new demonstration kitchen and wine cellar is being constructed, and the Lincoln Hall (often known as the Lincoln Ballroom), dedicated in 1913, is getting a renovation. The Hall’s ceiling is being restored to its original contours, and its the renovations are meant to be done by June. In the meantime, visitors get to take a look at renderings in the hallway.
Philadelphia media likes nothing more than to “localize” big, national stories. There’s always a Philly hook–always. In the case of the winning Powerball jackpot, here’s what we’ve got:
The Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown is from Zephyrhills, Fla. and has shopped at the Publix supermarket where the winning Powerball was sold.