philly

1352 South St Condos

And there's a shot of some more new construction, this time on South & Broad Sts. This foundation will support a five story building built loft-style.

I hope they don't fuck with the nice public community garden on the north side of South St across the street from it.

Atlantic Building

That's a whole lotta building I got with the new wide angle.

Atlantic Buliding - Spruce & Broad Sts.

Rindelaub's Row

That's what Rindelaub's Row looks like today.

On May 11, it looked like this:

Multi-million dollar condos will take it's place.

A few more shots here.

Magic Garden Open Weekends

I wrote about Isaiah Zagar's Magic Garden being open last weekend to the public for free. Well, I passed by the Magic Garden on Friday [as I do just about every day] and noticed that the west-most door was wide open. I wondered if he was doing some work. I walked closer and noticed that the main gate was open as well and that there was a sign.

The sign sates [as seen above] that the Magic Garden would be open to the public on Friday and Saturdays from Noon - 4p. Nice!

Do yourself a favor and go over there and see some wonderful artwork. Help save the Magic Garden. My flickr set of my walk through last weekend.

Isaiah Zagar's Magic Garden

I read this article in the Inky this morning, well, afternoon. The article said that Isaiah Zagar's Magic Garden on South & 10th Sts would be open free to the public this weekend from Noon-4p today [earlier today] and tomorrow, Sunday the 18th.

I've passed by the plaace so many times in the 1.5+ years I've lived here in Philly and never went in because it was a tad too expensive for entrance, but this weekend, free. Yes, the point of the high price is that Isaiah is raising money to buy the lot and keep it from destruction, but $35/person in groups of ten isn't the easiest thing to get together.

I spent about thirty minutes wandering through the mazework of incredible mosaic work with found materials combined with cement/concrete [don't remember which it is]. I took a bunch of photos and put them up in a flickr set. I highly recommend taking a trip there tomorrow during the afternoon. It's supposed to be nice out. If you can't make it out, take a click through my set and get a look at about 10% of what there is in there.

Donate money here to help save the Magic Garden.

The shot above is a figure from inside his studio, something you can't see from sticking your head through the gate [which is what I normally do].

Northern Liberties

Walking around looking for a cab back to South St after the event at Liberties Walk, I realized that I've never explored Northern Liberties to any extent with my camera. I really want to head back there and take photos for a few hours. And you know that Brad's already been there. He actually snapped a few of my soccer playing buddies there.

Reading Terminal Open Sundays

Just peeped over at Phila Metroblog that Reading Terminal Market will be open on the first three [the next two] Sundays from 9a - 4p. Not the entire place though, select vendors and they're all keeping their own hours. Among those that will be open are: Downtown Cheese, Famous 4th St. Cookies and Salumeria. Yes, I like cheese and cookies.

Garish City Hall Lights 2005

I thought about it for a bit and after posting about how much I thought the lights at City Hall were disgusting, I decided to head on over and take some photos. This is a shot of the west side of City Hall. Below is a horizontal shot of the same side.

On flickr, there's a Philadelphia City Hall Holiday Lighting group where you can share your images of the garish landmark which is the largest freestanding piece of masonry in the land. Matt Johnson aka twoeightnine works for the Center City District and is actually in charge of the lighting display. He writes:

I've started this group as a way to collect all the images and everyone's reactions. I'd love to hear/see from everyone and there is a possibility of some of them being published.

Take a photo, upload it and maybe get a little love for it?!

Christmas at LOVE Park

That's a shot of LOVE Park I took Monday night. You can see the Philly Museum of Art in the distance down the Parkway, a gigantic Christmas tree, a large wrapped present and the famous LOVE sculpture. I'd say that there are more people than normal taking photos in front of the sculpture.

A little bigger here on my photoblog.

City Hall Holiday Lights 2005

I'm not sure if I can even begin to put into put into words how disgusting I think the flourescent colored lighting installation beamed onto City Hall looks. I'm not sure if I'll waste any clicks of my shutter on it. Maybe a few just to document how disgusting it is.

Words that come to mind: garish, ugly, tacky.

People will either love it or hate it. It's one of those visceral reaction art pieces. There really can't be a middle ground on this one.