////

Noble Salvage: Lost and Found

A local architectural salvage company finds value in the discarded.

Walking into Provenance Old Soul Architectural Salvage’s Fairmount Avenue space is a bit like entering the world of a children’s book—the sort with creaky doors and hidden passages to menacing places. The best kind. There is a strange sort of magic to old things, to objects that have

More
3 mins read
///

Noble Salvage: Wood Works

Two local businesses turn trash into tables.

A few years ago, two friends started filling up their homes with what most of us would consider trash. At the time, neither one of them even had a reason for spending most of their spare time rummaging through various job sites and dumpsters for wood, much of it

More
2 mins read
///

Noble Salvage: Light Show

Warren Muller turns the detritus of everyday life into something illuminating. 

Look closely at one of Warren Muller’s spectacular light sculptures and you might spy some familiar items: old metal lunchboxes and canteens, colored glass vases and chipped teapots, tin funnels and candy molds, shovel handles and wire baskets. In Muller’s exuberantly creative version of recycling, cast-off objects

More
2 mins read
///

Blast Off: New Age Blasting Media uses recycled glass in a creative way

Did you know that most blast cleaning in the United States—used on public spaces like bridges, buildings and sidewalks—is done with industrial coal waste? Yup, industrial coal waste (or coal slag): the very same substance causing an environmental and public health disaster after a spill in Tennessee, and the same black muck that Lesley Stahl

More
1 min read
////

Trick My Truck: The city’s Mural Arts Program brings a colorful flourish to recycling

One of the most striking things about the Philadelphia Recycling Rewards Program launch was the trucks. Wrapped in vibrant, colorful patterns, the hulking behemoths were belle of the ball. That’s all thanks to a partnership between the Streets Commission, under the guidance of Clarena Tolson, and Philadelphia’s Mural Arts program.

More
1 min read
////

WHEN IT RAINS: Local designer Taryn Zychal gives broken umbrellas new life

Umbrellas—designed as a convenient solution to getting caught in the rain—can be surprisingly unwieldy. On a stormy day, Philly sidewalks are filled with all shapes, sizes and varieties. But, when the wind is strong, the flimsy shields often can’t withstand the pressure, acquiring that all-too-familiar inside-out look. At that point, the city becomes an umbrella

More
1 min read
1 8 9 10 11 12 13