A flock of passenger pigeons rests frozen in time on the third floor of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The birds feed on the ground, rest on twigs and raise their wings to take to the air in a beech forest whose colonnade of gray trunks recedes into the diorama’s painted background.
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One in 10 Philadelphia public schools had high lead levels in water sources used for food preparation, according to tests conducted by the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) over the past three years. The dangerously high levels of lead, a potent neurotoxin linked to stunted development and learning difficulties, were found by the district during
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Dear Readers, Grid’s December issue, #211, will be its last in print. Our business model is no longer working. I have mixed feelings about making this announcement. As someone who has spent over three decades in this medium, I’m attached to it. I will forever prefer paper and ink to any other format. However, I’m
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Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, dozens of people stood in line outside the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, waiting in the spitting rain for the museum to open its doors to the public for the final time. Artie Cohen, 6, who’d been going to the Academy since he was 2
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Surrounding nearly every suburban business center and office park are swaths of manicured grass, occasionally interrupted by ornamental landscaping. Unlike green space at schools or residential complexes, it’s rare to see this outdoor space used for recreation or sunbathing. In fact, it isn’t really used for anything. Up Top Acres, an agricultural startup based in
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While Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s ambitious Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative (H.O.M.E.) sets out to close the city’s affordable housing gap, some area nonprofits have begun working against an unintended consequence they foresee: the illegal act of short dumping demolition waste, often in known dumping hotspots in Black and Brown neighborhoods. The community “collaboratory” Trash
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The front door of Chris Hytha’s 1857 Fishtown-area rowhome opens to face a spotlit shelf cabinet — a “house museum” of artifacts: the house’s old lead water main, a hunk of its original stone foundation and a block of termite-hollowed wood. The artifacts catalogue the house’s history — and the hurdles of Hytha’s now two-year
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Imagine if developers quietly acquired and developed a few acres of Fairmount Park every year, carving them off into luxury housing. Philadelphians would rightly be outraged. And yet: One building at a time, spaces that were designed for public assembly — churches, cultural centers, former schools — are being converted into private apartments or condominiums.
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At Re:Vision Architecture’s Manayunk headquarters, energy-saving features are everywhere. Exterior walls are carefully sealed and insulated to keep the building warmer in the winter. Windows and skylights admit plenty of sun, reducing the need for artificial lighting. Those same skylights and windows can be opened on warm days to flush hot air up and out
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