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The ANOVA apartment building (shown here under construction) wraps around the corner where Lancaster meets Powelton, then follows Powelton to its intersection with 38th St. and a crosswalk to the Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center.
This photo from June 2021 shows the progress of construction at ANOVA uCity Square—an upscale six-story apartment and retail complex that lines the entire 3700 block of Lancaster Ave. The development advertises “innovative living” in “smart units,” “just steps from the labs, offices, maker spaces, and amenities throughout uCity Square.”
This photo shows restored 37th St. at its intersection with Lancaster Ave. The street, busy with construction at this writing (Fall 2021), connects Market St. to Lancaster. In foreground: University City Link (left) and ANOVA uCity Square (right).
In 2018, facing vigorous citizen opposition, CA Ventures, developer of student housing, reached an uneasy agreement with Powelton Village residents regarding the developer’s proposed University City Link apartment project on the 3600 block of Lancaster Ave. The agreement preserves the historic facades of the mixed-use brick buildings that front the block, keeps the full corner buildings, allows partial demolition of the backs of the interior buildings, and reserves the ground level for retail activity.
The two schools housed in this new building were scheduled for full (post-pandemic?) operation in the fall of 2021.
This view northeast from the Penn Medicine tower at 3737 Market St. shows the Powel–SLAMS school building in the winter of 2021. The renovated Warren Street houses appear just above the school’s roofline. The grey- and maroon-colored structures at center left are part of University City Link, a new apartment development by a subsidiary of CA Ventures.
These townhouses on the 3100 block of Warren St. are the only remaining buildings of the original Black Bottom. This row was conserved in 1970 and renovated in the 2010s. The houses stand opposite the former grounds of University City High School, and their new neighbor is the Powel–SLAMS school building.
This photo shows One uCity Square, a 13-story lab building under construction at the southwest corner of 37th & Warren St.
This map of the uCity Square master plan shows a building projected for the corner of 37th & Cuthbert, which, if constructed, would substantially limit the size of greenspace promised by the “Lawn” sign photographed by the author in June 2021. Elaine Simon directed the author to the websites that provided this and another version of the full site plan as of 20 July 2021.
This artful sign in the area of soon-to-be restored Cuthbert St. in June 2021. Elaine Simon, director of Penn’s Urban Studies program and a documenter of the site, advised the author to look for this declaration of Drexel’s environmental/aesthetic intent.
Completed in 2019 by Brandywine Realty Trust in partnership with Drexel University, Drexel Square, a 1.3-acre community park, represents the first phase of the $3.5 billion innovation megaproject Schuylkill Yards. The new park, which faces Amtrack’s 30th St. Station, replaces a surface parking lot. Shown in this photo overlooking Drexel Square is the former headquarters building of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, which Brandywine has renovated to house office, lab, science, and retail spaces.