If you’re like me, you’ve passed by sad-looking, abandoned buildings in Philly and thought, “Somebody should do something with that.”

For years, I’ve pursed my lips at the former Willow Street Steam Plant in the Callowhill neighborhood.

The industrial building has been a presence in the community for almost a century. For half that time, it’s been a vacant and rusting eyesore.

And it turns out somebody is doing something with that.

After a decade of failed attempts to turn the industrial ruin into something else, a developer plans to give it new life as an apartment building.

Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:

— Michaelle Bond

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Last week’s photo quiz featured this image of graffitied and rusted steam stacks at the former Willow Street Steam Plant in Callowhill. Today, let’s talk about the ongoing effort to turn the historic building into apartments.

This isn’t the first time someone’s planned to do something different with the former steam plant.

Past ideas have included turning the building into

  1. a trash-burning power plant

  2. an indoor amusement park

  3. a different apartment building

Developer James Maransky plans to bring amenities like a golf simulator and a heated yoga room to his 73-unit apartment building. When the former plant turns 100 in October 2027, it could be full of residents.

Maransky has experience redeveloping historic properties, but he said this project has been the hardest of his career.

Keep reading to find out what makes it difficult and peek inside the former steam plant.

📮What abandoned building would you like to see given new life? Let me know.

What happens when you give struggling renters some no-strings-attached cash every month? Philly decided to find out.

In 2022, a program called PHLHousing+ randomly picked 301 families that were on waitlists for public housing and federal housing subsidies and started giving them cash that they could spend however they wanted.

The cash rental assistance pilot program was the first of its kind in the country, and it had its skeptics. But a new report by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that the experiment is working. The monthly cash payments are helping families stay in their homes. And the results are better than researchers expected.

PHLHousing+ was supposed to end in June, but it’s been extended for another year.

Keep reading to learn more about the program and hear from a renter I talked to who called the cash payments “life-changing.”

The latest news to pay attention to

Madhurika Jeremiah and Scott Pesiridis were walking in their South Philly neighborhood in 2017 when they saw a real estate agent hanging a “For Sale” sign outside a home. They were intrigued.

The home was only two stories, so it had less indoor space than their three-story rowhouse down the street. But it had a much bigger backyard with space for their children and a garden.

So they bought the house and figured they’d add a third story later.

Then they found serious structural problems. So they decided to tear down the house and build new.

Jeremiah designed the new home, which includes 10½-foot-high ceilings, open living and dining rooms, and tall windows. The stained-glass transom above the foyer doors was designed by an artist she found on Etsy.

Peek inside the family’s personalized home and lush backyard garden.

📷 Photo quiz

Do you know the location this photo shows?

📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might make it into the newsletter.

Like I mentioned above, last week’s quiz featured a photo taken at the former Willow Street Steam Plant, which you now know all about.

Props to Lars W. for knowing where those rusted steam stacks are.

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We’ve kept you updated on the twists and turns of the University of the Arts saga, including the sales and possible futures of its well-located buildings.

The school’s closure also drove a lot of students to Moore College of Art & Design, Philly’s last art-centered college.

Moore just opened a new residence hall near Rittenhouse Square. My colleague Sue Snyder has the details on that and other new and remodeled buildings at local campuses.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

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