Progress?

This morning, an alert showed up in my Google alert about an article in PhillyVoice about the prison. It has been some time since there has been any movement on the project. The last piece of news was that the county was applying for a grant from the DEP for hazardous material removal. According to this article, they did not get that grant. Surprisingly, in this article, the architectural firm who was a key player in the Eastern Penitentiary renovation was quoted. They talked about the challenges that surround a project like renovating the prison.

However, it seems like all hope is not lost. The county will be applying for a brownfield grant in the next cycle, and the county Planning Commission did comment that they "were encoraged by the range of ideas that came in". So the project is not dead, but until they get the hazardouse material removed, a viable project proposal cannot be selected.