A Winter Update

The Skinny is now up to an astonishing 126 projects in all phases and parts of the city. It would be great to also build up a library of proposed but now dead projects, so if you can think of any projects from Philadelphia's glorious past that haven't made it into the Skinny, just use the Submit a Project link to add them. I'll do my best to keep the edits and image updates timely. I've also updated the Skinny Map to include everything in the database.

In response to a user request, the most recently added projects will appear at the top of the Skinny, so it will be easier to see what's been added since you last visited. Thanks for all the interest, and submit feedback if you've got ideas to improve the site or missing tidbits of information.

This Changes Everything

By changing two little letters in the html code of the site this morning, The Skinny made a huge leap forward in usability. Through the magic of Google Documents' "List View," we've added what many were asking for and made our tool much more powerful.

You can now sort by any column. For instance, clicking on the "Project" Column heading will put the list in alphabetical order by Project Name. Same goes for any of the column headers.

Even better you can now use the drop-down Menus to filter by any piece of data. Want to see every building that DIGSAU is designing? Just drop down under Architect and select them. This feature works for most of the columns, so this is the best way to find everything in your neighborhood or all of the hotel conversion projects in town.

This new interface is a little awkward at times - for instance, you'll need to set all the drop downs back to (All) if you want to sort by a different category, but it offers a lot of power. Want to find every project that's under construction in Center City and developed by Brandywine? We can do that.

Enjoy!

More Detail and More Control

We've added a couple more new features to The Skinny, that make it finding information easier.

First up is the addition of tabs to the Skinny. If you look at the bottom of the window, you'll see links that will take you to a table showing all the project in a certain phase. David Goldfarb did a great job bringing this further level of refinement to the Skinny, and automating the process to boot!

Next up, we've tweaked the Skinny Map with the addition of different dots that identify projects by phase. Look for the legend at the top of the map.

Finally, a lot of people have asked about making the database searchable. With the current framework, the best bet is to just hit control + F and search the page from your browser. This will take you right to the project or neighborhood you're after. If you've got any ideas for how to improve things, just let us know.

Thanks again for all the support and contributions. We've been thrilled to be mentioned on Hidden City, Curbed - Philly, and of course, Philaphilia.

87 Projects, Now with Bigger Renderings

We've got 87 projects in the Skinny so far, which is indicative of the nascent building boom that we're seeing all over Philadelphia. As always, if you've got a piece of information for us, please send it along. We'll do our best to keep things up-to-date.

A lot of people have asked for bigger images of the projects, so now if you click on the name of the project, you'll be taken to a larger version of the rendering. Give it a shot. Thanks again for everyone's help in assembling this great resource so quickly, and let me know about ways that we can improve it.

Some Tweaks and Updates for Day 2

The Philly Skinny saw an incredible response in its first 24 hours, with over 1500 people visiting the site. An astounding 75 major projects in all phases are now in The Skinny, laying the groundwork for a great resource going forward. Thanks so much to all those who have contributed projects, or just stopped by to see how the city is doing. (We're doing great, by the way.)

In return for all the help you've given, I've made some changes and updates that have been going live as I've finished them, but to recap, I've added:

• "???" has been placed in any cell where we're missing information. If you know a missing tidbit, you can click on the ??? and it will take you to the "Feedback" form in a new tab. Please give your information a little context, i.e. "Cira Center South will be 30 floors."
• The Skinny Map now features colored dots corresponding to project phase. 
• In response to multiple requests, if you click on the little rendering of each project, a full size version of that image will open in a new tab. This doesn't seem to be working properly right now. I'll try it again later.

Still to come are better sorting and searching options for the Skinny and the Map. There's still lots of holes, missing projects, and lost bits of information in the Skinny, so if you know something, say something. Thanks again for all the help, and let me know how we can make the site better. 

Welcome to the (new) Philly Skinny

I put this site together in response to GroJLart's challenge that it needed to be done. Though Philly's had a rough couple of years, you can't deny that development in the city has roared back over the last few months, and there is more happening now than there has been for years.

Brad Maule's original skinny did a great job of chronicling the ups and down of the last great building boom in Philadelphia. I'm trying to keep the same basic, utilitarian approach, but I'd love for the site to be more crowd-sourced, both to get more information in one place, and to keep the information up-to-date without too much effort on the part of any one individual. So, if you have a few minutes, submit a project using the tab above, or click on "The Skinny" to see where we're at. Rest assured that it will be quirky and odd at first, but hopefully it will come together with a little time.

If you've got ideas for how to improve things, or better yet, you'd like to help, let me know.