The former Painted Bride building will soon be demolished to make way for apartments
For more than 25 years, the building was wrapped in a 7,000-square-foot mosaic created by famed artist Isaiah Zagar. Some pieces were removed in 2023 in anticipation of demolition.
After years of legal fights and shifting redevelopment plans, the mosaic-clad former site of the Painted Bride Art Center in Old City is scheduled to be demolished to make way for apartments and commercial space.
Architect and developer Shimi Zakin of Atrium Design Group is planning a six-story, 65-foot-tall building with 85 apartments and about 6,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.
Zakin has received a demolition permit from the city and on Thursday said he plans to start demolition in late October. He said he anticipates that his building will be completed in about 2½ years.
“We are moving forward with an amazing project at an amazing location,” Zakin said.
The apartments will be constructed at the former site of the Painted Bride Art Center at 230 Vine St., which Zakin bought in 2022. For more than 25 years, the building was wrapped in the center’s signature 7,000-square-foot mural created by famed Philadelphia mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar.
The nonprofit arts group Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens fought for years for the preservation of the mural and persuaded Zakin to abandon an earlier plan to tear down the building to build townhouses. In 2021, Zakin proposed building apartments above the preserved mural with a design The Inquirer’s architecture critic called “a terrific work of architecture.”
But neighbors opposed the height and density of the project and successfully appealed the city’s zoning board decision that would have allowed Zakin to construct a building larger than the zoning code allowed.
In 2023, both Zakin and Emily Smith, executive director of Magic Gardens, called the rejection of the proposal “devastating.”
Zakin changed his proposal again and returned to his earlier plan to demolish the building. Instead of townhouses, he planned to build a mixed-use, six-story building with 85 short-term rental units. He has since changed those units to apartments.
In 2023, organizers and volunteers with Magic Gardens removed portions of Zagar’s Skin of the Bride mural from the building.
Zakin said he hopes to incorporate pieces into his new building. He also said he wants to work with Magic Gardens on a piece for inside the building’s courtyard “to reflect the respect we have and always will have for the piece of art that unfortunately will be removed.”