PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The old Philadelphia Police Department headquarters sits between two of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods: Chinatown and Old City. But the building, known as the Roundhouse, has been vacant for four years, despite efforts to imagine a new use.
Even before police moved to North Broad Street four years ago, the Kenney administration studied the Roundhouse’s potential future, given its history as the site of brutality and racism under an older regime.
Hanna Stark of the Preservation Alliance said the community overwhelmingly wanted the building saved for a use that would redeem its past, such as housing, education or healthcare.
“Just nothing’s happened with it. They have a guiding document they could use if they wanted to, to show how the Roundhouse can give back to the community,” Stark said.
The alliance expanded the vision with a public call for design proposals and a presentation on the eight most promising ones at a symposium.
“It was really inspiring to see the variety of uses. The symposium itself was sold out with over 100 attendees, and there was just so much energy in that,” Stark said.
But no one from the Parker administration attended and, more than a year later, the building still sits empty, leaving a blank space between Chinatown and Old City. The City did not respond to a request for comment.
KYW Newsradio reached out to the city for comment and is awaiting a response.
This story is part of a series about valuable real estate the city owns but allows to sit empty with no apparent plans for development. A previous story focused on the former Atwater Kent Museum.
