For Philadelphia native and Bok Building developer Lindsey Scannapieco, Hamilton Hall has long been iconic.
To her, the circa 1826, John Haviland-designed Greek Revival landmark at 300 South Broad Street was a symbol of the vibrant, artistic community University of the Arts helped foster in Philly. It’s what helped make the Center City stretch the Avenue of the Arts. More than a thousand UArts students took classes there each year, studying ceramics, glass blowing and painting, amongst other arts-focused subjects.
“It had, in people’s minds and hearts, a lot of what you think of what you think about when you think of University of the Arts,” Scannapieco says. “This building felt like it was the icon.”
That legacy felt acutely at stake when University of the Arts closed abruptly this summer. Hamilton Hall and the attached Furness Hall, designed by similarly iconic Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, built in 1875 and, until recently, student housing, both went up for auction in bankruptcy court. New York-based real estate and investment management firm Dwight City Group LLC bid $12 million on the adjoining properties — a total of 111,360 square feet.
(The developer has also bid $8.3 million on Anderson Hall at 333 S. Broad, The Inquirer reported. The Curtis Institute of Music and Temple University have purchased UArts buildings the Art Alliance and Terra Hall, respectively, while the Arts Bank, Gershman Hall, Juniper Hall and Spruce Hall are all unsold or in flux.)
Many, including Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron and The Citizen’s Elaine Maimon, expressed concern about an out-of-town developer coming in and changing both the character and the mission of the space (although Dwight also has offices in Upper Darby). These voices also wanted any future project in Hamilton and Furness Hall to be supportive of artists, which Dwight’s plan was, in part.
Dwight planned to turn the ground floor into retail, food and beverage spaces, with an art gallery in the lobby. They’d make the upper floors into offices, maker spaces and middle market apartments.
Next, Scannapieco’s Scout, the real estate development firm behind Bok in South Philly, also submitted a $12 million bid for Hamilton and Furness halls. Scout ran campaigns on social media to educate the public about their plans for the building: a Bok-style reimagining to, as they did with the Art Deco former vocational technical high school, include maker studios and spaces, plus affordable housing for artists and a potential residency program. City and state officials backed Scannapieco’s vision.
Since Scout couldn’t offer cash for the property, Dwight seemed to have a lock. That is, until Scout received an emergency loan from an anonymous supporter. On February 24, the City announced Hamilton Hall would go to Scannapieco’s firm.
“An exceptional individual stepped in and offered to support,” says Scannapieco, who did not identify the temporary benefactor. “This project would not be possible without them.” Scout was given 60 days to pay back the emergency loan. In the meantime, they must get through the closing part of the transaction, which can take several months. They hope to start to see activity in the space as early as this summer.
Scannapieco and I talked about the incredible process of acquiring the building, her hopes for Hamilton and Furness halls, and how the UArts community and beyond can get involved with the project. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Courtney DuChene: What made you want to go after the UArts Hamilton and Furness buildings for an art center development?
Lindsey Scannapieco: Our motivation was really that this building has an incredible cultural legacy, and, from an architectural perspective, has a lot of value. It’s been an art school for over 130 years. It’s been an [educational] institution since its beginning in 1826. We were wanting to find ways for this to stay, in a new way, supportive of the cultural community and creative community of Philadelphia, who I think has had a really hard year in 2024 with the loss of degree programs and the collapse of UArts so suddenly.
The impact that that has on our city is really profound. Year on year, [UArts was] bringing in new creative talent into our city from across the country to train and learn here. How that impacts our city, socially and culturally and economically is profound. I think we were hearing it and seeing it, and we were very, very concerned to be honest, about losing all these buildings.
So we’re really, really excited about being the new stewards of this important building, and we certainly feel the responsibility that it carries with it.
What went into the process of building that support — I saw the campaigns on Instagram — and securing the needed funding via an emergency bridge loan so that you were able to work on these buildings?
This has been an all-out push — I don’t know how else to describe it — every single step of the way. This is the first time that we’ve ever brought in private investment into a project. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy process just requires hard, quick cash, and that’s not something that a lot of institutions and cultural partners and cultural supporters have access to. So that required just an exceptional amount of leadership by a few individuals that I feel eternally grateful for.
Then there was the grassroots swell of support, which was overwhelming, but also really provided a lot of motivation to continue when, to be honest, it looked really tough, and it looked like we weren’t going to pull it off.
Senator [Nikil] Saval’s office received I think around 600 letters of support just hearing from people who are really impassioned about trying to protect this building for cultural-centered uses. There was a real call to action here.
You mentioned there were times when this felt impossible, like you weren’t going to pull it off. Was there a turning point when you knew you could succeed?
The emergency bridge loan. If we hadn’t gotten that, there’s no way that we would have been able to do this.
How do you plan to work with UArts alumni and other Avenue of the Arts community members on this project as you take it into its next steps?
We’ve started a link where people can share information about how they want to be involved, whether that’s just through staying updated on the project, or whether they want to collaborate, whether they’re looking for space, whether they have time or expertise that they want to give to this project. We’ve had almost 600 submissions just based on that call, and we’ve asked people to identify whether they’re UArts alumni or faculty members.
We feel like there’s multiple channels and ways that we really want to work with the UArts alumni and faculty and bring them into this process. We also want to create space to acknowledge and grieve what’s been lost, because this won’t be the same thing, and I think that’s important to acknowledge.
Because it happened so suddenly, I think there’s rightly a lot of anger. One of the things that we want to do is talk about how we can move forward, but also provide space for some of that grief that I’m not sure really had room to happen.
How would you like to see this project support artists in a way that is different from what UArts did as a school, but is still something that helps keep the arts community in Philly vibrant?
I think if you look at our work at Bok, that’s a testament to our approach, and certainly how we envision some of the offices and workshop spaces being reused. We’re very much leaning into the existing infrastructure, very much matching people with spaces that work for them and their craft or their art.
So for example, there’s exceptional ceramic studios on site. There’s glass blowing. There’s plaster shops and metal shops. We’re thinking about how those can be reused by people who are looking for that infrastructure, because it is very unique, and would be cost prohibitive to install at that scale and in any other building.
It’s not just for artists, though. It will be a lot of different things. In Bok, about a fourth of the building is nonprofits. We have a lot of people who offer services — whether that’s architects or interior designers or hairdressers or tattoo parlors or daycares. Those are all things that happen in Bok.
I would look at our past work as an example of what we hope to bring to Broad Street, to the Avenue of the Arts. And then there’s an artist-in-residency and artist housing component — which is new for us, but it’s certainly not new for the city of Philadelphia. There are great examples of this happening, but this will be certainly the most central project to ever take that on and the largest scale of that sort of offering to happen in Philadelphia, which we’re really excited about.
What can people do to continue supporting this project?
If people are interested in the space and interested in sharing their time and expertise or if they just want to stay up to date on the project, people can sign up. We will start to use that as a form of communication, and certainly also as an invitation for people who are interested in being a bit more involved in the project and in the process.
Our priority right now is getting to closing. And then we’re really focused on understanding how to reopen and reimagine this building and this space and this place. We really believe in gradual development and incremental development. So I think you’ll start to see activity there this summer in different forms and in different ways. But we’ll see. We’ve got to get the keys and get started.
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