This little zine is a note of gratitude and a call to memory. It accompanies a set of pop-up shops concentrated on the 900 block of Market Street, freshened up by Meantime and temporarily occupied by local, creative businesses for Summer 2026. It’s a short but potent opportunity to view Market East anew, as a civic center of gravity, animated by commerce, commemoration, and cycles of reinvention driven by preservation and new development. As entire blocks of Market East are on the verge wholesale change again, this project presents a chance to pause and look closer at Market East’s role at the heart of the heart of the city, as a stage for experimentation rooted in historic assets.
This is a project of PennPraxis
Zine and Exhibit by/for PennPraxis: Ashley Hahn, Randy Mason, Darcy Van Buskirk.
Design and Research contributions from: Margaret Balich, Jonathan Bonezzi, Shen-Tzu Chen, Iqra Khalid, Ryan Lane, and Zhijie Wang