Building Bok

About the project

The Building Bok redevelopment was led by Lindsey Scannapieco, who conceived of the project in response to a public request for proposals (RFP) launched by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the School District of Philadelphia to redevelop the site of the former Bok Vocational High School and revitalize the community. Project sponsor Building Bok LP was founded upon winning the RFP process. Their exclusive mission is to restore the former Bok Vocational High School and transform it into a space for creatives, small businesses, nonprofits, and small-batch manufacturers that can use the existing vocational infrastructure and create jobs for neighborhood residents.

Building Bok LP is based in Philadelphia, PA. The project site is located at 1901 South 9th Street in the East Passyunk Crossing neighborhood of South Philadelphia, about 1.75 miles south of Philadelphia's Center City.

A total of $3.95 million in loans from LISC supported the two-phase project. Bok’s first three tenants were a haberdasher, a textile designer, and a jewelry designer; all three lived in the neighborhood and had outgrown their rowhome work spaces. Today, the 340,000 square foot structure houses close to 150 businesses, artists, makers, entrepreneurs, and non-profits — ranging from fashion designers to filmmakers to glassblowers to architect practices to woodworkers, and even a wholesale bakery. Bok is also home to a daycare, a hair salon, ESL classes, a tattoo parlor, a coffee shop and an award-winning rooftop bar. This project represents adaptive, creative reuse of a previously vacant historic building and neighborhood asset and supports over 500 full-time jobs, many of which are accessible and filled by neighborhood residents. It has received local and national recognition as an innovative model for repurposing large, vacant school buildings, including being named as one of 32 winners of the Knight Foundation’s Knight Cities Challenge in 2015.