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Mason North Carter

@masonfromblendini

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Creator of Blendini City, an optimistic future city where buildings are citizens with the people. Currently reimagining Germantown, Philly through art

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I'm proud to present the first piece in my ongoing series focused on reimagining vacant & blighted properties in Germantown! A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of an abandoned KFC on West Chelten Avenue. This is what I suggest we replace it with, along with a piece of the parking lagoon surrounding it. I picked this lot because not only is there such an empty canvas there to fill, but there is some momentum in improving the West Chelten Avenue section of Germantown, filling up this section would be huge. This is the Germantown Cinema! A three screen movie theater, with the ability to show four films each day. Germantown, which was once a city within a city in Philadelphia, used to be teeming with movie theaters. We deserve to have at least one again. So the next step of this project will be bringing it to the streets. I'm working on getting this printed in a large-scale format and will be wheatpasting the image onto the abandoned building so people can see it when they're walking, and dream of a better future. Maybe we'll even get it built! :) by @masonfromblendini

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4 months ago

It was really something else to pay a visit to my billboard this weekend, sponsored by @saveartspace ! In this video I talk about the billboard and why I chose this image to give people hope for a more colorful and happy future. by @masonfromblendini

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10 months ago

What a fun honor to be part of the latest show at @phillymagicgardens ! The Under 100, Under 1000 show always brings out the wonderful artists in this city! There is such a variety pieces from so many great artists, including @port.olivia as well. Definitely come check it out :) The show will be up until January so it's a great reason to visit one of the city's greatest treasures. by @masonfromblendini

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8 months ago

We were up in Burlington, Vermont a couple of weeks ago and were delighted to check out the World's Tallest Filing Cabinet! I had no idea what it was actually about until researching it about a week after seeing it (lol) but found it so cool even without knowing the premise. And knowing the premise afterwards made it all the better.Created by artist Bren Alvarez way back in 2002, Alvarez built the tower, which is actually titled "File Under File Under So. Co., Waiting for..." as a comment on bureaucratic delays building the Southern Connector of the Champlain Parkway, which was finally completed just recently (and funny enough got to drive to get to the filing cabinet and I knew about the road's completion since I read a local newspaper article earlier that day). If you are way up here in Burlington, I highly suggest checking it out. I wish I had brought some stickers to make my mark on the base like many others have! And I always love the mix of art and city planning issues as you all can tell :) by @masonfromblendini

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11 days ago

We had a really wonderful time celebrating the Ben Franklin Bridge's 100th Birthday yesterday. It was amazing to be able to walk to Camden and then back to Philadelphia, soaking in all of the details and the views from a completely different perspective. The lack of cars really made a huge difference in how we all experienced the bridge. First things first - the bridge itself is really an incredible structure that does so much for so many people and in great style. There are so many cool design details to look at without having fumes in your face that also makes you appreciate that it was built in the 1920s. Something we didn't anticipate enjoying so much was hanging out at the tollbooths. It was surreal to just chill and take in the details here. I have heard quite a bit of negativity of how the event was run, and there definitely were flaws (especially with the choke points, crowding at the Camden side, having too much space for emergency vehicles but no real aid stations, the festival could have been more spread out, etc). But something I hope doesn't get lost on people, no matter the issues, is the core of what we all got to experience together yesterday: being able to collectively walk on a magnificent bridge in a way that we might not be able to do again for another 25 years. And the bridge itself delivered the goods for all of us.I felt very lucky to be able to experience that yesterday, and share that with so many people. Happy Birthday, Ben Franklin Bridge! We love you! by @masonfromblendini

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13 days ago

Had a fun time meeting with the other artists and seeing all of their great work (plus my piece!) at the opening for the @otwdirtyfranks Histories Reclaimed show. My piece is the "Future 24 Hour Germantown Diner", which envisions a much more colorful and communal tomorrow for a property today that is an abandoned automotive shop. For my display I include my drawing plus a small photo next to it of the current space, so you can see what exists today versus what could be tomorrow if we collectively made it happen. Come to @dirtyfranks.bar and see the show! It is running until August 14th. by @masonfromblendini

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15 days ago

I really miss these old artistic garbage cans that would look like they were eating trash and offering a delightful, creative energy to something so utilitarian. They used to be all over the city before they all got the standard "One Philly, A United City" slogan (I think it's because the actual trash cans got updated and there just wasn't the desire to make them artistic again... Sigh)In better news, I had the first meetup for Trash Talk and it was really fun. Plus we picked up a lot of trash and had some great beers afterwards. Looking forward to more and if you're interested in joining the group in the future, let me know! (See my previous post about that for more info) by @masonfromblendini

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a month ago

Trash talk!It's been over two years since I've been cleaning trash in my neighborhood of Germantown! I've averaged about 50 gallons of trash per week, so it's certainly added up to be a lot. Since I've been doing this by myself, I would really like to make this a more social experience and also increase the territory I can do each week. At the same time Olivia and I are also looking for more friends, so we thought it would be the perfect time to create a little social club where we can hang out and pick up trash together! We can call it "Trash Talk" :)I can provide the trash pickers (I have quite a few on reserve) and big trash bags. Let me know if you're interested and I'll start a group chat where we can coordinate and have some fun while making a difference in a little corner of Philly! by @masonfromblendini

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a month ago

For one of the next drawings in my new series of reimagining vacant lots and buildings in Germantown, I'd like to do this one (5708 Germantown Avenue). I might not do this right now, because there will be some research required first. No demolition would occur in my drawing. Rather, I want to know what this was like before it got clad with all this bull crap and left to rot away. I can tell there's an incredible building underneath and would like to recreate what was like in its glory days (and with some added color, of course!) by @masonfromblendini

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2 months ago

Presenting my vision for 6115 Germantown Avenue! This is a new drawing in my ongoing series reimagining vacant properties in the Germantown neighborhood of Philly. You can see at the end what the building currently looks like. It'd be great to do adaptive reuse for the existing structure and then do an overbuild on top of it for housing. The main use would be to convert this closed transmission shop into the Germantown Diner. This diner would be 24 hours and would provide affordable good food for the whole neighborhood. Also there would be affordable housing built on top! As y'all can see this has gone through a colorful upgrade :)This vacant lot also has a ton of space to build out tables and greenery where the broken concrete currently is. I've had a lot of fun with this series so far and I'm really looking to accelerate things with more drawings, because there is so much we can do to imagine a more vibrant and communal future for Germantown! Also - let me know if you have any ideas of vacant Germantown lots you'd like to see "developed" as drawings. by @masonfromblendini

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2 months ago

It was really wonderful to be able to speak on behalf of the SEPTA Citizen Advisory Committee this morning and get to see the very first real time arrival display go live at a @septaphilly bus stop. They are starting with a pilot of 10 screens and once those are tested through the summer, the program is eventually going to scale up by quite a bit.These e-ink screens have been something I've really wanted to see, as they've worked really well with other transit agencies such as WMATA. I love knowing when a bus is coming without having to take out my phone.This first display is really well done, not just in terms of showing real time bus arrivals, but showing other critical information such as detours. Massive kudos goes towards the customer experience team. It's been great as a CAC member to work with the likes of @lexbylexpowers and @cmon_roe who have really been working to improve the customer experience with all sorts of initiatives. There's a lot of effort being put in behind the scenes when it comes to real time info, wayfinding, detours, etc. Those have been bearing fruit already, and there's going to be a lot coming down the pike in the next year. by @masonfromblendini

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2 months ago

What a great example of two beautiful buildings from two different architectural eras harmonizing with each other so wonderfully! by @masonfromblendini

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2 months ago