Broad Street Love

Broad Street Love is a vital community hub in Center City Philadelphia, providing stabilizing support and essential services to individuals experiencing deep poverty. Rooted in compassion and inclusion, the organization offers daily meals, mail services, hygiene and personal care items, guidance programs, and other resources within a welcoming historic setting along Broad Street – working to reduce the trauma caused by scarcity and help break cycles of hunger, hardship, and housing insecurity throughout the city.

Keast & Hood served as structural engineer for the exterior restoration and interior renovation of Broad Street Love’s historic Gothic Revival building. The multi-phase project was carefully designed to preserve the building’s architectural character while enhancing safety, durability, and functionality to better support its mission.

Phase One included a comprehensive exterior condition assessment to evaluate the building envelope and identify critical areas of deterioration. The survey revealed extensive cracking within the masonry façade, including cracks exceeding 40 feet in length, outward-leaning and cracked tower parapet walls, and multiple heavy stone elements that were loose or inadequately anchored. These findings informed the development of construction documents addressing façade stabilization, parapet reconstruction, and the rebuilding of deteriorated corner conditions using sock anchors and tie rods to brace narrow wall elements.

During construction, masonry elements were methodically documented, with each stone numbered, removed, cleaned, and reset to preserve the historic fabric. Severely deteriorated roof framing within the towers was replaced with galvanized steel members and a modern roofing system, improving long-term performance while respecting the building’s historic form. Select decorative limestone elements were refabricated where necessary, with existing stones strategically relocated to prominent elevations to maintain visual continuity. The façade was fully cleaned and repointed as part of the restoration effort.

Remaining project funds allowed for reconstruction of the upper portion of the south nave wall. During this work, a deteriorated wood column supporting a roof truss was discovered; the roof was temporarily shored and the column replaced in kind to maintain both structural integrity and historic character.

Future interior renovations will focus on improving ADA access and modernizing key spaces to better serve Broad Street Love’s programs, ensuring the historic structure continues to function as a safe, inclusive, and resilient resource for the community it supports.