Meantime on Market Expands with Two New Storefronts

Contact

Sara Griffin (ISA), 917.656.6348, saragriffin@is-architects.com

Leo Manning (Center City District), 215.440.5500, pr@centercityphila.org

PHILADELPHIA (June 10, 2026) — Today, Meantime, the nonprofit urban activation initiative founded by architecture and design studio ISA, will inaugurate two new storefronts as part of its summer programming in Center City: Harriett’s Bookshop, Jeannine A. Cook’s celebrated Philadelphia independent bookstore, and the Immigrant Marché, a cultural marketplace initiative of The Welcoming Center spotlighting immigrant entrepreneurship and community across the city. While Harriet’s project will open tomorrow, June 11, the Immigrant Marché space will follow shortly after. Meantime on Market–an initiative that is already activating vacant storefronts along one of the city’s most significant urban corridors and has seen thousands of visitors shopping, connecting, and convening in its first month of programming–is conceived in partnership with the City of Philadelphia, Center City District and local property owners.

Since opening on May 6, Meantime on Market has drawn thousands of visitors to the 900 block of Market Street and surrounding sites. Programming highlights have included dozens of listening sessions, talks, and performances hosted by Clubfriends Radio & Records as well as special coffee tastings at Two Persons Coffee, with a special coffee from Untitled Coffee from the Netherlands in exclusive packaging featuring new photography from lauded Philadelphia photographer Zoe Strauss. On May 26, Art Philly opened, inaugurating its Meantime space with the anticipated activation with the Love Lab — an initiative from Jos Duncan-Asé and Love Now Media creating a space for empathy-centered storytelling and community exchange. Rarify’s shop has also evolved over the first month of operations, with new temporary Chilewich floor covering and an expansion with their celebrated ICFF gift shop moving into the Market Street pop-up featuring work by Craighill and Gantri, among others, alongside growing and dynamic pop-ups from Almost Famous and Siddiq’s Water Ice. The Penn Praxis zine exploring Market East’s commercial history remains available for free at all sites.

“Meantime began as an experiment in possibility, and what continues to excite me is how that possibility keeps expanding,” said Brian Phillips, founder of Meantime and principal of ISA. “Harriett’s and the Immigrant Marché represent exactly what this initiative is about — bringing the depth and diversity of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods into the center of the city, and asking what a street can hold when we let it.”

The additions bring the total number of Meantime on Market participants to eight, extending the initiative’s reach along one of Philadelphia’s most significant commercial corridors. Together, they deepen the initiative’s commitment to local entrepreneurship, cultural representation, and the civic power of the street.

Harriett’s Bookshop (921 Market Street)—the celebrated Philadelphia independent bookstore founded by Jeannine A. Cook to authors, artists, and activists under the guiding light of Harriett Tubman—will launch an immersive concept at Meantime that reimagines the bookstore as a hybrid listening and reading space. Visitors will encounter curated audiobook selections, sensory listening environments, space for recording excerpts from their own work, and accessible downloads through partner Libro.FM, positioning audio as compliment to the bookstore experience.

The concept is deeply personal: Cook was raised by a blind librarian and grew up on audiobooks, an experience that shaped her lifelong relationship to writing, her work as a narrator, and her advocacy for the oral storytelling tradition. Featured in the space will be Cook’s own HarperCollins-published memoir, Shut Up and Read, which traces the ethos behind Harriett’s — a bookshop she opened in Philadelphia in 2020 that grew into an internationally recognized platform despite the challenges of the pandemic and a shifting literary landscape. The space will also feature works by local authors, original sound design, and ongoing audio programming.
Programming at Harriett’s will include the Sisterhood Sit-In Trolley Tour, Cook’s beloved initiative celebrating Black women-owned businesses across Philadelphia, which will make the Meantime storefront a stop on the tour route. During the run of the project, Cook will also record stories and impressions from visitors with the intention of weaving these narratives into a future audiobook project.

The Welcoming Center (1100 Ludlow Street), through its Immigrant Marché initiative–a multicultural marketplace and 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to scaling immigrant-owned businesses in packaged food and beverage, beauty, and crafts–will bring a vibrant marketplace of immigrant entrepreneurship to East Market. The space will feature multiple micro entrepreneurs from jams to vegan nail polish, spotlighting the stories, goods, and cultural contributions of Philadelphia’s immigrant communities. The Immigrant Marché extends Meantime’s vision of Market East as a place where the full breadth of the city’s creative and entrepreneurial life is on display.

“Harriett’s Bookshop and Immigrant Marché are exactly the kind of places that are making Market East a destination, joining six other remarkable new businesses along the corridor this summer,” said Center City District president and CEO Prema Katari Gupta. “These spaces celebrate Philadelphia’s diverse communities, and we’re proud to see them taking their place here in the economic heart of our region.”

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission’s ENGAGE, a storefront where anyone can drop in to find out about the Market East Revival and provide feedback.

Funded as a part of $1.85 million grant from the City of Philadelphia that supports several improvements to the corridor for the summer of 2026, Meantime on Market highlights the power of temporary use to catalyze long-term transformation. The spaces for Harriett’s Bookshop and Immigrant Marché were donated by the Fashion District and National Real Estate Development, respectively. These projects demonstrate how experimentation, collaboration, and local entrepreneurship can shape the future of Philadelphia’s commercial and cultural landscape.

Meantime on Market runs through July 31, 2026.

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Center City District, partner to property owners and downtown stakeholders, is the steward and advocate for a clean, safe and thriving Center City Philadelphia. Find us at www.centercityphila.org.

Meantime is a nonprofit initiative that emerged from Interface Studio Architects (ISA), a Philadelphia-based architecture and research practice engaged with urban systems.