A pop-up bar is touching down on Philadelphia’s UArts campus this summer

In what was once the courtyard at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts (UArts), squiggly yellow tables snake through trees. These playful, communal furnishings will be welcoming guests starting this weekend as part of a new pop-up bar called Frankie’s Summer Club.

Take a seat at Frankie’s Summer Club

The project was realised by Philadelphia-based design and development firm Scout, which was brought on to rethink the building, a Victorian gem designed by Frank Furness that served as a dormitory, after the university closed its doors in 2024.

Working in tandem with Interface Studio Architects (ISA), Scout wanted to breath new life into the site, a first step in a greater redevelopment project of the disused building into a hub of ‘creativity, commerce and community.’

The design had inspiration gold to work with: in 1965, legendary Philadelphia-based architect Louis Kahn submitted a radical proposal to expand UArts, but the plan – an exuberant amalgam of rectilinear volumes – never came to fruition. At Frankie’s though, Kahn’s never-built design gets its due.

The pop-up bar’s central feature is a bright-yellow food and beverage pavilion with canted edges and a towering stack that references Kahn’s unrealised design. From here, visitors can grab a glass of natural wine, soft serve ice cream or order a small meal, courtesy chef Michael Ferreri, a local chef known for a minimal take on Sicilian cuisine.

‘Frankie’s symbolises a legacy of inspiration and connections on this site – from the original architect Frank Furness to Louis Kahn, to the generations of students that passed through the courtyard,’ says Lindsey Scannapieco, managing partner at Scout.