2025 in Philly: 34 New Attractions, Events & Hotels

Opening in 2025

The building at 13th and Florist streets in Chinatown has lived many lives. The Art Moderne structure has been a mid-century private Warner Brothers movie screening facility, NFL Films’ home for two decades and the national headquarters of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for 30 years. Up next, the historic building is set to transform into the brand-new AC Hotel by Marriott Philadelphia Downtown, set to open in 2025. A vertical extension will create a 15-story, 150-room hotel for Marriott’s AC brand known for its European-inspired design and amenities.

Opening in 2025

The gigantic mall at King of Prussia is about to get a little more “Old World” as it welcomes the new 23,000-square-foot Italian marketplace and food emporium Eataly to its roster. Located on the north side of the mall’s former “plaza” section, the two-story mega-market will offer numerous grocery aisles of fresh Italian fare plus a bakery, fish market, cheese shop, butchery, and wine shop. Also on deck: kitchenwares and cooking classes, as well as full-scale restaurant La Pizza & La Pasta, which serves Napoli-style pizza and artisanal pasta.

Debuting in 2025

A new statue is coming to City Hall’s northeast apron, a tribute to Harriet Tubman (who had deep roots in the region) called A Higher Power: The Call of a Freedom Fighter, which will be Philadelphia’s only statue of an historic Black woman. The ten-foot-tall piece (atop a five-foot base) — designed by artist Alvin Pettit and inspired by the 1863 Raid on Combahee Ferry — portrays the Underground Railroad freedom fighter as a war hero standing steadfast against strong headwinds on a mound of chains and shackles, hands clenched in prayer and armed for battle.

Opening in 2025

Now this is how you Netflix and chill. King of Prussia, a Simon Property Mall will be one of the first two sites in the nation to experience the brand-new Netflix House, a 120,000-square-foot streaming lovers’ paradise with a 250-seat screening theater, four immersive experience rooms, set replicas, merch shops, Netflix-themed games, Netflix Bites concessions and even a restaurant with selections inspired by Netflix shows. The year-round, multi-story experiential entertainment venue will be located on the south side of the old “plaza” section of the mall (the former Lord & Taylor store).

Opening in early 2025

For the first time since 1979, subway trains will stop below historic Franklin Square with the reopening of the PATCO Franklin Square Station. The station, dating back to 1936, will come back to life with a new transparent headhouse made of speckled smoked glass (designed to keep birds from colliding with it) and an underground platform and concourses lined with original, refurbished 1930s green-and-white tiles. A new restroom building at park level will open alongside the station as well. The soon-to-be-easternmost PATCO stop in Pennsylvania is expected to draw 1,500 daily riders.

Opening in early 2025

The folks behind Ballers Philadelphia (the same team that launched Fitler Club and Equinox Hotels) are firm believers in the social aspects of casual athletics and the friendly competition that drives individual sports. That’s the concept behind the new membership-based, hospitality-driven multisport venue opening at The Battery building, the iconic former PECO Delaware Generating Station on the waterfront in Fishtown. The company’s flagship first location will include country club sports like pickleball, padel tennis, golf, squash and soccer along with an upscale bar and restaurant, luxe spa amenities and event spaces.

Opening in early 2025 and July 2025

The 1,300-acre former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery site in Point Breeze is getting a new lease on life as The Bellwether District’s cutting-edge industrial campus moves in. The world-class 14-million-square-foot site — a sustainability-first development for e-commerce, life sciences and more — will be divided into two main areas: 250 acres dedicated to innovation and 750 acres for industrial and logistics facilities. The campus’ initial two buildings, in the industrial section, are set to open in 2025, the first early in the year and the second coming in July.

Opening in spring 2025

Rising just a half-block from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the new The Jaan at Center City feels like it belongs here, as jaan — Hindi for “my life” — sounds a lot like Philly favorite colloquialism jawn. The seven story wellness-focused apartment-hotel features 81 extended stay units, plus amenities like a gym, co-working space, private conference room, central courtyard and two-level rooftop deck (with a future rooftop bar). The Chinatown property will also bring along 1,800 square feet of ground-floor commercial space for a restaurant and bar with indoor and outdoor seating.

Opening September 21, 2025

A new cultural destination is coming to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the opening of Calder Gardens, a gallery and garden dedicated to native Philadelphian Alexander Calder, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists (and inventor of the mobile). The site will feature an 18,000-square-foot reflective metal building housing a rotating selection of the artist’s masterworks — including mobiles, stabiles, sculptures and paintings — illuminated by natural light, and a tree-filled meadow-like landscape surrounding it. Deep Philly roots abound, as Calder’s grandfather crafted City Hall’s William Penn statue, and his father designed Swann Memorial Fountain.

Opening in December 2025

The tippy-toed professional dancers of The Philadelphia Ballet are about to stand a little taller as the company’s new five-story, 43,000-square-foot Philadelphia Ballet Center for Dance is set to open in 2025. The facility will triple the company’s current space, giving Philadelphia’s largest dance organization new rehearsal studios, double-floored performance studios, administrative offices, a new physical training center, state-of-the-art space for dance training, a cyber school room, a blackbox-style multipurpose Dance Innovation Lab and even a gallery wall to showcase local artists and a massive programmable video screen along the Broad Street facade.

Phase one opening in early 2025

Philadelphia’s abundant 10,000 acres of parks will add a little more space as the new 10-acre Robert A. Borski Jr. Park opens in Bridesburg, north of the Betsy Ross Bridge. The park, along the 11-mile Riverfront North Greenway — the trail network envisioned by the eponymous former Congressperson himself — on an abandoned concrete factory site connects to the existing Port Richmond Trail and the future Kensington-and-Tacony Trail extension. Phase one is scheduled to open in early 2025, which includes riverfront views, a large lawn, unstructured play areas and nature trails through an elevated native meadow.

Opening in late 2025

The next step in extending the 40-plus mile Schuylkill River Trail to its final destination at Fort Mifflin comes with the opening of the new Schuylkill River Crossing Bridge. The bridge (replacing the out-of-use PW&B #31 railroad bridge) will connect Grays Ferry Crescent with Bartram’s Garden and the future Bartram’s Mile Trail extension in Southwest Philadelphia across the river. Sitting just south of Grays Ferry Avenue Bridge, the new bridge — to be the only operating pedestrian swing bridge in North America — will provide full access across the river for pedestrians and cyclists.

January 3 – February 1, 2025 (Friday nights only)

Heeeere’s Jason! The Philadelphia Eagles’ legendary lineman is coming to late-night TV in 2025, hosting the new one-hour They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce, airing on ESPN for five consecutive Friday nights between the final NFL regular season weekend and the Pro Bowl. Each episode will be shot before a live studio audience at Union Transfer on Friday evenings a few hours before it airs live-to-tape (time TBA), with popular Philly party band Snacktime providing musical accompaniment. Free tickets are available via random drawing from 1iota’s website while supplies last.

Celebrating one of the world’s great food cities, The Tasties Awards bring together Philly’s top chefs and restaurateurs, the passionate diners who support them and celebrity presenters. Hosted by the Delicious City podcast, the gala will honor those who have shaped the city’s vibrant culinary culture with innovation, dedication and excellence across fifteen awards with over 40 nominees in categories including Chef of the Year, Restaurant of the Year, Best Cocktail Program, Best Late Night Joint and several People’s Choice awards. The event continues into the night with a post-ceremony soiree.

Move over Pebble Beach and Augusta; Philadelphia is golf’s new hotbed. Before Delaware County’s Aronimink Golf Club hosts The PGA Championship in 2026, the men’s pro golf tour’s biggest stars like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa will gather at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Clubhouse in Montgomery County for the 2025 Truist Championship. The former Wells Fargo Championship is one of the year’s eight PGA Tour Signature Events, designating it as one of the circuit’s only limited-field events featuring top players and an increased purse of $20 million.

June 16 – July 4, 2025 (select dates)

Ahead of the FIFA World Cup and FIFA Fan Festival descending on Philly in 2026, the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 visits Lincoln Financial Field, providing an incredible preview of what’s to come while offering plenty of thrilling club action on the pitch. The event — the global competition for club teams featuring champion squads from the six continental football federations — will be spread across a dozen venues nationwide, including six games in the group stage, one in the Round of 16 and a Friday, July 4, 2025 quarterfinal matchup at the Linc.

Brand-new traveling convention Animate! Philadelphia (organized by GalaxyCon) comes to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center for a three-day celebration of anime, animation, cosplay, gaming, fandom and more, from Disney and Adult Swim to Dragon Ball and One Piece. Come meet your favorite creators, voice actors, artists and writers, with plenty of meet-and-greets, panels, Q&As and photo ops, plus an extensive exhibit and merch hall, cosplay competitions (including cosplay wrestling), tattoo opportunities and video and tabletop gaming. And stick around after dark for raves, karaoke, comedy, themed parties and more.

October 9-16 & November 10, 2025

The U.S. Armed Forces kick off America’s 2026 Semiquincentennial in late 2025 with The Navy & Marine Corps 250th Celebration, honoring the 250th birthdays of both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The celebration will feature an historic gathering of ships at Penn’s Landing, events and a veterans’ reunion on Independence Mall, a large concert, an air show featuring the Blue Angels, the Navy Gala and Marine Ball and more, plus exhibits at museums like the American Swedish Historical Museum, Independence Seaport Museum and aboard Battleship New Jersey. The Marines will also christen a recreation of historic Tun Tavern.

Home to one of the world’s most important galleries of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modernist paintings, the Barnes Foundation was named one of the 10 Best Small Art Museums in America in 2024. And 2025 is looking even brighter with three new exhibition openings.

• Cecily Brown: Themes and Variations: This traveling exhibition highlights the career of the pioneering contemporary British painter, featuring over 30 paintings and drawings showcasing her subversion of gendered tropes in art history and popular culture from a feminist perspective (March 9 – May 25, 2025).
• From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes: In a Barnes exhibition highlighting its own collection, this self-study of over 50 works examines how France itself informed the native impressionist and post-impressionist painters who have significant presence within the existing gallery, including Monet, Renoir, Manet, van Gogh and Cézanne (June 29 – August 31, 2025).
• Rousseau’s Secrets: Already home to nearly 20 pieces by self-taught artist Henri Rousseau — the world’s largest gathering of his work — this new exhibit reunites the Barnes’ landmark collection with more of the artist’s masterpieces, on loan from Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, for the first time in over a century (October 19, 2025 – January 11, 2026).

The latest iteration of the famous three-decade-old traveling exhibition, Body Worlds: Vital comes to The Franklin Institute in 2025. A joint work of anatomists and over 13,000 body donors, the exhibit is an exposition of dissected human bodies, animals and other anatomical figures, which allows visitors to view complex anatomy structures and functions in an unprecedented way — through the innovative preservation process of plastination. The display explores health concerns of contemporary times and celebrates the living human body in its optimal state: healthy, vibrant, vigorous and in motion.

New exhibition Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is set to take over both floors of the University of Pennsylvania’s free-admission Institute of Contemporary Art, the first in-depth survey of works from the six-decade long career of the experimental California artist. Cheng still houses most of his prescient, genre-defying work himself, making this exhibit a rare public opportunity to view his takes on identity, technology and ecology across a variety of multidisciplinary media which reflects environmental change, relevance of art institutions to their publics and the role of technology in society.

Telling the story of the Revolutionary War through personal accounts, the Museum of the American Revolution delves into the War for Independence through relics, documents, works of art and rotating exhibits like these marking the 250th anniversary of the start of the revolution in 2025.

• Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags: Take a deep dive into the conflict’s vexillology with this new exhibit, the largest gathering of surviving Revolutionary War flags in more than two centuries, including pieces from Betsy Ross and Rebecca Flower Young (April 19 – August 10, 2025).
• The Declaration’s Journey: The Declaration of Independence is one of the world’s most influential political manifestos. This special exhibition of rare documents, art and artifacts — together for the first time in one place — explores its global impact, showcasing how more than 200 nations integrated its ideals into their own independence movements (October 18, 2025 – January 3, 2027).

Rising majestically at the head of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia Museum of Art — one of the nation’s largest and most recognizable art institutions — houses vast collections plus rotating exhibitions, including these major events coming in 2025.

• Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective: This new anthology review of the Chicago artist highlights her stylized paintings of fragmented female bodies (and late-career quilt making). The first comprehensive retrospective of her work in three decades presents nearly a hundred boundary-blurring pieces (February 8 – June 1, 2025).
• Boom: Art and Design in the 1940s: Spotlighting pieces from the museum’s permanent collection, this retrospective highlights work across various media from creators who flourished through the restrictions and adversity of a decade of war and conflict, including big names like O’Keeffe, Pollock, Nakashima, BourkeWhite, McCardell and more (April 12 – September 1, 2025).
• Brand X: Innovation in Screenprinting: In celebration of a gift of over 350 screenprints to the museum, this archival exhibition introduces the new collection of a half-century of screenprinted works from boundary-pushing Brand X Editions and their team of printers, chromists and artists (opens July 5, 2025).
• Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100: During the only U.S. stop for this traveling exhibition, explore nearly 200 works by more than 60 artists from the international surrealist movement, celebrating a century of dreamlike imagination dating back to André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism (November 8, 2025 – February 15, 2026).

The nation’s first art museum and first art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts features elaborate Victorian Gothic architecture as compelling as the American art on display within, highlighted by these new exhibitions coming in 2025.

• William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations: This new display focuses on the spaces that navigate ideas about seeing and being seen connected to concepts of Black presence and erasure against the backdrop of race. The paintings, sculpture, cut paper and collage pieces explore the Temple University M.F.A. grad’s 20-plus-year career (May 15 – August 31, 2025).
• Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo: Explore the lived experience of three trailblazing pre–World War II Japanese-American women artists — seen together for the first time — in this travelling exhibition of over five-dozen works spanning eight decades of connections and life stories not previously explored in a single dialogue (October 2, 2025 – January 4, 2026).

Housed inside Fairmount Park’s Memorial Hall (constructed for the 1876 Centennial), Please Touch Museum (opened for the 1976 Bicentennial) offers two floors of kid-focused interactive zones plus rotating special exhibitions like these.

• Voyage to the Deep: Underwater Adventures: Dive deep into this interactive exhibit based on Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which includes the lost world of Atlantis, a kelp forest seaweed maze, a treasure hunt in a Spanish galleon wreck and a recreation of the Nautilus submersible that visitors can board and explore (spring 2025).
• The Questioneers: Read. Question. Think. Play!: Inspired by the popular children’s book series, this expansive display allows kids to participate in hands-on activities that mirror the adventures of characters like scientist Ada Twist, engineer Rosie Revere, architect Iggy Peck and more (summer 2025).
• AlegreMENTE/Happy Brain: Aimed at kids six-and-under and their caregivers, this bilingual Spanish/English exhibit lets kids play while adults learn about how simple everyday interactions build skills in children that support healthy brain development in an interactive, whimsical forest of human and animal families (fall 2025).

Opening in fall 2025

The nearly-140 year old Penn Museum’s signature North American collection is getting a major upgrade as the University of Pennsylvania institution opens its new 3,000-square-foot Native North American Gallery, a reimagined space to provide a comprehensive and contemporary perspective on Native American cultures. Created in collaboration with consulting curators from diverse cultural and Indigenous communities, the new gallery highlights themes including land stewardship, resistance and resilience, forced migration, cultural continuity, creative practices and repatriation. The new space will build on the museum’s current Native American Voices: The People – Here and Now exhibit.