Sunday 5/13- The National

Cladding going up-

https://i.imgur.com/EXCLXpx.jpg



Re-creation of the sign and zigzag awning started-

https://i.imgur.com/GRxPLJB.jpg

Retail plaza with CVS planned at former State Office Building apartments on North Broad Street
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...-20180514.html

Doesn't provide job numbers and seems like a small company, but still good!:

Last fall, the founder and chief executive at Elm Partners were drafting a headquarters list of their own, as they planned to move the small algorithmic investment firm from London to the U.S. The founder’s children would soon all be in the U.S. with his youngest hoping to attend college in Philadelphia, said Chief Executive James White. Philadelphia was high on their list, but they didn’t know the city well and were considering more familiar terrain in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston.

Then, a friend sent a link to the video Philadelphia put together as part of its Amazon pitch. The video just resonated with us really well,” Mr. White said. The piece highlighted Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial community and its burgeoning food scene. It helped push the city to the top of their list, and the company began its move to Philadelphia in January.

He had never lived in Philadelphia before, Mr. White said, “but this made us feel OK about taking that risk.”

Work has begun on the reno/reconstruction job at 3600 Lancaster. Does anybody remember what it's supposed to look like?

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phill...ncaster-avenue

Some pics there that give a good idea, assuming things haven’t changed.

Looks great! Too bad toll brothers couldn’t work out such a deal for jewelers row.

3.0 University Place is about to get started at 41st and Market, according to WestPhillyLocal.

https://www.30universityplace.com/

To go along with it being leed platinum it’s slso a sleek design. That part in the renderings where it curves and makes a v shape is that how it will be designed or is that just the artist showing us a skeletal view of the steel?

^sorry you actually can’t see the v shape on the attached link, it was from a previous post of the rendering but I’m talking about the western part of the building where the glass seems to get lighter.

That's a surprise. I thought ground-breaking was December. Not in the office today, but I work at 2.0 University Place. I'll see soon enough!

City Council at it again...

City Council moves to require more parking in Philadelphia neighborhoods

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...re-philly.html

Blackwell has no idea what she is doing.

Oh, but she does. Pandering to her base.

I get sad thinking that our city is so po-dunk and backwater still that the only major issue that truly resonates and motivates voters is...parking.

What the...?

9 times out of 10 I agree with you that Blackwell is an example of everything that's wrong with City council, but the old story about a blind squirrel finding a nut in the woods-----So in this case, just based on what I've observed in areas of UC where crappy developers have built crappy projects parking has seemed to have gotten worse. I'm not one who buys into the concept that street parking is a right, and I do believe the City should do what it can to encourage use of mass transit, but the bottom line is these areas, largely north of Walnut St. the area has been up zoned with little input from the immediate neighbors, real estate taxes have doubled and tripled and now long time residents, who are really the backbone of the neighborhood, are finding their daily lives changed in a meaningful way, but not in a good way. When you've been able to park on your block for years suddenly having to search for parking and having to walk 3 or 4 blocks is not a change many people embrace.
Again just speaking about UC, the multi family (meaning largely student based) units that have and are being built are not being put up with affordability in mind, and I don't think many people who are looking for apartments in that area are choosing it because of low rents. Affordability is certainly a problem in Philly city wide, but UC is not a low rent area and hasn't been for a long time. My feeling is these crappy trash projects are going up for one reason, to make the owners as much fast profit as possible, with little to no regard to being good neighbors or fitting in or anything having to do with trying to be responsible and sensitive to the surroundings.
So in that environment I have no problem changing the parking requirements and requiring more parking spots. I wish that the City would also require that the parking be contained within the building; just increasing the size of surface lots is going to be a negative. Unfortunately Blackwell has NEVER shown any interest or consideration for how things look.
Its easy to say that parking requirements should be market driven, and I imagine in some areas----Rittenhouse Sq.----that might work, but in UC when you've got a mix of long time residents and short termers my experience is that without outside requirements (the City) 'needs' don't get addressed and situations head downhill.

wasn’t there a parking study done recently that actually quantified the amount/need for parking, including UC specifically? anecdotes are fine, but they shouldn’t be what drives policy like this that has demonstrably proven to have minimum positive impact while slowing construction and hurting affordability.

Promoting walkable density also means less cars on the road which mean less pollution and less congestion. More people walking and biking places means healthier people and safer streets (more eyes). Forced parking can also be an onerous request for developers especially in dense areas so that adds financial stakes and ultimately what you may get is more parking podiums and street level garages which scars the streetscape for pedestrians.

And the fact that this legislation would impact high rise multi-families being built in Center City should be a non-starter. Perhaps a compromise to 4:10? She can claim a small victory to her constituents.

^the thing that makes me even more baffled by this whole proposal is that she says her constituents are “suffering”. is there no greater ailment in the city than people spending 300 extra seconds to find a (basically free) parking spot? hopefully this gets shot down as it did in 2016.

i also find it rich that she pushed for those zoning changes for the 30th street area and now she is saying “woe is me” for parking issues in this same area. it’s gross.

Isn't this how our last zoning code became a convoluted mess? Politics and City Council need to stay out of zoning/planning and leave it up to the professionals.