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Old Posted Jan 30, 2017, 4:47 PM
allovertown allovertown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by McBane View Post
This building design is typical Philadelphia. Red brick base with cornice line matching neighboring buildings with a setback tower to give the illusion that the tower doesn't actually exist. This approach is getting very old.

The base is well designed but boring and very unoriginal. I hope that the two jewlers who were interested in the retail space are retained. This tower itself is not a threat to the Row but it will be if this tower follows the pattern of all other new development in the city in that the retail space will either go to a drugstore, a bank, a fast casual chain, or an upscale chain/celebrity chef restaurant.

The Sansom Street facade is awful. Someone likened it to the Federal Courthouse building. I agree - and that's not a good thing, that building is hideous.

The back of the building with the glass facade is okay but doesn't mesh well at all with red brick.

This is truly a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Heide building. It doesn't need a little tweaking but a complete redo. What would work very well IMHO is a contemporary building built with traditional materials, as exemplified by the proposed Hyde Hotel on South Broad or (to a lesser extent) the brick/metal building on Sansom that houses Dizzengoff. Such a design would compliment the other buildings on Jewlers Row, whereas the current design is attempting to be a carbon copy. Finally, do away with the setback. You're building a high rise - own up to it, it's nothing to be ashamed of.
I agree that the design is shit and looks like a terrible copy of the federal court with a glass tumor growing out of it. I also agree that they should go contemporary here. I mean this is basically across the street from the Curtis Center, any attempt at a neoclassical styled brick dominated facade is pointless because they often look bad and it will look even worse when it is forced to stand next to a phenomenal example of this style done right.

But you're way off on the setback. I get that they annoy you and a I will agree they're overused in Philadelphia. Buildings like 2116 Chestnut, there's simply no need for a setback. But I mean there is a reason why people use them and it's not just because people are "ashamed" to build skyscrapers. Jeweler's Row is a beautiful human scaled street. Inserting a 350 foot skyscraper right into the middle of the block would look absolutely absurd and totally destroy the intimate nature of this street. The setback is basically the only thing they got right here.

The setback should remain but they should accomplish it by simply preserving the facades of the existing buildings. But then the tower itself, a striking a contemporary tower would work great here.
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