PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread II

[skyhigh07]

Originally Posted by nemesisinphilly

This whole district is just a fit over the 12th St Gym building being allowed to be built.

Whether or not the 12th St Gym site should have been redeveloped, the street level facade of the new building is not great. It really got dragged on the neighborhood forums. I tend to personally agree. It doesn’t blend well with the surrounding buildings and it has a sort of obtrusive, heavy presence. I was hoping it’d be a lot better based on the renderings.

[nemesisinphilly]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

Whether or not the 12th St Gym site should have been redeveloped, the street level facade of the new building is not great. It really got dragged on the neighborhood forums. I tend to personally agree. It doesn’t blend well with the surrounding buildings and it has a sort of obtrusive, heavy presence. I was hoping it’d be a lot better based on the renderings.

Well the disagreement between myself and people like you is that a new building has to blend in with existing buildings which span 240+ years of construction. It doesn't. It creates a new aesthetic to move forward with not be shackled to the designs of the past. I understand many here think we live in a museum and that everything needs to fit a look from 100 years ago. I just strongly disagree.

People can have their personal preferences but unless your money is on the line I find it repulsive to force the people taking the risk to bow down to the vague preferences of a dozen unelected busybodies.

If you expect everything built to look like the St James almost nothing will get built.

[skyhigh07]

Originally Posted by nemesisinphilly

Well the disagreement between myself and people like you is that a new building has to blend in with existing buildings which span 240+ years of construction. It doesn't. It creates a new aesthetic to move forward with not be shackled to the designs of the past. I understand many here think we live in a museum and that everything needs to fit a look from 100 years ago. I just strongly disagree.

People can have their personal preferences but unless your money is on the line I find it repulsive to force the people taking the risk to bow down to the vague preferences of a dozen unelected busybodies.

If you expect everything built to look like the St James almost nothing will get built.

I don’t think it necessarily even has to blend. Like so much in the US and frankly Philly, it’s just an overall poor design. There’s tons of high quality, thoughtful modern architecture in Europe that contrasts beautifully, particularly in The Netherlands and Scandinavia.

[Justin7]

The Historical Commission's definition of hardship is broken and therefore the Historical Commission is broken.

[William Van Alen]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

I don’t think it necessarily even has to blend. Like so much in the US and frankly Philly, it’s just an overall poor design. There’s tons of high quality, thoughtful modern architecture in Europe that contrasts beautifully, particularly in The Netherlands and Scandinavia.

This. I recently took a friend who is quite the "new buildings and transplants are ruining the character of the city" type to the new Piazza buildings recently and he absolutely loved it. Thought it was pretty telling and that a lot of people who feel the same way probably would hate new builds (and new residents) less if our new architecture was higher quality.

[sooperpaz]

[delete]

[Arch+Eng]

Anyone with a subscription that can extract from this link?

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...les-begin.html

[PHLtoNYC]

Nice project at a good price point too.

Originally Posted by Arch+Eng

Anyone with a subscription that can extract from this link?

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...les-begin.html

The project at 4050 Conshohocken Ave., called Wynnefield Heights Square, launched pre-sales last week with 142 condo units starting at $289,000 and 27 townhomes starting at $499,000. Noah Ostroff, founder of the PhillyLiving real estate team and partner at Keller Williams Empower, said he believes it is one of the largest for-sale residential projects currently being built in Philadelphia and will create "a whole neighborhood."

Ostroff, who is leading the sales effort on the project for developer Borkson Properties, said they plan on "starting slow" and letting the pace of sales dictate an exact timeline for the full buildout over roughly two years. A first phase of construction will kick off in October with five townhomes and 12 condos. The initial homes should be completed in January or February.

The project will ultimately be capped by an 83-unit apartment building, according to Ostroff.

[PhilliesPhan]

Originally Posted by Arch+Eng

Anyone with a subscription that can extract from this link?

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...les-begin.html

I remember this project going through the CDR process a while ago. I'd actually consider buying one of the rowhomes if I were in the market! I actually like that area a lot: it's uniformly middle-class, very racially diverse, steps away from Fairmount Park, and close to the shops and restaurants of East Falls, Manayunk, and the Main Line. It's not the most walkable area and the Cynwyd Line doesn't run often enough for me to rely on it like I do the R6 Manayunk/Norristown, but I'd seriously consider a rowhome in that neighborhood for that price.

[3rd&Brown]

Here's the website for the project if you're interested.

https://www.wynnefieldheightssquare.com/

Looks pretty good for me. Not exactly walkable but not not walkable at the same time. It's only 2 blocks to the Target on City Avenue and maybe 4 the the Bala Shopping Plaza. It's directly across the street from a Fresh Grocer. Plenty of opportunity in this area when looking at google maps for similar infill.

It will be interesting to see who the buyers end up being.

I could see it appealing to young upwardly mobile black professionals. Could also see a scenario in which Hasidic Jewish families settle here as well, as there's a growing population of Orthodox Jews in Overbrook Park. We'll see.

Feels well timed given interest rates are coming down somewhat precipitously.

[Raja]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

Here's the website for the project if you're interested.

https://www.wynnefieldheightssquare.com/

Looks pretty good for me. Not exactly walkable but not not walkable at the same time. It's only 2 blocks to the Target on City Avenue and maybe 4 the the Bala Shopping Plaza. It's directly across the street from a Fresh Grocer. Plenty of opportunity in this area when looking at google maps for similar infill.

It will be interesting to see who the buyers end up being.

I could see it appealing to young upwardly mobile black professionals. Could also see a scenario in which Hasidic Jewish families settle here as well, as there's a growing population of Orthodox Jews in Overbrook Park. We'll see.

Feels well timed given interest rates are coming down somewhat precipitously.

Apropos of our previous discussion on Northbank, Naval Square, Siena Place, etc. -- the townhome part of this, at least, should do very well.

[Arch+Eng]

Anyone else here use Google Earth alot and hate Mark Henninger?

Like, I appreciate the effort of documenting every street, and sometimes you get into alleyways google has not, but its SUPER annoying when your streetviews override googles.

[InvisibleMan]

Originally Posted by Arch+Eng

Anyone else here use Google Earth alot and hate Mark Henninger?

Like, I appreciate the effort of documenting every street, and sometimes you get into alleyways google has not, but its SUPER annoying when your streetviews override googles.

YES lol it was especially annoying when you couldn't change the street view date on mobile

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Raja

Apropos of our previous discussion on Northbank, Naval Square, Siena Place, etc. -- the townhome part of this, at least, should do very well.

It's effectively all townhomes. It's confusing because there is an apartment building (shown in the rendering), but the "condos" are simply duplex townhomes. The 4 floor townhomes are the "condos" and the 3 floor townhomes are the SFH. The multi-unit building comes later and is rentals.

It should all do well.

And agreed on other points.

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by PHLtoNYC

^ 9/19
800 block of N 2nd

The black with balconies looks cool actually, makes it appear higher quality than it actually is. The building to the right is okay, but I fear that white color won't age well.

And is it just the picture, or is the ground floor on those buildings really short? I figured the ground floor would need to be ~12'+ to accommodate a restaurant or grocer.

I agree. I worry how these dark finishes will wear.

Activity at N Broad Ballet site I hear.