PHILADELPHIA | 1001 S. Broad Street Phase I | 180 FT | 14 FLOORS

[Parkway]

Originally Posted by Larry King

Facing south east means it gets great sun.

Sun vs views? I choose sun every time personally

I agree that sun is better, I was just answering an earlier question about whether or not the village would have skyline views.

The real problem as I see it is the village is probably not a make-or-break financial component of this project but Bart's obsession with it has the potential to derail a project that I have been waiting for since I joined this forum.

I'm afraid that if this falls through it will be another 10 years before we see anything seriously proposed here again.

[Kidphilly]

at this point will just take a new wawa on the corner and build the towers and call it a day

[Flyers2001]

Originally Posted by Kidphilly

at this point will just take a new wawa on the corner and build the towers and call it a day

Will it be a super Wawa with Gas?

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Flyers2001

Will it be a super Wawa with Gas?

Rooftop gas station. Gotta drive into a car elevator that will take you up to the roof in order to get gas.

[Flyers2001]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Rooftop gas station. Gotta drive into a car elevator that will take you up to the roof in order to get gas.

Makes sense Will it be a similar car elevator/parking system 500 Walnut is currently working on?

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Rooftop gas station. Gotta drive into a car elevator that will take you up to the roof in order to get gas.

There'd be a Blatstein precedent with the rooftop parking at Riverview Plaza, which ended up not being accessible.

[Arch+Eng]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Rooftop gas station. Gotta drive into a car elevator that will take you up to the roof in order to get gas.

LOL This is hilarious.

I am still for it, the novelty would bring in MILLIONS!

BUILT IT!

Plus you would save money on burrying the gas tanks, they could just be on the first floor....a major hazard, but still very interesting.

[summersm343]

Blatstein's new Broad and Washington plan disappoints design board

A design-review board for the city's biggest building projects expressed disappointment Tuesday with the latest iteration of developer Bart Blatstein's proposal for the northwest corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue, saying it continues to overwhelm the South Philadelphia site.

Blatstein's plan for a 32-story-high tower and outdoor shopping mall atop a podium of parking and larger-format stores suffers from overly long, unbroken facades and too few street-level access points, among other problems, members of the Civic Design Review board said at a meeting.

"If this is the best you can do to improve this scheme, in my mind I'd go back to the drawing board," CDR chairwoman Nancy Rogo Trainer said.

The appearance marked Blatstein's second presentation to the CDR board, before which projects passing certain size thresholds and other criteria must be presented for nonbinding design suggestions.

The developer also has appealed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for permission to include three levels of above-ground parking, roof decks, and other features not otherwise allowed in the area.

At a March 1 CDR hearing, board members criticized the design for placing retail attractions atop the podium at its base, undermining street-level activity around the 4-acre site. They also voiced concern about its overabundance of parking and large expanses of opaque building materials.

Community members, meanwhile, said the height of the residential tower, designed to accommodate about 1,000 units, would cast shade over parts of the surrounding neighborhood.

In the design presented Tuesday, a previously indoor staircase leading from the street to the above-ground shopping plaza was brought into the open air, in response to suggestions calling for better access to the shops atop the podium. Blatstein's architects also moved the residential tower slightly closer to the Broad Street side of the podium, farther away from residential streets.

But panel members were unimpressed with the alterations.

"It's unfortunate that the changes have been so perfunctory when the problems with the scheme are so profound," said Trainer. "For me, it still feels like a wall between Center City and South Philadelphia.

She suggested running a throughway across the site to break up its large mass, and bringing some of the small-format retail down to street level.

Blatstein defended his project, saying many modifications, such as the consolidation of two towers into one, had already been made in response to community input, in addition to the most recent round of changes.

He said that it would be impossible to break up the site without creating "a dark alley," and that the large unbroken podium-top space was needed to achieve the necessary scale to make his project work.

"The fact that the site is so large allows for something very special and very different for development in Philadelphia," Blatstein told the board. "I understand that maybe it's something hard to get your head around, but I've seen examples of this around the world."

He declined after the hearing to elaborate on where he'd seen the examples, saying he had a meeting to attend.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...6V7QESIBy6c.99

[allovertown]

I probably shouldn't share this... but Blatstein just showed me top secret new plans for his next revision:

[jsbrook]

Bart, the rooftop village idea is asinine. Why can't he see that? Scrap it. He cares more about some nonsensical concept that he feels is "visionary' (while no one else does) than actually getting something built.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Blatstein's new Broad and Washington plan disappoints design board

Shocked. Shocked.

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by allovertown

I probably shouldn't share this... but Blatstein just showed me top secret new plans for his next revision:

I won't believe it until Inga pans it.

[boxbot]

They also voiced concern about its overabundance of parking and large expanses of opaque building materials.

I think someone has a large expanse of opaque building materials in his head.

[boxbot]

[Philly Fan]

Commentary: Room for improvement in two Blatstein projects

[Palms]

This morning they were bore test drilling across the street at the Alterra development.

Both of these projects are a hot mess . That intersection and general area is butt ugly and these 2 Hideous, misplaced,out of scale projects will not help matters.

[mmikeyphilly]

Blatstein's new Broad and Washington plan disappoints design board


Quote:
A paragraph from the article:

A design-review board for the city's biggest building projects expressed disappointment Tuesday with the latest version of developer Bart Blatstein's plans for the northwest corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue, saying it still overwhelms the South Philadelphia site.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...Jfomx6Ru00K.99

Sounds to me as if the "design-review board" is not going to stop until the site underwhelms the Broad & Washington site.

[jjv007]

Originally Posted by mmikeyphilly

Blatstein's new Broad and Washington plan disappoints design board


Quote:
A paragraph from the article:

A design-review board for the city's biggest building projects expressed disappointment Tuesday with the latest version of developer Bart Blatstein's plans for the northwest corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue, saying it still overwhelms the South Philadelphia site.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...Jfomx6Ru00K.99

Sounds to me as if the "design-review board" is not going to stop until the site underwhelms the Broad & Washington site.

Exactly, this is spot on what I was thinking. Blatstein's rooftop village idea is the perfect excuse for the board to deride the project without fully revealing the reason for their true disdain. Simply put, they hate the height. Out of scale, overwhelming, not community oriented, they're scared of a project of this scale at this location.
Because most think of the rooftop village as quite preposterous, the board can act as if that's the reason they're lambasting this latest Blatstein proposal. Sure, that's part of it but the real issue to them lies deeper.
I say this as no fan of Blatstein in particular. Just saying that if Bart let go of the rooftop concept, this project definitely isn't going to go through just voilà! I'd love to be proven wrong but I know the design reviewers would much rather see a quasi-suburban proposal at this location than one the scale of this rendering.

[Philly Fan]

Blatstein has a letter about this in today's Inquirer:

Letters: Riverfront projects need parking, retail

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by jjv007

Exactly, this is spot on what I was thinking. Blatstein's rooftop village idea is the perfect excuse for the board to deride the project without fully revealing the reason for their true disdain. Simply put, they hate the height. Out of scale, overwhelming, not community oriented, they're scared of a project of this scale at this location.
Because most think of the rooftop village as quite preposterous, the board can act as if that's the reason they're lambasting this latest Blatstein proposal. Sure, that's part of it but the real issue to them lies deeper.
I say this as no fan of Blatstein in particular. Just saying that if Bart let go of the rooftop concept, this project definitely isn't going to go through just voilà! I'd love to be proven wrong but I know the design reviewers would much rather see a quasi-suburban proposal at this location than one the scale of this rendering.

What you're forgetting is that there really is no need to even deal with the design review board. It's zoned CMX-5, he could build an enormous building here by right! But he's so obsessed with his stupid rooftop village that he has to get numerous variances to accommodate it.

Besides, reading it, I don't even get the impression that they mean the building is too tall when they use the phrases "overwhelms." I think they're talking more about the fact that the tallest part of the building runs along Carpenter street and truly does overwhelm the nearby modest row homes. If the tower was the same height but situated logically at the intersection of Broad and Washington I don't think that term is used. But Bart can't put his tower there because that's where he needs to put his skydream.

He's truly incompetent. His letter about the Delaware river site is also a joke. He makes it sound like the DAG opposed his design because it contained parking and retail. They criticized it because it contains suburban style big box retail behind a sea of parking. Did he ever even think for a moment that perhaps there is a better way to incorporate retail and parking in this project? I can't stand this guy, why does he own so much of Philadelphia?