PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[ILovePhilly]

I agree. I was extremely disappointed by their initial proposal for that lot a while back. (You all may know me by now; I'm always disappointed by parking garages) The treatment of what should be the southern entrance to center city as a back office, 9-5, out of the way "office park" is SO disheartening. The lack of imagination people can have never ceases to amaze me. This could be so much more!

Speaking of buildings dropped atop unacceptable urban-fabric-destroying above-ground parking garages... Dranoff. Damn that's upsetting.

[Salonica city]

Hey Mappy I totally agree with you.But the person you sat down with should not be on the committee I think if he cant see us as a viable option. But nonetheless you are spot on with the idea to utilize fed and state funds for something like this. And you are also right about most host cities breaking even. Also from living in Greece for a period I can say, they where way behind Philly with the infosturctor and the stadiums in general but they did have the main venue and with the help of the architect kalatrava they made it happen. I also agree with you that the linc was very poorly planed by the city since they paid most of the bill. And I think that brazil was not completly ready but will make it happen these games change everything where ever they land. We need more folks like us and to start taking this seriously. I will be going over your plan soon thank you for the knowledge and the info

[Philly-Drew]

Originally Posted by GarCastle

I got the renderings including some cross-sections but it's too large for crappy Microshaft webmail. My email police will not let me open it in webmail, save it off as a file, open it on my work phone, nor forward it to another email account. It's driving me freakin' nuts. I saved it off on my work laptop but that is at work LOL. I'll was looking forward to posting them so I really don't want to wait. I can't seem to compress it within webmail nor forward it as an attached email with the embedded attachment file.

Cheers,
G.

GarCastle, can you open the renderings on your laptop and then use another camera to take a picture of them? You may lose some quality but it should still come out pretty nice.

[Philly-Drew]

Talk about off-the-radar, I didn't even know this was happening. I'll have to check out that view: http://www.loewshotels.com/restaurants/level33/

XIX is my staple place to eat that includes a view, but I do go to R2L occasionally too. I will have to check out Level 33 for sure.

Too bad this looks like it may only be temporary, until the ground floor renovations are complete for what was Sole Food.

[GarCastle]

Originally Posted by Philly-Drew

GarCastle, can you open the renderings on your laptop and then use another camera to take a picture of them? You may lose some quality but it should still come out pretty nice.

I'll start with some shots of the Jordan extension on top of the South Pavilion here. These are without the South Tower (in case it does not get approved).

Cheers,
G.

Some of these are posted on Penn Medicine's site and some are not:

[GarCastle]

Since there is not yet a building name or an official approval, we'll just call these a practice on how to upload pics since it's been awhile for me and we'll say this is for entertainment purposes only! Naturally the images are early mockups and I hope to God they figure out how to color match the modules of the whole structure since the light "mud" looks hideous next to the crisp white LOL.

Cheers,
G.









And a couple more nice shots of it coming soon!

[EastSideHBG]

Cool building, GarCastle, thanks for posting! Very futuristic looking!

[Philly Fan]

Yeah, GarCastle, thanks for posting those!

Have you gotten any sense of if or when they plan to build a third tower on top of the remaining wing of Perelman? Given all of these developments--include the planned demolition of Penn Tower--I can't imagine them not completing the horseshoe of towers. I also wonder how much involvement Vinoly still has in all of this, and if there is any overall design vision for this as a completed project.

[GarCastle]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

Have you gotten any sense of if or when they plan to build a third tower on top of the remaining wing of Perelman? Given all of these developments--include the planned demolition of Penn Tower--I can't imagine them not completing the horseshoe of towers. I also wonder how much involvement Vinoly still has in all of this, and if there is any overall design vision for this as a completed project.

Phase 4 of Perelman is still far off. Since they need Penn Tower and its garage out of the way. The Penn Tower is not expected to be emptied until summer 2015 earliest and the garage cannot be taken down before the "Lot 51" garage is built - which I have pictures of also. :^) The "Lot 51" garage will have a tower in front of it, but built after the garage since they need the garage to offset Penn Tower's garage being ripped down and they still owe (1,000?) parking spots per agreement with the City when the Civic Center was taken down.

Also I've heard the "Inpatient Tower" (AKA phase 4) may also be done in sub-phases with the first module being 200-300 intensive care beds. It is likely that they will leave that street where it is so the inpatient areas would be on top of that remaining part of the horseshoe and also on the Penn Tower & garage land with bridges across the existing road. They might move the road but apparently it's a real pain to get approvals for and likely Penn would have to pay for all the utility work to get moved.

I'll keep asking any VPs I run into LOL and if I find out any dates, even guesstimates, I'll pass them on as such.

Cheers,
G.

[GarCastle]

Though that does bring up a good point. IF they settle into the idea of doing the bridges, then they could build a tower on top of the last section of the horseshoe and then worry about the garages and Penn Tower later since they could leave tie-ins for the bridges. Hmm.

I've heard the eventual idea is to turn the entirely of the main HUP complex back to the university so it can renovate it (or whatever) and use it for the schools since all the Penn land is on the other side of the hospital and they don't seem keen on having students walk that far between classes, etc. HUP is a massive block of building and if they plan on building that many SF in the Inpatient tower and over the remaining horseshoe section, then that should be quite a massive structure as well.

Cheers,
G.

[Pennsgrant]

This is an architectural calamity of epic proportions .

[Outta here]

Agreed . And for most , it probably represents a giant leap forward . Maybe it is just the quality of the picture , or my failing eyesight . But to me it looks like a maximum security prison from some old Star Wars movie . Additionally , what is that giant vertical fluorescent
tube just to the right that complements said building , so well .

[Plokoon11]

^ Wow you are right it does look like something from starwars.

[eliasrapp98]

I have to say, I really disagree with the people complaining about our big buildings being too condensed in one small area. I think it's fantastic actually. I'll tell you why.

Once CITC and hopefully Castleway Tower are built, I would be willing to say that from 15th-19th of Walnut-Arch St are almost completely finished. Literally besides some minor construction and businesses moving in and out, that area would be done up completely. This allows businesses and residential builders to focus on University City, West Philly, South Philly (below Walnut I mean), Washington Square, and Market East for new buildings.

[jn00]

Originally Posted by eliasrapp98

I have to say, I really disagree with the people complaining about our big buildings being too condensed in one small area. I think it's fantastic actually. I'll tell you why.

Once CITC and hopefully Castleway Tower are built, I would be willing to say that from 15th-19th of Walnut-Arch St are almost completely finished. Literally besides some minor construction and businesses moving in and out, that area would be done up completely. This allows businesses and residential builders to focus on University City, West Philly, South Philly (below Walnut I mean), Washington Square, and Market East for new buildings.

Speaking of castleway, has anyone heard anything about the rumored sale to toll brothers or what is being planned and when?

[Jelly Roll]

Originally Posted by eliasrapp98

Once CITC and hopefully Castleway Tower are built, I would be willing to say that from 15th-19th of Walnut-Arch St are almost completely finished. Literally besides some minor construction and businesses moving in and out, that area would be done up completely. This allows businesses and residential builders to focus on University City, West Philly, South Philly (below Walnut I mean), Washington Square, and Market East for new buildings.

I disagree that with the completely finished part. This area is going to continue to grow. There are still plenty of low-rise buildings that can be replaced. We are going to see many more apartment buildings go up in the area.

[GarCastle]

Originally Posted by Pennsgrant

This is an architectural calamity of epic proportions .

Yeah LOL, I thought about not posting that one. It's a good example how some renderings are just low budget and actually quite misleading about the building.

For instance, here are the diagonal back and from the front. Just a smidgen more quality in the work and actually indicate the building might look decent when done (we'll see).

Cheers,
G.

[Philly-Drew]

Originally Posted by Pennsgrant

This is an architectural calamity of epic proportions .

I'd like to see this rendering done at nighttime. It would be fun if there was a way to design the lighting such that it would play off the water at certain angles. The building may be too far away from the river to pull that off.

[christof]

Originally Posted by GarCastle

Yes that is the South Pavilion, they refer to the additional floors as the South Pavilion Extension but they also use that same name for the med school floors and possibly the whole thing.

Yes Penn Tower was "slapped up" and was not meant to be around this long. I do not recall the exact time it was built nor the trigger for it.

I got the renderings including some cross-sections but it's too large for crappy Microshaft webmail. My email police will not let me open it in webmail, save it off as a file, open it on my work phone, nor forward it to another email account. It's driving me freakin' nuts. I saved it off on my work laptop but that is at work LOL. I'll was looking forward to posting them so I really don't want to wait. I can't seem to compress it within webmail nor forward it as an attached email with the embedded attachment file.

Cheers,
G.

Wasn't Penn Tower a hotel for the Civic Center?

[christof]

Originally Posted by ILovePhilly

I agree. I was extremely disappointed by their initial proposal for that lot a while back. (You all may know me by now; I'm always disappointed by parking garages) The treatment of what should be the southern entrance to center city as a back office, 9-5, out of the way "office park" is SO disheartening. The lack of imagination people can have never ceases to amaze me. This could be so much more!

Speaking of buildings dropped atop unacceptable urban-fabric-destroying above-ground parking garages... Dranoff. Damn that's upsetting.

CHOP's expansion across the river is for researchers. It is not meant for business activities or socializing. I think folks are forgetting the purpose these towers are meant to be, and are trying to force a design that does not match the purpose.