PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread - Page 173

hammersklavier · #**3441** Posted **Jul 21, 2015, 7:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/ho...ext_to_Pa__Academy_of_the_Fine_Arts.html

4 story addition to a six story historic building. Not bad.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OpyNq8uPWG8/UA.../UqxDRdsjq8A/s1600/cadillac+park+now.png

IIRC according to GroJLart this building's been a parking garage for its entire existence. It might actually be the city's oldest!

Aaamazarite · #**3442** Posted **Jul 21, 2015, 11:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammersklavier

IIRC according to GroJLart this building's been a parking garage for its entire existence. It might actually be the city's oldest!

Nah, it was built as an automobile sales building, then became government offices, then back to auto sales-- but it's been a garage for a very long time.

Jawnadelphia · #**3443** Posted **Jul 21, 2015, 11:54 PM**

One Liberty Place observation deck update w/ video

Article:
http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2015/0...ws-from-one-liberty-observation-deck.php

YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5kdzCf-IPo#action=share

summersm343 · #**3444** Posted **Jul 22, 2015, 4:47 AM**

Liberty Square Renderings in Olde Kensington. This project looks amazing.

https://www.buzzbuzzhome.com/liberty-square

mja · #**3445** Posted **Jul 22, 2015, 7:58 AM**

Wait, that's actually under construction?

cafeguy · #**3446** Posted **Jul 22, 2015, 11:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mja

Wait, that's actually under construction?

Just a couple weeks until ground breaking. They already tore down the old warehouse there. These developers mean business and they are absolutely great to the neighborhood. Very respectable and very attentive.

summersm343 · #**3447** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 12:15 AM**

Awesome looking building along Front Street next to the EL.
Hopefully this is what the future of Front Street under the EL will look like!

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-philly/so...lding-under-construction-on-front-street

summersm343 · #**3448** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 12:38 AM**

CDR Submissions

401 Race
2nd submission. 4 floors residential and retail/commercial. Looks like a slight redesign
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...401%20Race%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

Soko Lofts
Looks great! Build it! Two 4 floor building and one 7 floor building. All residential with ground floor retail/commercial.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...%20N%202nd%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

814-30 Spring Garden
Absolutely atrocious design. 5 floor residential building and one story commercial building facing Spring Garden. Includes surface parking on the site. I hope the CDR slams this project and the developers seriously rethink this and wipe all surface parking from the lot and keep the 5 floor building throughout the entirety of the lot.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...ng%20Garden%20Street_CDR%20submittal.pdf

Jawnadelphia · #**3449** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 12:26 PM**

Had to post another pic of that new apt house - bangin'!

1487 · #**3450** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 12:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by summersm343

CDR Submissions

401 Race
2nd submission. 4 floors residential and retail/commercial. Looks like a slight redesign
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...401%20Race%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

Soko Lofts
Looks great! Build it! Two 4 floor building and one 7 floor building. All residential with ground floor retail/commercial.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...%20N%202nd%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

814-30 Spring Garden
Absolutely atrocious design. 5 floor residential building and one story commercial building facing Spring Garden. Includes surface parking on the site. I hope the CDR slams this project and the developers seriously rethink this and wipe all surface parking from the lot and keep the 5 floor building throughout the entirety of the lot.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...ng%20Garden%20Street_CDR%20submittal.pdf

a fourth project is now listed- 400 reed street, Mt sinai townhouse project. I dont see whats so terrible about the Spring Garden building- the orientation is strange and its barely on SG street, but the building itself isn't anything notably terrible.

Larry King · #**3451** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 1:05 PM**

Whos developing 814 spring garden?

Cro Burnham · #**3452** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 1:42 PM**

401 Race is just so awful on so many levels.

The Spring Garden building's not bad in itself - it's the fact that it's surrounded by a giant parking lot. Hopefully they'd consider developing that land in hypothetical future phases.

MikeNigh · #**3453** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 2:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by summersm343

CDR Submissions

401 Race
2nd submission. 4 floors residential and retail/commercial. Looks like a slight redesign
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...401%20Race%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

Soko Lofts
Looks great! Build it! Two 4 floor building and one 7 floor building. All residential with ground floor retail/commercial.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...%20N%202nd%20Street_CDR%20Submission.pdf

814-30 Spring Garden
Absolutely atrocious design. 5 floor residential building and one story commercial building facing Spring Garden. Includes surface parking on the site. I hope the CDR slams this project and the developers seriously rethink this and wipe all surface parking from the lot and keep the 5 floor building throughout the entirety of the lot.
http://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/projec...ng%20Garden%20Street_CDR%20submittal.pdf

The first two are NICE! If they don't want to use the whole lot for the third one then they should just partition out the rest and sell it.

tsarstruck · #**3454** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 3:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeNigh

The first two are NICE! If they don't want to use the whole lot for the third one then they should just partition out the rest and sell it.

Having front facing Spring Garden street parking is definitely a bummer. But there are both zoning and chicken-or-the-egg issues there. They're going to need a variance for residential use as the lot is zoned ICMX. While I'm not a fan of the zoning code's parking minimums for IRMX (the closest zoning designation to ICMX to allow multifamily) and CMX-3 (which neighboring properties are), the variance probably can't ignore the analogue parking requirements. And while a walkable mid-rise with no or limited parking makes a ton of sense for Spring Garden in general, it's not hard to see why you'd be attracting a fair amount of drivers here: despite the bird's eye closeness, this lot is pretty severely isolated: by the neighboring driver-oriented lots, by the Reading Viaduct to the north and west, by the mess of abandoned industrial uses to the south.

I do really wish they'd build on that NE portion of the lot facing Spring Garden, but all and all, given the problems with zoning and environs, this is really not a bad project at all.

UPenn18 · #**3455** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 3:16 PM**

I like the idea of a dog park at 401 Race, albeit I still think the project could use some more "gravitas." It would be a good addition to the Franklin Square area, which frankly, is a mess. I enjoyed this article about ways to fix the Franklin Square area.

http://philadelphiaplaneto.com/focus-on-...-creating-a-franklin-square-neigborhood/

That in addition to this plan to redo the traffic circulation/BF bridge approach near Franklin square would be help the walkability of that area in a huge way, which the developers of 401 Race would love I'm sure. That, and the reopening of the Franklin Square PATCO station.

http://planphilly.com/articles/2015/03/23/phs-has-bold-plans-to-redo-base-of-ben-franklin-bridge

summersm343 · #**3456** Posted **Jul 23, 2015, 3:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1487

a fourth project is now listed- 400 reed street, Mt sinai townhouse project. I dont see whats so terrible about the Spring Garden building- the orientation is strange and its barely on SG street, but the building itself isn't anything notably terrible.

The problem isn't the design of the residential building per say, it's the design of the site plan. The building is surrounded by surface parking. The frontage on Spring Garden Street is a one story commercial building with surface parking.

This entire lot should be covered. No surface parking. The entire 5 story building should abut Spring Garden.