PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[summersm343]

Wills Eye hopes to raise $30M for expansion

Wills Eye Hospital is talking to donors about raising money to expand its Center City campus with a new research and medical-care facility that would replace a strip of vacant houses and an empty lot.

The eye-care hospital is seeking to raise at least $30 million to build the new facility on South Ninth Street properties beside its main building at Walnut Street, chief executive officer Joseph P. Bilson said in a statement.

"This area has become a very vibrant center for health care and academic medicine," Bilson said. "We are hoping to offer even more services."

The new building would be the latest life-science facility in an area dominated by medical institutions including Thomas Jefferson University, one of the city's biggest employers.

The proposed development site consists of nine properties acquired by Wills affiliates between 1992 and 2014 for about $2.5 million, according to city records. Three were deeded for $1 each in 1994.

"We have a lot of wonderful things going on here, and in order to advance our scientific pursuits, we need more space," she said. The hospital offers pediatric and adult ophthalmology.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20...h_St__expansion.html#urDZTFy63vtQUR9P.99

[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Wills Eye hopes to raise $30M for expansion[/url]

It's a shame that lovely row of houses was allowed to fall into such disrepair. They're handsome. But it sounds like they'll do great things in the new facility, and it's important we create good jobs. Considering that we're losing the row, that this building is surrounded by some soulless TJ buildings, and close to Washington Square, we should really be expecting something well-designed.

Right?

[PHL10]

I don't think they are all vacant and the cluster in the middle seem to be pre-civil war. I'm not a fan. Between Penn Medicine, Jeff, and Wills that area is becoming too institutional for my taste - not enough mixed uses.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.947412,-...HYHInTGCm3dAwQYDTX26A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[McBane]

I had posted about this strip of buildings a few months ago, wondering how there could be such a dilapidated row of homes in this neighborhood. I'm glad something is being done.

[cafeguy]

word on the street this is going to come right next to the AWFUL Blatstein project that was announced yesterday.

http://k4llc.com/project/liberty-on-the-river/

[Plokoon11]

Oh my!!!! That looks great!

[Outta here]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

word on the street this is going to come right next to the AWFUL Blatstein project that was announced yesterday.

http://k4llc.com/project/liberty-on-the-river/

Is this the proposed , Renaissance Plaza Tower #1 ..... or something else

[cafeguy]

Originally Posted by Outta here

Is this the proposed , Renaissance Plaza Tower #1 ..... or something else

No... Renaissance Plaza is on spring gardenish. This project is in south philly at the "immigrant pier" park they recently built and next to the single story comcast building. Blatstein announced yesterday plans for a really suburban water front development with massive surface parking lot just south of this....so, this kinda makes up for it.

Although... the source is from facebook so I have no clue if its accurate. They guy says its a go, but the size of it makes me wonder since no one else has heard of it before. I feel like something of that size would have to have gone through a lot of vetting on multiple boards.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

word on the street this is going to come right next to the AWFUL Blatstein project that was announced yesterday.

http://k4llc.com/project/liberty-on-the-river/

Blatstein really is a tasteless cynical tool no matter how hard he tries (or at least used to try) to appear otherwise.

It is just about impossible to imagine a worse design for this location.

He's really turning into a negative force in this city after a brief period of doing some good in NoLibs (with community pressure).

[summersm343]

Sixers: Camden training facility will be NBA's biggest

Renderings in the article. Oof, I feel bad for Camden. This sort of development would have likely been a better fit for the Navy Yard.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...raining-facility-biggest-nba-hinkie.html

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

word on the street this is going to come right next to the AWFUL Blatstein project that was announced yesterday.

http://k4llc.com/project/liberty-on-the-river/

This seems like complete fantasy to me. I guess we'll see, but it just seems completely out of scale.

[summersm343]

A preview of Temple University's new library













Article:
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homep...ary?_ga=1.244185793.539293594.1412952426

[Knight Hospitaller]

^^^ I thought that I liked it, but now I'm not so sure. A blast from the aesthetically-challenged past in some respects.

[RonnieStevens]

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

Blatstein really is a tasteless cynical tool no matter how hard he tries (or at least used to try) to appear otherwise.

It is just about impossible to imagine a worse design for this location.

He's really turning into a negative force in this city after a brief period of doing some good in NoLibs (with community pressure).

Not a troll post but just trying to understand why this is bad? Is it the design or the location? I might be missing something here so this might be a stupid question...

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by RonnieStevens

Not a troll post but just trying to understand why this is bad? Is it the design or the location? I might be missing something here so this might be a stupid question...

Yes and yes, I'd say. Take a look at the site plan. Rowhomes on the river behind an Aldi and Wawa with big parking lots. You may be confusing this with the adjacent (fantasy?) "Liberty on the River" towers, which look great (if this is a real project).

[boxbot]

The library appears to be entirely devoid of books. Also that last guy pictured on the stairs doesn't seem happy to have been rendered.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by RonnieStevens

Not a troll post but just trying to understand why this is bad? Is it the design or the location? I might be missing something here so this might be a stupid question...

There has been a general movement to reconnect the city to central waterfront on a pedestrian scale.

Blatstein has an amazing opportunity here to create an urban-oriented design that could essentially be an extension of the urban grid to the river. A kind of design that is happening in just about any other major city worth it salt in the US.

Instead, this ass comes up with a 1980s-revival island-like suburban gated community separated from the rest of the city by an ocean of parking lots and big box stores. Is truly a slap in the face to a city attempting to restore walkability and urban life to the areas around Center City.

It's really sickening.

[RonnieStevens]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

Yes and yes, I'd say. Take a look at the site plan. Rowhomes on the river behind an Aldi and Wawa with big parking lots. You may be confusing this with the adjacent (fantasy?) "Liberty on the River" towers, which look great (if this is a real project).

Yep got it. I was thinking that you guys didnt like the towers. Those look pretty cool. Agreed

[McBane]

I don't like Blatstein's suburban crap he's proposing for South Philly. It reminds me of those faux Towne Centers that are cropping up everywhere. Philadelphia deserves better.

As for the "Waterfront Square South" Liberty fantasy project here are my thoughts:

1) As with all waterfront projects, it must meet the following criteria: it must be dense (check); it must come right to the sidewalk's edge (?); and it must have active retail use (check, i think).

2) Right next to "Franklin", incorporating the word "Liberty" into projects, is so lame. Just like the overuse of red brick, it gives the city a one-dimensional feel. I love Philadelphia's colonial history as much as the next guy, but isn't our city so much more than that?

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by McBane

I don't like Blatstein's suburban crap he's proposing for South Philly. It reminds me of those faux Towne Centers that are cropping up everywhere. Philadelphia deserves better.

As for the "Waterfront Square South" Liberty fantasy project here are my thoughts:

1) As with all waterfront projects, it must meet the following criteria: it must be dense (check); it must come right to the sidewalk's edge (?); and it must have active retail use (check, i think).

2) Right next to "Franklin", incorporating the word "Liberty" into projects, is so lame. Just like the overuse of red brick, it gives the city a one-dimensional feel. I love Philadelphia's colonial history as much as the next guy, but isn't our city so much more than that?

If only it were as good as a faux town centre. How about we call the other development Colonial Red Brick Towers? I'm not down with all of the red-brick hate.