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

[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/business/20...ts_design_board.html#yFfOp6V7QESIBy6c.99