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

[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?