PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[summersm343]

Rag & Bone debuts on high-priced Walnut Street

So Rag & Bone, Warby Parker, Under Armour flagship, and Bonobos are all opening within a block of each other. The future of Walnut Street is looking bright again!

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20...d_Walnut_Street.html#X4hT8yVdGo6r9DoF.99

[Larry King]

Originally Posted by Justin7

^Who is your architect, Larry? (If you don't mind.)

Landmark, they do a great job.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Larry King

Haha you're a brave man. You're really opening yourself up to a lot of criticism about how little this development is affecting our skyline.

Look great!

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Larry King

Landmark, they do a great job.

I put an offer on a house on the 2200 block of N Howard last year. It was a multiple offer situation and it just ended up for selling for more than it was worth, given how much work it needed.

That being said, I think you do good work.

One suggestion though. Though I'm a huge fan of modern development and one of the first people to decry those who complain about buildings that "don't fit in" (i.e. contextualists), I do worry that new buildings, particularly infill in this city, are starting to look too monotonous.

I don't mean one off per se, but when there are groups or blocks of homes being built. I'm thinking of where my first property is...Northern Liberties. The new houses are most block after block of monotonous "modern" houses. Within each development, there is literally *zero* variety in facades. Not a single variation in roofline, window placement, etc.

Natural cities are not built like that. My ask, for any developer building in this way (including you), would be to adopt some sort of format (A*B*A, or A*A*B*B*A*A, or A*B*C*C*B*A) in which each letter represents a variant in the facade, floorplan, or both. There are ways to do this so that 1. the entire group of homes are still harmonious and clearly of the same "development" and 2. not cost prohibitive. It would also mimic the natural variety seen in the best organic urban neighborhoods. I worry that these blocks of "modern" homes, without variety or variants, are the future, monotonous superblocks akin to the housing you see in Northeast Philly, which I'd argue, have in part not held their value as well as other parts of the city IN PART (not wholely) because of the lack of variety in building typology. Simply put, neighborhoods with such housing simply aren't as interesting or desireable, in part due to their lack of architectural variety. Of course, the latter criticism is one meant to be applied over time, and not in the short term. Neighborhoods that hold or increase in value over time, in comparison to urban neighborhoods that don't, have more building variety, not less.

[Larry King]

^ I don't disagree, I think rowhouse facades can support 1-2 main colors and 1-2 accent colors before becoming too busy.. And switching up what color goes where can be a nice way to add variety to multi house projects. I personally like using reddish brick w/ modern windows and maybe some metal accent but would like to get more experimental on future projects for the sake of variety if nothing else

[Busy Bee]

Looks good LK.

I've wondered for a longtime though... Is there something in the code that requires,(or at least encourages) 90° turned stoops? That is to say, the stoop stairs parallel to the façade instead of perpendicular like most Phila stoops used to be?

[Larry King]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Looks good LK.

I've wondered for a longtime though... Is there something in the code that requires,(or at least encourages) 90° turned stoops? That is to say, the stoop stairs parallel to the façade instead of perpendicular like most Phila stoops used to be?

It has to do with how much of the sidewalk you can take.

New houses front doors are generally higher off the ground than old so you can't have the stairs go straight towards the street because it would take up too much of the sidewalk. Other options would be to have the front door pushed a few feet into the house so stairs have more room or have the front door closer to the ground which may diminish ceiling height/sunlight in basement and/or require more excavating and maybe underpinning of adjacent foundations which gets expensive.

[Busy Bee]

^Thanks. That's kinda what I figured.

[City Wide]

Originally Posted by Larry King

It has to do with how much of the sidewalk you can take.

New houses front doors are generally higher off the ground than old so you can't have the stairs go straight towards the street because it would take up too much of the sidewalk. Other options would be to have the front door pushed a few feet into the house so stairs have more room or have the front door closer to the ground which may diminish ceiling height/sunlight in basement and/or require more excavating and maybe underpinning of adjacent foundations which gets expensive.

Wouldn't another option have been to dig a deeper basement by 18" or so, then the 1st. fl. would be closer to sidewalk level?

Just asking because I'm curious------how many front elevations did you consider before deciding on the one you went with? And did you use all the height the zoning code allowed? Thanks

[Larry King]

Originally Posted by City Wide

Wouldn't another option have been to dig a deeper basement by 18" or so, then the 1st. fl. would be closer to sidewalk level?

Just asking because I'm curious------how many front elevations did you consider before deciding on the one you went with? And did you use all the height the zoning code allowed? Thanks

Yeah you could but depending on the adjacent foundations you may need to underpin them which can get expensive.

Not too many, I already knew I wanted red brick and modern windows.. yes they're going to end up 38ish feet which is the max for rsa-5.

[Busy Bee]

A solution to the "stoop podium" issue while accomidating the basement clearance needs would be to recess the front entry about 3 feet or so providing enough room to make possible a more elegant cascading stoop. This would be a much more elegant solution as well as providing weather protection for the entry. A floor plan shift to accommodate the recess doesn't seem like a huge challenge.

[Busy Bee]

Larry King, is that dark access door for the utility meters, taking advantage of the new code provisions for meter "hiding"? If so, bravo!

[Larry King]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Larry King, is that dark access door for the utility meters, taking advantage of the new code provisions for meter "hiding"? If so, bravo!

That was the idea, may end up under the stairs though. Shame that the gas meters need to be outside they're hideous

[summersm343]

Broad and Callowhill - two 6 floor apartment/retail buildings
Update from Building Philly



https://www.facebook.com/BuildingPhilly

[Cro Burnham]

Thought this would be concrete all 6 floors.

Alas, another cheapo provisional wood tinderbox apartment house. Too bad, particularly given it takes up two blocks.

[Cro Burnham]

Originally Posted by Larry King

Landmark, they do a great job.

Your project is nice. But Landmark has done alot of really awful stuff, a particularly egregious example being the garage-fronted townhouses across from the Betsy Ross house.

Their older pre-subprime meltdown townhouses are about as ugly as you will find in Philly.

Glad to see their style has improved in the past few years.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

Your project is nice. But Landmark has done alot of really awful stuff, a particularly egregious example being the garage-fronted townhouses across from the Betsy Ross house.

Their older pre-subprime meltdown townhouses are about as ugly as you will find in Philly.

Glad to see their style has improved in the past few years.

The townhomes on Arch are probably a result of what the developer wanted, not the architect.

[shadowbat2]

Gradual Gutting of the Gallery still Going....
102 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

105 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

112 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr
^Note the second floor opened up on the south side....

EDIT: I've come up with a new guess as to why they are taking their time to "deconstruct" the interior instead of going wild at it: Could the fireproofing on those steel beams contain asbestos? This cannot be removed without taking the cladding off first, but the removal process must be careful lest the stuff goes airborne, giving everyone cancer and a big OSHA fine to boot. (although that raises the question of why there were no asbestos signs when they remodeled the 9th street atrium for Century 21) Only time can tell....

[shadowbat2]

1100 block updates:

Collins almost wrapped up, most of the the apartments look done, and the Target Express and Fine Wine stores look like they have been turned over for fitout....

083 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

074 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

075 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

077 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr


The ass end....yes that surface lot is STAYING
080 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

Swartz building has demolition going on in the rear....

078 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

079 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

081 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by shadowbat2

Could the fireproofing on those steel beams contain asbestos?

Probably not:

In 1973, EPA banned spray-applied surfacing asbestos-containing material for fireproofing/insulating purposes.

https://www.epa.gov/asbestos/us-federal-bans-asbestos#banned

Gallery construction began in '74 or '75.