PHILADELPHIA | Highrise Development Thread IX

[Londonee]

Originally Posted by SJPhillyBoy

Walt Whitman Bridge painters live the high life

Carol Comegno, @CarolComegno Published 9:41 a.m. ET Aug. 18, 2017 | Updated 8:44 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2017

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/n.../walt-whitman-bridge-painters/545314001/

Does anyone know the origin of the death, puke, horror hospital green color that was chosen for this bridge? Did the designer hate Philadelphia or something? Paint it crisp Phillies Red, light it at night and we have our own landmark version of the golden gate.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by Londonee

Does anyone know the origin of the death, puke, horror hospital green color that was chosen for this bridge? Did the designer hate Philadelphia or something? Paint it crisp Phillies Red, light it at night and we have our own landmark version of the golden gate.

Honestly. I could not believe they decided to go for the same color in the repaint. I was hoping for the same light blue that is used in the Ben Franklin and the Philadelphia Flag. But Phillies Red would have been cool. Really anything other than this color.

Sometimes though I feel like 🞵🞵🞵🞵 like this is typical in this town. Did anyone actually choose this color, it feels like bridge default and no one cared enough to even think for a moment about what the possibilities could be.

[tsarstruck]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

^ Was it 10 or 11 Penn that was going to have work done on the lobby to provide more retail/restaurant amenities? Did anything ever come of that?

Speaking of expanded retail on West Market, seems like 1700 Market is looking to get their two story retail addition back on track as part of their renovation process:

Shorenstein Properties plans to dust off plans to construct a two-story glass retail box connected to 1700 Market St., a 32-story, 848,000-square-foot Center City office building it bought in 2016.

The project, which has been talked about for years, was fully designed, priced and ready to go, but two restaurants that had been secured for the space decided to bail. Now, with renewed interest from other restaurants and a plan to plow $7 million in other renovations to the office building, Shorenstein is looking to revisit the project.

“We don’t have anything signed yet, but we have some serious tenants interested in the first and second floors,” said Chris Caltabiano, senior vice president of asset management at Shorenstein.

Key to getting that project done is landing a tenant for the second floor, which can be a hard sell, he said. The first floor is an easy lift but to maximize benefits granted by what has been approved, it doesn’t make sense to develop a single-story building, Caltabiano said.

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...ss-box-at-1700-market-to-be-revived.html

[allovertown]

New 28 Story Condo Propsal at Northeast corner of Broad and Pine

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-philly/wa...ondo-building-in-the-works-at-broad-pine

Interesting. Though seems even less likely SLS is happening anytime soon if they move forward with this fittest.

[GtownFriend]

Originally Posted by allovertown

New 28 Story Condo Propsal at Northeast corner of Broad and Pine

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-philly/wa...ondo-building-in-the-works-at-broad-pine

Interesting. Though seems even less likely SLS is happening anytime soon if they move forward with this fittest.

Isn't that the site for the Hyde Hotel? Seems like he's shifting gears from hotel to condo, but same location and similar size.
Right.. see ShadowBat's post on Hyde thread..

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by tsarstruck

Speaking of expanded retail on West Market, seems like 1700 Market is looking to get their two story retail addition back on track as part of their renovation process:


https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia...ss-box-at-1700-market-to-be-revived.html

Thanks. I was wondering about this the other night when on date night with my wife at Gran Caffe L'Aquila around the corner.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by GtownFriend

Isn't that the site for the Hyde Hotel? Seems like he's shifting gears from hotel to condo, but same location and similar size.
Right.. see ShadowBat's post on Hyde thread..

You're right. Damn, the article makes it sound like a brew proposal. Can't decide if this change makes SLS more or less likely.

[Gonzo the Great]

Originally Posted by allovertown

You're right. Damn, the article makes it sound like a brew proposal. Can't decide if this change makes SLS more or less likely.

No , for a long time now , I have believed this fairy tale has about as much chance
becoming anything more than another parking lot , as the ACC project had a chance
in the down turn in the economy ...... You all remember the ACC project .... right ??

[summersm343]

Sneak Peek: Philly’s new Aloft Hotel in the old Liberty Title building



Read more here:
https://philly.curbed.com/2017/8/21/1616...town-hotel-liberty-title-building-photos

[summersm343]

Pier 122 in South Philadelphia gets a new life handling autos

Read more here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/pi...-a-new-life-handling-autos-20170822.html

[Elevator1]

This article appears to contradict some of the popular opinions on this forum. As usual, the facts are in the middle somewhere and what you want to believe may depend on your perspective.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/m...nd-buying-big-suvs/ar-AAqwTAt?li=BBnbfcN

[Knight Hospitaller]

Originally Posted by Elevator1

This article appears to contradict some of the popular opinions on this forum. As usual, the facts are in the middle somewhere and what you want to believe may depend on your perspective.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/m...nd-buying-big-suvs/ar-AAqwTAt?li=BBnbfcN

Perspective has a lot to do with it. I'm an urbanist, but a realist. My wife and I have seven young kids. We aren't going to fit into two Priuses, let alone one. Riding transit may be doable, but not fun. A van or SUV is the only practical mode of transportation. While I'm sure it would be interesting to honor our ancestors' way of life by squeezing everyone into a row house, a roomier craftsman-style house with a back yard is more functional for us. At least it is within walking distance of my office and restaurants. "Suburban" is a broad term. It isn't all a bunch of Levittowns.

[Milksteak]

Originally Posted by Elevator1

This article appears to contradict some of the popular opinions on this forum. As usual, the facts are in the middle somewhere and what you want to believe may depend on your perspective.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/m...nd-buying-big-suvs/ar-AAqwTAt?li=BBnbfcN

As a millennial, I'm sick of reading articles on millennials...they so badly want to fit a massive group into a box and declare that we all do the exact same thing - like eat 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 avocado toast. Everybody has their own goals in life, some will live the single life in the city for a long time, some will get married and have kids in the suburbs, some will travel the world and never settle down. First, the suburbs were going to die an agonizing death, now, everybody is buying SUVs and living the suburban life their parents did, I've already seen articles about how cities will now grind to a halt and start their spiral. It's ridiculous and annoying. Isn't it time to start focusing on generation Z?

[Elevator1]

100% agree. My children are "Millennials" and they and their friends run the gamut of education, interests, living arrangements, etc. just like every other so called generation. Are there some trends that may be different than previous groups, of course, but the world is different so change is expected. But the "one size fits all" description of such a large population is simplistic and lazy.

[tsarstruck]

To be clear, that article said exactly nothing to counter any of the pro-urban trends about millennials. *Of course* millennials--the largest segment of the population,which is also in its prime home and car-buying age--make up the largest segment of suburban home buyers and car (and SUV) sales. What's shocking is that it's taken them this long to reach that height. As far as I'm concerned, *this* is the lede: "The generation of Americans aged about 18 to 34 have become the largest group of home buyers, and almost half live in the suburbs, according to Zillow Group data." I'd change almost with "only." Cities like Philadelphia don't need millennials to exclusively choose cities to grow; they just need a larger percentage of them to choose it and/or to leave to the suburbs at an older age.

[City Wide]

Originally Posted by allovertown

Honestly. I could not believe they decided to go for the same color in the repaint. I was hoping for the same light blue that is used in the Ben Franklin and the Philadelphia Flag. But Phillies Red would have been cool. Really anything other than this color.

Sometimes though I feel like 🞵🞵🞵🞵 like this is typical in this town. Did anyone actually choose this color, it feels like bridge default and no one cared enough to even think for a moment about what the possibilities could be.

your comment about the bridge reminds me of a story concerning the color of the top section of City Hall-----Back in the 80's they were doing a complete rehab of the tower which in many places turned into a rebuild. A lot of it was very demanding and challenging work. Much of what you see near the of the top of the building is cast iron plates. Because of the nature of the work 'engineers' were in charge more so then any 'architects'.

At the end of this successful job one of the features about the work the engineers were patting themselves on the back about was that they were able to use very expensive, very complicated and difficult to use, epoxy paint on the tower part of the building. This paint is suppose to last for some ungodly amount of time, like 50+ years.

A reporter from the Inky asked the engineers about the color, which originally was suppose to be stone colored to make the tower appear to be built out of the same stone as the rest of the building. The engineers said the paint company gave them 3 colors to pick from and so we got that's there today. The reporter inquired about other colors, since what's there certainly doesn't look like the rest of the building, and the engineers said they picked from the 3 choices they had.

In a bit of reporting that is rare today, the reporter called the paint company to dig alittle deeper. And as it turns out that yes, they only made 3 stock colors. But when told what and where the paint was used for, the paint company said they would have been thrilled to do a custom color match and because of the amounts involved (something like 300 gallons) and because of the prestige of the building, there would not have been any upcharge.

So, we are stuck with the wrong color just because someone didn't even think of asking for the correct color. (but it does seem to be holding up well!)

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by City Wide

So, we are stuck with the wrong color just because someone didn't even think of asking for the correct color. (but it does seem to be holding up well!)

What do you expect when you let engineers pick colors?

[PhilliesPhan]

Originally Posted by Elevator1

This article appears to contradict some of the popular opinions on this forum. As usual, the facts are in the middle somewhere and what you want to believe may depend on your perspective.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/m...nd-buying-big-suvs/ar-AAqwTAt?li=BBnbfcN

That article mentions nothing about where Millennials are choosing to live, but rather that they seem to be purchasing larger vehicles. Even when looking at the "50% of Millennials live in the suburbs" statistic, it doesn't say exactly where they are living. Truthfully, some Millennials may be moving to the suburbs, but they are not moving to far suburban and exurban areas as much as their parents have. Statistics show that construction is falling in areas farther than 10 miles from the city centers of any given large city.

Personally, as a Millennial, I never want to live in the suburbs again. I know that having a wife and kids can change that perspective, which is why the Northwest is such an attractive option: more space and larger homes that are historic, close to transit, and at a discount compared to certain suburbs. Honestly, the city doesn't do that good of a job showcasing its suburban-like areas in West (Overbrook Farms), North (East Oak Lane), Northwest (Roxborough, Mt. Airy, West Germantown, etc.), and Northeast Philly. Philly's suburban neighborhoods could provide the space that couples need with all of the convenience of the city. I would personally choose the Northwest if the future wife and family needed a larger home.

[summersm343]

My girlfriend and I are millennials and live in the city, and own one car. We have no intentions of having kids anytime soon, or moving to the suburbs. If/when we do have a kid, we would try to raise them in the city. If we ever moved to the burbs, it would likely be to a place like Ardmore.

On the flip-side, my best friend and his now fiance just bought a house in Bensalem. They both work in the city but prefer suburban living.

Basically... every millennial is different, just like every other person.

Forget about millennials... if Philadelphia continues to move in this positive trajectory it has been moving, people will move here.

Bring jobs to the city, invest in infrastructure, buildings, parks, etc., and reduce crime, blight, etc... and people will move to the city. Go figure!

[Brandywine Rocks]

Originally Posted by Londonee

Does anyone know the origin of the death, puke, horror hospital green color that was chosen for this(Walt Whitman) bridge? Did the designer hate Philadelphia or something? Paint it crisp Phillies Red, light it at night and we have our own landmark version of the golden gate.

Im sure the repaint had to stay close to the original color for cost control.

But yes Philadlephia seemingly never got the gene for style, pizzazz,flamboyance. This Bridge absolutely should act as a work of art and stand out much more than it does.

This drab shade of blah is so Philadelphia.