PHILADELPHIA | THE LAUREL @ 1911 Walnut | 604 FT | 48 FLOORS

[McBane]

I hope these renderings are accurate, they are mostly the same. 47 floors is still quite tall. The St. James is 45 floors right, so this should exceed 500 feet and tower over all nearby buildings, so that's still good.

Here's what rubs me the wrong way:

Still being decided is the final number of condo and apartment units in the tower, Downey said. Richard Gross, a Center City Residents’ Association director who helped hammer out the agreement, said it would be no more than 335.

Does the city not realize efforts to cap the number of units hurts the city's finances? Each condo unit has a real estate transfer tax and, eventually pays RE taxes. And for a city barely growing, why would the powers ever want to limit the number of units? This where the city needs to step in, be the adult in the room, and end this silly discussion.

Here's another zinger:

The revised plan comes after months of negotiations between Nashville-based Southern Land and a group organized by area residents who had opposed a version of the project presented in January. That proposal was out of scale for the neighborhood, opponents said.

Out of scale? Rittenhouse is THE high rise residential neighborhood in Philly. 600 feet is not out of scale at all. It's not like we're talking about Old City here. Ridiculous.

But hey, if the final tower ends up with this design and stays above 500 feet, I would only be disappointed in the fact that it was lower than the original proposal. Had the original proposal been 500 feet/47 floors, I think everyone would be happy.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by McBane

I hope these renderings are accurate, they are mostly the same. 47 floors is still quite tall. The St. James is 45 floors right, so this should exceed 500 feet and tower over all nearby buildings, so that's still good.

Here's what rubs me the wrong way:

Does the city not realize efforts to cap the number of units hurts the city's finances? Each condo unit has a real estate transfer tax and, eventually pays RE taxes. And for a city barely growing, why would the powers ever want to limit the number of units? This where the city needs to step in, be the adult in the room, and end this silly discussion.

Here's another zinger:


Out of scale? Rittenhouse is THE high rise residential neighborhood in Philly. 600 feet is not out of scale at all. It's not like we're talking about Old City here. Ridiculous.

But hey, if the final tower ends up with this design and stays above 500 feet, I would only be disappointed in the fact that it was lower than the original proposal. Had the original proposal been 500 feet/47 floors, I think everyone would be happy.

Yes, caps on units is counter-productive and only serves to impede development and affordability. Though nothing is really going to be "affordable" in this building aside from the affordable units in the Sansom historic properties, which I'm happy to see, this is true on a larger scale.

The building was out of scale for the neighborhood, but that remains true. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy. I love modern buildings. But the original design of this was mediocre. This is an improvement. I expect Philly will yet have its day where tall, modern residential towers launch (hopefully with some great design). I expect they will be in the University City area as Schuylkill Yards and the 30th Station District start to come to fruition.

[PhilliesPhan]

An 80 FT reduction in height is MUCH better news than for this beautiful tower to be further delayed in negotiations/not happen at all! I actually like the base of this tower better compared to earlier iterations.

Now that everyone seems to be on board, BUILD IT! I'm tired of this extremely prime lot remaining vacant (along with the surface lot on 20th and Sansom). Walnut Street is probably the Center City street closest to obtaining continuous density. When 1911 Walnut finally happens, the only two open lots along Walnut in Center City will be at 20th, and between 9th and 8th.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan

An 80 FT reduction in height is MUCH better news than for this beautiful tower to be further delayed in negotiations/not happen at all! I actually like the base of this tower better compared to earlier iterations.

Now that everyone seems to be on board, BUILD IT! I'm tired of this extremely prime lot remaining vacant (along with the surface lot on 20th and Sansom). Walnut Street is probably the Center City street closest to obtaining continuous density. When 1911 Walnut finally happens, the only two open lots along Walnut in Center City will be at 20th, and between 9th and 8th.

And they are expanding the Walnut Street theater which will will some (but not all) of the parking lot between 8th and 9th.

[Marcos]

the renderings look identical, am I missing something?

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by Marcos

the renderings look identical, am I missing something?

They are not identical. Original had more glass and the first several floors were different. Original is still on the website:

http://1911walnut.com/

And earlier renders are also earlier in the thread.

[Larry King]

Can't wait to see the prices. Will they top 500 walnut??

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Marcos

the renderings look identical, am I missing something?

First we got the 55 story glass renderings. Then we got the 50 story renderings of this design. This final design is very similar with minor tweaks, and now 47 floors.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan

An 80 FT reduction in height is MUCH better news than for this beautiful tower to be further delayed in negotiations/not happen at all! I actually like the base of this tower better compared to earlier iterations.

Now that everyone seems to be on board, BUILD IT! I'm tired of this extremely prime lot remaining vacant (along with the surface lot on 20th and Sansom). Walnut Street is probably the Center City street closest to obtaining continuous density. When 1911 Walnut finally happens, the only two open lots along Walnut in Center City will be at 20th, and between 9th and 8th.

Along Walnut Street, we really have:

-8th and Walnut lot
-1911 Walnut lot (hopefully soon to be filled)
-20th and Walnut lot
-22nd and Walnut gas station
-23rd and Walnut Rite Aid
-24th/Schuylkill River Trail and Walnut (little sliver which is part of the larger Mandeville Place lot)

So there is still some work to do until we see continual urbanity along Walnut through the entirety of Center City. Walnut is definitely the closest to obtaining this though.

[PhillySkyinHigh]

I agree with Marcos. Can someone describe the actual changes? What am I missing here? It also appears to be the exact same floor count in the 'new' renderings compared to those on the first page of this discussion..

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ The first page has been updated with the current renderings, which is Summers' practice. You'll need to go through some pages to see how things have changed.

[Late1]

For one thing, the tower in the original proposal had a more elongated rectangular footprint.

Now, they're not exactly square, but the floor plates aren't quite as long - so in that regard, the revised proposal's a bit more slender.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by Larry King

Can't wait to see the prices. Will they top 500 walnut??

No. Well, possibly for full floor or large units on high floors. But I expect there to be a lot more smaller units in this building. It is a different kind of building. Still luxury, but probably more like 10 Rittenhouse, where 1 bedrooms can be had for around $700,000 (or at least could).

[PhillySkyinHigh]

True, I realized he changed the first page, however, I guess I'm more referring to the post on August 5th that seemed to be a single rendering out of nowhere back then (certainly different from the original proposals). Is there any changes compared to that version?

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by Knight Hospitaller

^ The first page has been updated with the current renderings, which is Summers' practice. You'll need to go through some pages to see how things have changed.

thanks, was seriously thinking there was a mass hallucination going on here

[jsbrook]

Is the funeral home still slated for destruction? It's not mentioned in the article.

EDIT: never mind. Article indicates the facade will be preserved and integrated into the garden terrace.

[Urbanthusiat]

I'm pleased with how this turned out, especially on the historic preservation front. We are a World Heritage City^TM after all! I was worried for a bit we'd get something in the 400 foot range but I'm glad we're still in the 500's, this should nicely fill the the gap in the skyline between the IBX tower and Commerce Square as seen fro the stadiums that a certain not-to-be-named building failed at. Build it!

[eixample]

The changes would apply to parcels throughout the city that share the project site’s “CMX-4” classification of commercial mixed-use zoning.

...

Another new bonus would be awarded to developers that include more parking than is required and make the extra spaces available to other neighborhood residents, which Southern Land also plans to do, Gross said

This is an odd bonus to write into the zoning code and may end up in bloated buildings with excessive parking. The right trend from an urban planning point of view and based on long term car usage trends in center city is less parking minimums in CMX districts.

[Larry King]

Originally Posted by eixample

This is an odd bonus to write into the zoning code and may end up in bloated buildings with excessive parking. The right trend from an urban planning point of view and based on long term car usage trends in center city is less parking minimums in CMX districts.

So rittenhouse square stakeholders in the midst of their negotiations on one project, somehow rewrote our zoning code? How the hell does that work?

[SJPhillyBoy]

Site plan with "drive aisle" between Moravian and Sansom removed

















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