PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[cafeguy]

I just drove past these townhomes on the water front and saw that they may be deviating from the plan. The ENTIRE first floor is just a cinderblock wall! The plan made it seem as if the water front side would have windows at ground level to promote the residential forward movement for the waterfront, but it looks like this might just become a walled-off housing community cut off from the waterfront.

http://planphilly.com/articles/2013/...-and-catharine

[iheartphilly]

Originally Posted by cafeguy

I just drove past these townhomes on the water front and saw that they may be deviating from the plan. The ENTIRE first floor is just a cinderblock wall! The plan made it seem as if the water front side would have windows at ground level to promote the residential forward movement for the waterfront, but it looks like this might just become a walled-off housing community cut off from the waterfront.

http://planphilly.com/articles/2013/...-and-catharine

The town homes fronting Columbus Blvd. and facing the Delaware River and Camden are elevated off the street level. I would say 12 ft off street level. Also, these homes were pre-fabricated in a warehouse and literally stacked on top of each other. The town homes in the rear of the property were built on site with lumber and framed out. In any case, I'm under impressed by them. They are bisected on one side by I-95 and the other by Columbus Blvd. I assumed it will be noisy unless there were sound mitigation done with the type of insulation and windows installed.

[mPhilly]

They've been resurfacing cracks in the concrete and doing some other minor repairs to the Broad street underground concourse from Spruce Street to City Hall. Looks like they may be getting set for some more major renovations on the way soon. It's in desperate need of it.

[cafeguy]

Originally Posted by iheartphilly

The town homes fronting Columbus Blvd. and facing the Delaware River and Camden are elevated off the street level. I would say 12 ft off street level. Also, these homes were pre-fabricated in a warehouse and literally stacked on top of each other. The town homes in the rear of the property were built on site with lumber and framed out. In any case, I'm under impressed by them. They are bisected on one side by I-95 and the other by Columbus Blvd. I assumed it will be noisy unless there were sound mitigation done with the type of insulation and windows installed.

Well, its definitely a big missed opportunity for the waterfront. Developments like these definitely don't help Blatstein or Blumfield's plan of "extending the street grid" across collumbus, not that they will ever actually do that.

[domodeez]

Apologies for the night shot, but I was walking by and noticed this building on the NW corner of 33 x Chestnut is now rubble. Looking forward to Drexel's new Study hotel.

[1487]

Originally Posted by mPhilly

They've been resurfacing cracks in the concrete and doing some other minor repairs to the Broad street underground concourse from Spruce Street to City Hall. Looks like they may be getting set for some more major renovations on the way soon. It's in desperate need of it.

This is early action phase work to address some really bad areas in the concourse. This is way in advance of the real major work that is being planned. I believe the earliest work is supposed to start later this year. The early action stuff (being done with SEPTA people) is supposed to be done this summer. They are planning to put almost $50M into these concourses so within 4-5 years they should look radically different. The best part is that the concourses and CH station are both supposed to be done around 2020.

[New2Fishtown]

http://www.phillyliving.com/blog/fis...-proposal.html

[summersm343]

2401 Washington Approved by the Planning Commission
Off to the ZBA



http://planphilly.com/articles/2015/...earing-delayed

[domodeez]

Update on Van Pelt Mews construction. Walnut x Van Pelt St., off Rittenhouse:

[domodeez]

Hub 3939 at 40 x Chestnut, today at 11:30am:

[Jawnadelphia]

They are adding a banner on this garage, right? That's what those bars and pegs will hold? I swear I remember seeing a rendering with a banner/advertisement featuring Ben Franklin...? Maybe not.

[IMG]Untitled by TallCoolOne2014, on Flickr[/IMG]

Any chance this blank vertical wall facing CC with get some sort of banner/color... ?

[IMG]Untitled by TallCoolOne2014, on Flickr[/IMG]

[boxbot]

Hokey smokes, that looks straight out of 1965. Blech.

[GarCastle]

Originally Posted by TallCoolOne

They are adding a banner on this garage, right? That's what those bars and pegs will hold? I swear I remember seeing a rendering with a banner/advertisement featuring Ben Franklin...? Maybe not.

[IMG]Untitled by TallCoolOne2014, on Flickr[/IMG]

Hi there. I believe the murals were being toyed with conceptually on the West side of the garage as a filler until my tower gets built. I call it my since I'm supposedly moving there when its done. We'll see what happens with that since Penn does a poor job with planning its space usage. I'll probably end up with a cube suspended above the food court at 30th street station since Penn would get a really good "deal" on the space LOL.

Cheers,
G.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by GarCastle

Hi there. I believe the murals were being toyed with conceptually on the West side of the garage as a filler until my tower gets built. I call it my since I'm supposedly moving there when its done. We'll see what happens with that since Penn does a poor job with planning its space usage. I'll probably end up with a cube suspended above the food court at 30th street station since Penn would get a really good "deal" on the space LOL.

Cheers,
G.

Lol. Speaking of 30th Street Station and banners and murals, WHY can't they do a largescale mural of a Philly-centric topic (or some other appropriate thing) for that garage between EVO and FMC?? Green space on the roof is all well and good. But I really hope they do something with the side that will remain visible. It's too prominent of a location not to.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by boxbot

Hokey smokes, that looks straight out of 1965. Blech.

Yeah, these are not great exteriors. Ostroff's Walnut Estates further down Walnut will be much nicer. Except their ground-level views will include a gas station and Rite-Aid. Eventually, those lots will probably develop as well. But then where will we get gas?!? Lol.

[Jawnadelphia]

Hey jsbrook, I know you've been on top of this ... from Delawareonline today..

Wilmington City Councilman Freel said:
"From everything I've heard or even read, there's no guarantee that the Chemours people are going to be there for any length of time," Freel said. "I understand they're talking to other cities about a new location."

--referring to DuPont's split - and Chemours staying in downtown Wilmington.

Approximately 1,000 employees will possibly be on the move.

I would have to imagine Philly is one of those "other cities." No??

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...jobs/23755543/

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by TallCoolOne

Hey jsbrook, I know you've been on top of this ... from Delawareonline today..

Wilmington City Councilman Freel said:
"From everything I've heard or even read, there's no guarantee that the Chemours people are going to be there for any length of time," Freel said. "I understand they're talking to other cities about a new location."

--referring to DuPont's split - and Chemours staying in downtown Wilmington.

Approximately 1,000 employees will possibly be on the move.

I would have to imagine Philly is one of those "other cities." No??

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/...jobs/23755543/

YES! In my personal opinion, Chemours really SHOULD come to Philadelphia (like DuPont's other spinoff Axalta did). Sell the DuPont building and dividend the money to shareholders or use the money to help pay off environmental liabilities it is inheriting from DuPont. Sell it to Buccini. Buccini should gut and repurpose the Dupont Building (like he did for the Nemours building) and attract a new anchor tenant(s) for the renovated building. Chemours should take advantage of Philly's youth market and chemical and engineering talent from its many excellent universities. Philly is on the verge of big things. Chemours should capitalize on Philly's relative and increasing affordability (wage taxes are decreasing, albeit too slowly) and negotiate an incentive deal with the Mayor's office and the City. Chemours should be the anchor tenant of a sparkling new tower built by Brandywine and bring its some 1,000 local employees there.

This is something I have not been shy about sharing. Including with Mark Vergnano (who will be the CEO of Chemours) and some guys at Trian Partners, the activist investor who is trying to get some seats on DuPont's Board. Talked about it a bit with Walter Lee, the Head of Investor Relations at Trian.

[zakuc258]

Originally Posted by jsbrook

This is something I have not been shy about sharing. Including with Mark Vergnano (who will be the CEO of Chemours) and some guys at Trian Partners, the activist investor who is trying to get some seats on DuPont's Board. Talked about it a bit with Walter Lee, the Head of Investor Relations at Trian.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This would be awesome for the city.

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by zakuc258

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This would be awesome for the city.

I think so too. Getting another large corporation and hundreds of jobs would be so huge for the City. I hope that the people who matter listen to me! And that Tronox doesn't screw things up. As the article notes, Tronox probably wants to acquire Chemours. It is headquartered in Stamford Connecticut, and if Chemours loses its identity as an independent company shortly after it gets one, it's not really going to have much say as to where it ultimately ends up. (At the same time, Tronox itself may be a hot takeover target)

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by zakuc258

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This would be awesome for the city.

Indeed!

Anything we can do to help?