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Philadelphia Civic Design Review
08/02/2022
Welcome to Ultraground. We send you information from zoning meetings.
August 2nd Projects:
A mid century jewel gets a 468-unit neighbor
Modular gets called "monotonous"
2 R&D projects get the green light
500-10 S Broad Street
500 S Broad St | 1.67 Acres | CMX-4 | 468 Units | 20 Spaces
An existing mid-century health center gets a new tower as a neighbor. The design team, who referred to the 1958 health center as a "jewel", carried over many design motifs in the new addition.
How'd they pay homage? They lifted it up 41 feet over Broad St.
It's easiest to see the banding of the glass as a similar design element. One staffer mentioned it's too similar.
100% of the Symphony House residents were opposed to the project. Their comments centered on sight lines, traffic, wind tunnels.
Fred Cohen (a Symphony House resident) had some questions about the design.
Staff noted that the open space is generous but could be more "lush" with green space.
Get their comments here:
Verdict: The project moves on - its CDR process was concluded.
Developer Kevin Trapper, [email protected]
619 N Broad
619 N Broad St | .41 Acres | CMX-4 | 119 Units | 34 Spaces
A vacant building and parking lot become 119 units. This project returns for another review at CDR. This time, they've changed 3 things.
move bicycle parking from basement to ground floor
increase in commercial space
increase in courtyard space
Get the full narrative:
This is the increased courtyard space:
Architect Jordan Mrazik
Spruce Street Development
4746-48 Spruce Street | .6 Acres | CMX-3 | 170 Units
Rapid fire:
First and second floor will be commercial space (37,000 SF GSF)
Caddy corner from the Croydon Hall Apartments.
Mostly 1 and 2 bedrooms. 191,141 Total SF.
28 ADA parking spaces 76 bike spaces.
Staff suggestions:
disguise mechanical
more residential material
break up the massing on Spruce
Christopher Smith, Garden Court Community Association requests:
In a 5-4 decision, the project graduates from Civic Design Review.
Developer: Kfir Binnfield, Spruce Street Development LLC, LinkedIn
Attorney Michael Phillips [email protected] 215.569.2499 LinkedIn
Architect Herb Schultz [email protected]
1807 Huntingdon
1807-27 E Huntingdon St | .7 Acres | IRMX | 80 Units
An existing 2-story industrial building and will become 38k sf of industrial and 80 units.
It is not at perfect right angles because the team is using the existing structure. They are even bearing on the columns.
There will be 24 parking spaces.
Architect Jose Hernandez [email protected]
4200 Market
4200 Market | X Acres | RMX | 352 dwelling units
This mixed-use courtyard building adds 352 units to west Philly.
This is a modular building, and the board encouraged the team to push the boundaries a bit more. Specifically, they thought the form could be less uniform.
This team had the same architect as the previous project, but this hurt them rather than helped - the board said that they should take ques from the previous project around balconies and green space.
They were also told to break up the facade and not be so "monotonous."
The project was unanimously voted to continue in the civic design review process.
Architect Jonathan Broh [email protected]
3200-22 Arch
3200-22 Arch Street | 1.4 Acres | CMX-4 | 137 Parking Spaces
This Bi-Rite 12-story, 508,000 square foot commercial life science lab research building will be partnering up with the Drexel campus.
Drexel is one of two tenants that have pre-leased the building. The other is SmartLabs, a cutting-edge pharma lab.
The CDR members were fans of the multipurpose space on the southeast corner of the ground floor. "Thoughtful design." "Excellent use of materials" were two staff comments. This discussion ended the project's CDR process.
Architect RAMSA, Scott O'Daniel
Attorney: Stephanie Boggs Magagna, Klehr Harrison
2300 Market
2300 Market St | .58 Acres | CMX-4 | 14 Parking Spaces
This research and development facility will go for Leed GOLD. It will bring 192,700 SF of office to central Philadelphia. How many parking spaces? 14.
This is not the first time this site was in CDR. It went through the process with a different team and a different proposal - one that had 2000 units.
Hear the comments about the change.
Staff appreciated the cafe on market street.
As you can see, there is a little bit of old, and a lot of new.
It received unanimous support for this project to move on.
Architect KieranTimberlake, Richard Maimon
Attorney: Stephanie Boggs Magagna, Klehr Harrison
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