Race Street Flows To The Sound of Music

In a few weeks on October 1, Philadelphia musician and sound designer Michael Kiley and his ensemble, The Mural and the Mint, will release Animina: A Race Street Pier Sound Walk.  Kiley used recorded sounds found along the river- including the train whistle, and wrote lyrics and music that play on themes related to the river, the pier, and the city's overarching goal for the pier and other Central Delaware projects, "Re-linking the city to the riverfront."

Artist: Michael Kiley

The music can be accessed through the use of a $.99 cell phone app and GPS technology.  The song changes while the listener walks from 2nd and Race streets in Old City to the end of the Pier and back again.  For example, the lyrics "In front of you/ at the end of the road/ is someone you once lost long ago," will be heard as " Is someone you once lost long ago/ in front of you/ at the end of the road" when the listener walks in the opposite direction.

The app's use of GPS limits user ability to requiring people to physically visit the Pier and Race Street Connector to fully experience Kiley's art. It forces users to visit the neighborhood to experience the art. The concept could prove successful, leading to future adaptations to other sites along the river.

Renaissance Plaza

The new plan for Renaissance plaza on Delaware Avenue involves a residential and retail complex developed by Carl Marks Real Estate.  The project will take the place of the former World Trade Center site proposed years ago.  The new proposal calls for shorter towers, more retail, and more green public space.  The complex is half the height of the 430 foot-tall proposal presented last summer. Architect Bill Alesker of Alesker & Dundon said the height changes and dramatically altered plan was due in part to feedback from civic organizations and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. In my personal opinion, the design could be more innovative and blend more seamlessly with the surrounding neighborhoods.  The architects are extremely bland and lazy when it comes to design, evident of all their previous work.  Short buildings can still be beautiful..... Always a let down Philadelphia.

Old proposal

Continuing on....... under this years proposal, the tallest of five towers is 240 feet.  The 1,411 units are mostly two bedrooms with two equal-sized master suites and one-bedroom units.  Rents are estimated to be about $1,800 to $3,300 per month.

The project would seek LEED Gold status, and would be built in five phases.  The developer is committed to building the first two buildings along with parking and public green space, and the other phases would follow, depending on demand.  Construction should start in Spring 2014, with a following 16 month timeline for the first phase.

Designers added a swath of landscaped public space to run through the property with hopes that it will draw people from the neighborhoods through the property, and down to the river.  Some roofs would offer additional green space.  The developers also hope that the early phases of the development will not only create demand for later phases, but would also spur other development along the Central Delaware.

205 Race May See The Light of Day

Brown Hill Development inches closer to constructing the 197' condo towers at 205 Race Street.  First District Councilman Mark Squilla introduced a bill in the City Council Thursday  that would amend the Center City Zoning overlay to allow larger construction projects in the area surrounding the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.  The bill adds a "Bridge Approach" area to the Old City subsection of the Center City Overlay.  The new area is bounded by Race Street, 4th Street, and Interstate 95.

Approval of the bill is expected to subsequently support development that will draw activity to the area surrounding the Race Street Connector to encourage its use so that residents and visitors may re-connect to the waterfront.

Developers at 205 Race say their project is intended to mirror the scale not of the other buildings in the neighborhood, but of the Ben Franklin Bridge.  The bridge provides development challenges in its very near vicinity due to its large size and the constraints it places on visibility in the immediate area.

Is Future I-95 Park Worth Federal Funding?

We reported a few weeks ago about the proposed park over I-95 and Columbus Boulevard in Penn's Landing, and proponents have made it very clear as to how important a gesture of this scale is for both connecting the city to the waterfront and also serving as a visual gateway to the waterfront, one that is very much needed.  Large scaled gateways are visual markers for both tourists and citizens alike, just take for example our own Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a powerful procession leading from the City to the Park.  It also seemed like back then, the government had no problem tearing down neighborhoods for the sake of establishing and urban identity for our city.  In this case we are not asking to displace residents, only simply to mask the transportation eyesore that is I-95, and help transform the perception of Philadelphia residents' from thinking of the waterfront as a hard to reach not so desirable urban island to a cultural oasis full of opportunity and possibilities.

In this most recent push for a large scale public works project, the concern is not what existing structures or people need to be displaced or even the actual engineering of the project, It's a money issue.  A problem many of us are all to familiar with.  PennDOT experts say building the eight-acre park over I-95 and Columbus Boulevard from Walnut to Chestnut street would not be an issue for engineers and construction crews.  District 6 Engineer in charge of Design Chuck Davies doesn't think the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation would have much trouble getting a permit to build the structure that would allow people to walk from Front Street to the riverfront or hang out in-between. PlanPhilly reports that, justifying  the expense of transportation dollars for the highway's effect on the waterfront is going to be the central task.  The separation of a city from the waterfront is not commonly recognized as being a problem that requires mitigations.

The other problem with facing the project is fact that the partial cap currently in place still has a few decades of life left before it should need to be replaced, and the federal government will not provide transportation funds to replace the partial cap until needs to be replaced.  It is also not yet know whether or not the existing cap can be incorporated into the design of the new bridge.  The Central Delaware Master Plan calls for a much shorter timeline for the completion of the Penn's Landing project, expecting it to happen within 10 to 15 years, well before the current structure would need replacement. All in all the organizations biggest challenge will be to convince those in charge of federal money that there really is a connectivity problem, regardless of the many existing streets that lead to the waterfront.

Race Street Pump Station Transformation Begins

The new home of Philly Fringe and Philadelphia Live Arts Festival has begun its transformation from a 1903 riverfront pumping station into a 21st Century concert hall.  Resting on the corner of Race and Columbus Boulevard, the facility is conveniently located on the edge of Old City and accessible by public transit, foot, bike, and car.

The goal is to have the  new 240-seat theater, studio and offices complete for the 2013 Fall Fringe Festival (Sept. 6-21).  More amenities to come late Spring of 2014 are an indoor restaurant and bar, outdoor plaza space and further building restoration.  Currently workers are tearing out old pumps and shoring up the brick structure.  They will also be spraying the ceiling with six inches of material designed to both improve acoustics and provide insulation.

The festival will continue to host events in unique spaces around Philadelphia, but having a home-base allows Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe to become a year-round presence in Philadelphia.  This new expansion of the performance season allots for more opportunities for local productions and acts, like the possibility of mixed visual and performance arts installations on the waterfront, along the  pedestrian and bicycle trail, and even in some of the existing strip-malls, says President and Producing Director Nick Stuccio.

229 Arch Boutique Residences

New boutique loft style apartments are set to open March 1st in Old City at 229 Arch Street, replacing a former rehab facility. The 5 story historic relic of Philadelphia's Industrial past was originally home to the Berger Brothers Company, which sits adjacent to the historic Betsy Ross House.  The building will feature 65 mixed units of studio, 1 & 2 bedroom apartments sporting architectural details of its historic character like exposed brick and high arched ceilings in the top floor units. The apartments rang in size from 700 to 1,300 square feet, starting at $1,300 a month.

229 Arch is marketed as the perfect blend of old world charm and modern conveniences offering a slew of amenities like private lounges for events, two club levels with screening rooms and Billiards, fitness center, private landscaped courtyard with picnic area, large inclosed dog run for you furry friends, bike storage and discounted parking.  The main entrance leads to a dramatic, modern, light-filled two story main hall with a 4-story atrium.  The common room is equipped with a community theater and bar with private residence storage space, Wi-Fi and computers for residents' use.

Check out the site Here
Contact: Shy Peled- Realtor
267-246-5474

205 Race Street

Developer Jeffrey Brown revisits a proposal he once had high hopes for years ago before development across the city came to a halt.  Brown is once again hoping to transform the vacant lot he owns at 205 Race Street into a 16-story, 128-unit apartment building with commercial uses on the ground floor.

New Proposal

Last Tuesday the project was presented to the Old City Civic Association, where it was voted on and rejected 11-to-1.  The site is located in a C-3 zoning district which has strict restriction on height and building width.  The portion of the project that fronts on Race Street would be 5 stories and 60 feet high, up from 52 feet in the previous plan.  A residential tower, to be set back 14.5 feet from Race along the Ben Franklin Bridge, would be 197.5 feet high, up from 178 feet in the previous plan.  The first floor would be dedicated to commercial uses, and the developer hopes to bring in a big client, like a supermarket to fill a large retail space.

Past proposal

The proposal exceeds the 65-foot height cap and the 70-foot width cap contained in Old City's overlay. It also violates the 450% maximum gross floor area of the C-3 district, with a proposed total area of 695 percent of the lot.  Officials feel that the current proposal is an overbuild and blatant disregard to the support it received on its past proposal considering its violations then, with a current proposal that pushes the envelope even more further violating district restrictions.

The proposal also includes plans for 34 interior parking spots, accessible via Florist Street, which runs parallel to the Bridge.  This does not meet the minimum of 90 spaces (7 per 10 units) required under the old zoning code, nor would it meet the 38-space minimum requirement of the new code (3 spaces per 10 units).  If the ZBA grants the zoning relief requested, construction would likely begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Town Home Development on Front Street near Delaware Avenue

Developer David Perlman plans to make his mark on The Delaware Ave. construction scene with a proposed town home development he has for 412 N. Front Street in Old City.   Perlman told city planners Tuesday that he hopes to build a 38-unit townhouse development with green roofs, outdoor space for each unit, and a mix of surface-lot and garage parking.

Front and Willow Street

Units would have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths and range in size from 1,700 to 1,900 square feet.  Most would be three stories tall, with the exception of two "carriage house" developments that would have ground level floors, to allow access to parking in the interior of the project.  The parking garage will rest up against an I-95 ramp at the corner of Front and Willow Streets.

Old proposal of World Trade Center site near Willow St.

Project architect Jose Hernandez said the town houses will be faced with stone, brick and two colors of fiber cement.  Landscaped areas will include an interior courtyard and private green space for each unit, and also street trees and planters.  Units will have views of the Delaware River and Benjamin Franklin Bridge.