Design : Development News

The City’s latest One Percent for Fine Arts project was recently unveiled, this time featured on Carl Dranoff’s latest new construction project at Broad and South Streets.  LightPlay, created by artists Mags Harries and Lajos Heder’s, will adorn the Southstar Lofts – an 80-unit residential building with ground floor retail that promises to become a significant gateway to Center City for travelers from the south.      
 
While LightPlay was announced as the winner of the competitive process a while back – earlier this year the fixture was chosen through a selection process conducted by the One Percent for Fine Arts Program of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority from well over a hundred applicants nationwide – renderings were recently unveiled and the piece’s function has come into light.     
 
According to the artists, they wanted to complement the theatrical events and art schools in the neighborhood, all while creating a dramatic lighting effect through the use of vertical prism sheets.  “Working with light and shadow insures that the piece will be constantly changing, surprising and remain fresh,” explains Lajos Heder.  “The orientation of the Broad Street Facade facing directly west makes it remain in full shadow until mid-day and then in full sun in the afternoon.”
 
According to Dranoff, his team was looking for an art installation piece that hit home -- exactly what Heder and Harries delivered.  “The Avenue of the Arts is one of Philadelphia’s liveliest, most flourishing neighborhoods, and we were looking for a work of art that would showcase the streets’ vibrancy, and compliment the aesthetics of Southstar Lofts,” explains Dranoff, “and the installation created by Mags Harries and Lajos Heder exceeded our expectations and has captured the energy that radiates from the thriving mix of entertainment, dining and living offered on South Broad Street.”
 
The artists did not forget about one of the installations' main purposes: acting as a gateway to Center City.  To incorporate this function, they utilized the nearby subway stop and featured it in the design.  “The sidewalk in that area is very lively, lots of students passing by, people coming in and out of the SEPTA station. We wanted to make the arrival at the station and walking along the sidewalk more memorable.”  According to the artists, there will be a glazed canopy over the subway entrance using the same light refracting prism sheets that are being used on the building, protecting from the rain and creating a bright light event for passengers emerging from the subway.
 
Once complete, developers of the Southstar Lofts are promising improved urban vitality and more eyes on the street.  The artists behind LightPlay firmly believe their work will have transformative effects as well and “enhance the urban environment and make better places for community activity.”  With lofty ambitions in front of them, Dranoff and company look to break ground in October, with an expected completion date of late 2013, although that has not been officially confirmed. 

Source: Carl Dranoff, Lajos Heder
Writer: Greg Meckstroth

Poor urban design choices happen all the time.  When it comes to new development, what might sound like common sense (creating active, vibrant, storefronts along commercial corridors and attractive streetscapes along residential ones) too often does not come to fruition.  Just ask residents of Northern Liberties, a neighborhood known for its high profile, successful development schemes (i.e. Tower Investments' the Piazza at Schmidt’s) but increasingly for its unfortunate urban design outcomes that threaten neighborhood identity. 

There are few things that irk planners and urban designers more than woefully implemented urban designs, no matter where they occur.  In Northern Liberties, none are more obvious than the Family Dollar store that recently opened underneath the Superfresh at 2nd and Girard in another one of Tower’s large redevelopment projects. 

If you take a walk down 2nd Street starting at Girard Avenue, the gateway to Northern Liberties, you’ll quickly come across a new, not-so-shiny, Family Dollar store.  If you’re looking for a place to enter the discount chain, you’re in the wrong place.  Along its unforgiving frontage that seems to stretch clear down to Spring Garden Street, you’ll instead see signs directing you to the interior parking garage entrance.  In the place of front doors, you’ll notice the store’s shelving units turning their back to the 2nd Street public realm.  In a classic case of common sense being overlooked, Family Dollar made their store’s front the back and only provided access via the parking garage.  In doing so, they sowed the seeds of the sidewalks death, taking with it a coherent pedestrian realm along this portion of 2nd Street.

Maintaining a thriving and cohesive pedestrian realm is particularly important along 2nd Street, the neighborhood’s commercial corridor that in many ways, with its bars, restaurants, bodegas and shops, has come to symbolize the neighborhood’s resurgence and identity.  Plus, the current Northern Liberties Neighborhood Plan places a high priority on “re-establishing 2nd Street as the heart of Northern Liberties, reflective of local character and equipped to meet neighborhood needs.” 

You would think the neighborhood would look to build off this appeal in every way possible, ensuring new development meets the standards already set in place by the traditional Main Street feel of 2nd Street.  But thanks to a host of players and stakeholders, including Family Dollar, Tower Investments and the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA) these principles are clearly not being promoted to the degree they ought to be.

According to Matthew Emerson, the Urban Design Committee Chair for NLNA, the first to blame are the store owners and developers.  “The decision to face the garage only was a Family Dollar decision and the responsibility of the retailer and Tower Investments,” explains Emerson. 

This is true, but ultimately the neighborhood sets the vision and steers the course for its future.  A place’s built environment is a reflection of its value system and what residents see as important.  This holds true in any neighborhood or city across the country.  With this in mind, NLNA, the vision setter for the neighborhood, also shares some blame for Family Dollar’s misstep, lacking foresight and not using the tools available to adequately prevent this urban design failure from occuring.  

In hindsight, Emerson believes there is more NLNA could have done, notably adding provisos to the original zoning motion to force retailers to face the street, although he is unsure if Tower would have been on board.  Considering this experience a lesson learned, Emerson hopes to prevent this problem from occuring in the future.    

Moving forward, NLNA does plan to reach out to Family Dollar to remediate the situation.  But thinking beyond immediate fixes and attempting to understand how things like this can be avoided; the neighborhood should adopt full-blown urban design guidelines that will set a comprehensive vision and provide a road map for what new development will look like in Northern Liberties.  Urban design guidelines are just that - recommendations that developers have no legal obligation to follow.  But considering how much development is expected to happen in the foreseeable future, it isn’t farfetched to assume developers will play nice and go along with the guidelines so long as they have a chance to grab a piece of the area’s increasingly pricey real estate pie. 

Source: Matthew Emerson, Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, Urban Design Committee Chair
Writer: Greg Meckstroth

If the Philadelphia region undertakes efforts to improve energy efficiency in buildings, $618 million in local spending would be spurred and 23,500 jobs would be created.   This according to Christine Knapp of the Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub in the Navy Yard, who believes the strategies and programs they are currently conducting could have a transformative effect on Greater Philadelphia's economy. 

The EEB Hub was established in Philadelphia by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with a $129 million grant as an Energy-Regional Innovation Cluster in early 2011 with a mission of improving energy efficiency in buildings and promoting regional economic growth.  According to Knapp, the creation of the government-led Hub was necessary because the building systems market simply has not been improving in efficiency standards on its own.  And considering the building sector accounts for 40% of total U.S. prime energy expended and 70% of all U.S. electric energy used, improving building efficiency standards is seen as a must by the DOE.
     
But landing the Hub was not an easy task and took numerous stakeholders and a lot of coordination to put together the winning proposal.  “A consortium of academic institutions, industry partners and economic development groups, led by Penn State, submitted a proposal to house the Hub at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, which was ultimately the winning proposal,” explains Knapp.  She also believes locating the Hub at the Navy Yard was a key factor to the proposal’s success, since the land is seen as one of the nation’s largest and most dynamic retrofit and redevelopment opportunities.    

The Hub is made up of research teams who are a rather ambitious bunch.  According to Knapp, their main, and seemingly lofty goal is to reduce energy use in the Greater Philadelphia commercial building sector by 20 percent by 2020, an undertaking that will create thousands of jobs for Philly. 

The Hub is already leading by example with two demonstration projects.  Building 101 in the Navy Yard serves as a testing site for energy research, where data is collected and assessments are made of the impact of building energy technologies and systems on energy use.  Then there’s the advanced energy retrofit living laboratory in Building 661 of the Navy Yard. Once renovated, the building will host EEB’s headquarters and serve as an example for future advanced energy retrofit projects in the region.

There is already evidence that EEB’s efforts are already yielding real jobs.  Relationships made between EEB and a local manufacturing business, Rhoads Industries, and their desire to retrofit the company’s Navy Yard buildings caught the attention of US Green Energy (USGE), a Virginia-based startup company that is manufacturing new types of solar roofs. 

Through a series of meetings about Rhoads' roof needs, USGE eventually agreed to open manufacturing space of their own in the Navy Yard, bringing an estimated 20 new jobs to the region.  USGE has since indicated that they have contracted for further technical work on their product and are actively pursuing research funding for more work.

With benchmarked results in tow, EEB plans an all-out assault on the local building industry to promote what they are doing to get the word out about building efficiency.  According to Knapp, this has started with identifying the necessary parties involved to move the conversation forward.  “The EEB Hub is engaging key stakeholders- from building owners, to retrofit suppliers to workforce trainers and policy makers- in the retrofit decision process to serve as an informational, motivational, and practical resource for the various constituencies that will help carry our vision forward.”

Already well underway, expect a variety of workshops, seminars, presentations, and webinars to continue for the next few years.  From these efforts, the EEB Hub can successfully develop market-ready technologies, information, and people needed in the marketplace to drive energy retrofits forward, create demand, and deliver on energy savings.  And if the success behind the Rhoads-USGE collaboration is any indication, expect EEB's efforts to more than deliver on job creation over the next 10-20 years.    

Source: Christine Knapp, EEB Hub
Writer; Greg Meckstroth

Market West is best known for its skyline defining office buildings such as the Comcast Center, the Mellon Center, and Three Logan Square.  Bustling by day with the 9-5 crowd, the area is also known to empty out by night as restaurants close up and office workers leave for home.  But flush new construction, high-end condos and apartments and even a relatively new Trader Joes, the area is quickly redefining itself as a 24-hour urban neighborhood. 

As of late, adaptive re-use projects have hit their stride, converting old office or hotel uses into residential apartments.  Developed by 806 Capital and Federal Capital Partners, The Arch, located at 1701 Arch Street, is the latest, and perhaps most impressive, renovation story Market West is telling.  Formerly known as the Robert Morris Building, the historic, beautifully ornate, gothic building is a true showstopper. 

Built in 1914 by the hotelier Rutherford Jennings, the building was later used for housing and academic purposes by the Philadelphia College of Bible.  Eventually, the structure was used to hold offices until 2007, when 806 Capital bought it, emptied it out, and planned to convert it into a hotel.  But when the recession went south, so too did 806 Capital's plans for a hotel.  Once Federal Capital Partners stepped in, a new vision was born, bearing the fruit of an apartment re-use story being told today.    

The 111 new apartments that now encompass the structure will enjoy all the grandeur of an historic building: refurbished domed ceilings, marble staircases, and terrazzo floors.  The units themselves range from$1,349 to a loftier $2,900, likely for one of the two-bedroom penthouses that have unparalleled views of Center City. 

If pre-leasing is any indication, it appears the market continues to be strong in Market West: according to Christy Metz, Director of Sales & Marketing for Scully Company, which is leasing the apartments. The Arch, she says, is now 70 percent leased and construction is ongoing.

"It’s exciting that this hot new property is leasing up as faster than we have apartments for people to move into, so we’re confident that the building will be sold out before the construction is complete," Metz says.

This success could be a result of targeting a wide audience and offering a fairly large price range in the apartments.

“Residents are from every walk of life and age range," Metz says. A grad student may be a neighbor of empty nesters, a leading corporate executive or even a small family. Tenants are not only attracted to the charm of the original details and modern amenities at The Arch but also the convenience and location.”

The first residents have already moved in, and more will be moving in soon, signifying the end to The Arch's renovation story.  But on a larger scale, The Arch is just one of many integral parts of Market West's transformation and rejuvenation story, much of which has yet to be told.   

Source: Christy Metz, Scully Company; Lorraine Gimblett, The Arch PR representative
Writer: Greg Meckstroth

Thanks to community activists and the New Kensington CDC, the Kensington Soup Society, at 1036 Crease Street, is now listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. The designation is the latest example of a successful bottom-up approach to preservation where community members have driven the process forward, completed the labor-intensive work and research, and submitted appropriate documentation to the Philadelphia Historical Commission. 

According to Ben Leech, Director of Advocacy with the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, those involved with the nomination process asked for the Preservation Alliance's help to drive the process forward. "We ran a 'How to Nominate' workshop in Fishtown last year, and this was one of the buildings identified by the community as being a priority for designation," said Leech. "We then helped the New Kensington Community Development Corporation complete the nomination, which was reviewed and approved by the Historical Commission in March of this year."

The history of Soup Societies is particularly pronounced in Philadelphia where, in 1805, a man by the name of James Ronaldson opened the Southwark Soup Society. It was the first charity of its kind that fed the "deserving poor" and became the model for modern soup kitchens. In time, soup societies became important community anchors in working-class neighborhoods across Philadelphia. The Kensington Soup Society, erected in 1870, was the city's longest-running soup house until it closed in 2008. It is one of the last surviving soup kitchen buildings left in the city, and was the only one not already listed on the Philadelphia Register.

According to Leech, the Kensington Soup Society building is now better equipped to celebrate its storied tradition and continue its role as a community anchor for years to come. "The building's inclusion on the Register will ensure that redevelopment will be sensitive to the historic character of the building's exterior features, and will not regulate use or interior alterations."

While Leech is currently unaware of any immediate redevelopment plans for the site, if future plans involve apartments or other income-generating uses, listing on the Register could help finance historically sensitive rehabilitations. But for now, residents can rest assured their architecturally and culturally significant Soup Society will not face the wrecking ball anytime soon.  

Source: Ben Leech, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
Writer: Greg Meckstroth