The Inquirer's architecture critic Inga Saffron has a powerful reaction to the lack of retail at the upcoming Soko Lofts project in South Kensington.
For all its effort to replicate the Piazza's first-rate urbanism, Soko Lofts misses the crucial lesson of that project. The Piazza packed its ground floor with shops, galleries, and eateries, especially along its primary frontage on Second Street. Though not all have succeeded, their presence tied the Piazza into the neighborhood. They made what was just another behemoth residential development into a real urban place
At Soko, the buildings - bounded by Second, Thompson, Master, and American Streets - would be punctuated by a few token retail spaces. The rest would be long stretches of dullness. And American Street, which should be Soko's front door, would be the dullest.
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