I'd rather have the diner, at least it was useful 24/7. But you'll no longer have to walk past the scary diner and parking garage Jason because all it took was tax breaks to move your practice out of center city.

I loved Little Pete's. Who's Jason?

Justin

Stalker...Putting that aside, I was sad to see Little Pete's demo'd and sadder that there is nowhere nearby that would charge rent they wanted to pay. But given that this is now gone, I'd like the hotel to at least look good.

No, just a really good memory.

If only it were true. Rather than kinda, sorta true. But let’s get back to talking about buildings.

What... is... happening in this thread?

Beats the hell out of me. I’m just trying to talk about about a hotel.

Someone is being creepy towards jsbrook. For the record, no matter what your differences, there is always a better way than cryptic and provocative language towards someone.

Yeah, I have idea who this person is. Nor do I really care. But he or she has evidently identified me in real life and has seen fit to connect a business decision my firm at large made to this project for indiscernible reasons. I guess based on some beef the poster has with me. Not something the forum should have to sit through.

The guy is clearly a creep, however you brought this on yourself. I told you it was a very bad idea to broadcast to an online forum the exact address of a condo you bought. I suggested you delete your post and your laughed me off.

Well, predictably some nut job followed all the breadcrumbs you carelessly left directing anyone who felt like following them to your identity. For your sake i hope his creepy stalker tendencies are reserved for threatening messages online and he doesn't appear on your doorstep one day.

Thank you...It would have been better not to have posted that, but there was too much water under the bridge and too many response posts to delete it at the point you suggested. Judging by the pace of construction in this city, we may all die before the condo completes anyway...not for nothing, but rehashing that again in the post you just made probably only makes it worse...good chance it's also not that. This person is probably a member or urbanphl, a facebook group a number of us who post here are active in. Let's get back to the Hyatt Centric!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had that thought. I've long feared the some of the more delusional whackjobs from that group would spill over into here.

Amen, I had the same thought as well. People have been posting links to here on there more so recently, so I think that is exactly what occurred.

Yep. Re Jawn's comments on links, I will make sure never to post a link to this site on there...

As if he needed to rely on you as some subject matter expert to the perils of providing personal info on the internet.

Lets be real, you were jealous of his wealth and standing (thats why you reacted so oddly to his post,) and you have a bias against those you perceive as living a certain decadent lifestyle.

^ Weird assumption.

^Shits been gettin' weird on these threads the past few days!

lmaooo :d:d

https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...ninstagram.com
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0UhM_anuqL/

7.31.2019

Cladding going up on the front. This being DAS, it's not surprising it doesn't look as good as the render, but it's not bad at all. It's also quite dirty and dust-covered. Could look better when it is clean and the dark color is more clear.

https://imageshack.com/i/pmjIyIRIj
https://imageshack.com/i/poISseKBj

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...77f9c1d2_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...89584207_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7022b58c_b.jpg

Hyatt Centric tops out in Philadelphia

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...ladelphia.html

This morning:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6a13236a_b.jpg

Really just posting to show off that church, but you can see this building here as well :tup:

https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...ninstagram.com
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1_JtkSDqxw/

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7ff6839a_b.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e8710829_b.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...656e5642_b.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...13c2890b_b.jpg

The construction as seen from Liberty Place. Sorry for the giant picture.

https://i.imgur.com/WDvWmhV.jpg

I didn't get any photos but the tower crane was removed over this past Saturday and Sunday.

I think this is going to end up falling under the good but super-forgettable and definitely-not-aging-well infill like the Pod Hotel project up the street.

It's not really a huge issue b/c both are so wedged into the city scape that their vertical influence is barely noticeable - but both will be awesome at the street level. Anyone try Condesa yet?

Spent the better part of the morning working remotely from El Cafe/Condesa - while the outside of POD is definitely budget engineering, the design team did a stunning job on the fit-out of the cafe and restaurant. (No surprise, coming from the minds behind Suraya).

Nice, its streetscape presence is awesome. Probably the coolest thing to happen to Ludlow Street since the puritans raided all those rub and tugs nearby years ago ;)

There's a retractable roof on the 11th floor of the Pod Philly Rooftop Bar. Pretty cool. This is probably our first retractable roof on a roof top bar too. Nice!

There's a PhillyMag article about it. Interior Pics look great! Have to go and try the Mezcal.

Went with the SO to the bar tonight. The floor level of this hotel is top notch. The rooftop was nearly as good. Even with the roof in place, it felt almost completely outdoors with the enormous windows thrown open.

The margs and mezcal were good too. I'd give Mission the nod for margaritas, Pod the nod for Mezcal.

From Oct 13th: It looks much bluer than the renderings..
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0382a2b2_b.jpg
04.WalkToOutFest.PA.13October2019 by Elvert Barnes, on Flickr

Halloween:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b0783485_b.jpg

I never expected the 'back side' of the hotel to win any beauty contests, but what looks like the nearly finished end result is just as close to being ugly without getting to that camp as is possible. It's more then just boring. On one hand you don't see it that much from Locust St. but if one is looking at the church, and if your walking how can you not look at it, this dull backstop to the view is unfortunate. Is it better then the view of the garage?

It is worse than the view of the garage. That was not tall enough to be visible from Locust. DAS really irritates me. Moreso than any other company, its renders are not trustworthy. The end product always has some component with a puke color and texture that differs from the render in a material way. Cambria is another example. While the hotel render for the building to replace Midtown diner looks really nice, I have no confidence it will be given that it's theirs.

Unfortunately for many architects its cash for trash, they've given up the art and its just a job.

^ Well said. Beauty matters. That facade is not much better than the box it came in. I wouldn't have been THAT hard to give it a little interest/definition.

^
The Harper in Rittenhouse is probably their best high rise project to date. But, let's just say they are not on the same level as SOM, Foster and Partners, Snohetta or other top tier architects, at least not in any projects completed to date. And their projects aren't featured in Architectural Digest. But, glad to see they are getting work in the Philly area. I'm sure money has to do with some of the design, but hope to see them do more work in Philly and up their design game.

Why would you want to see bad architects do more work in Philly? I'd just as soon never see them or Cecil Baker or Eric Leighton design another building here again. Some architects manage to create something interesting and decent with modest budgets and standard cost efficient materials. Gluck+ and their design with the Bridge is a good example of that. https://www.architectmagazine.com/pr...ery/bridge_3_o Those are the types of architects I want to see doing more work here.

I certainly don't want to see bad architecture in Philly for sure. Hyatt Centric has a unique shape to it and isn't just a vertical rectangle. In giving it more thought and another look of the design, I think the design is fine. Like others, I now think the issue was with the downgrade of materials or not following what we saw from the original renders in terms of material currently be installed as compared to the renders.

Eric Leighton did 500 Walnut as part of the Cecil team and giving the lot and spatial surrounding, I think it turned out very good. One Riverside from Cecil is good too. Not great, but good.

I think philosophically we can all easily say lets get Philly the best design and best material that the budget can afford or the developer is willing to spend. But, at the end of the day, I think all projects look for a ROI and are constrained by budget that determined the designs and outcomes of how the projects will look when factoring labor costs and the amount of rent or selling cost each unit can fetch. But, I'm no insider so I can't claim to know the decision making and selection process of how all this works. For example, if the developer goes through a bidding process and ask architects for design proposals or is favored to do business with one selected architect for its project and makes the final decision. Some developers may just have bad taste in selecting design/materials, or their taste grossly differs from ours. Like the saying goes, just because you have money doesn't mean you have taste. Who knows?

They aren't good architects. Their exteriors are consistently below average. DAS is multiple levels below SOM and that ilk. There are many unknowns and lesser knowns in levels above them before we get to a SOM. Cecil and Eric are extremely average with average buildings and can only create a decent building with very high budgets. Good architects can create something decent with mediocre materials and modest budgets. Also, with DAS, they inevitably use the ugliest materials and cladding. Unclear to me how much of that is developer-driven or whether they just lack any good sense and creativity once the budget is fixed. My main point was that their renders, more than any other company, are a fiction. I am just going to ignore them completely going forward and have no expectations as to what their buildings will actually look like until construction is well underway.

:tup:

Isn't it amazing that they manage to get work to stay in business? I guess we have to manage expectations on some of these architects then.

Saturday:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...461687ee_b.jpg
Although the south face is regrettable, the rest of the building works well for me. I like the undulating brick spine running up the 17th Street side ( can be seen in the photo).

^If I had a dollar for every building that was complete on three sides.... It's like they save one side for apprentices to design. We've come a long way since cathedral architects' commitment to beauty saw them put effort into design elements that only God could see.

Yeah it's not bad. The big story is the activation this thing will have of Chancellor Street - a sleeping parking garage Alley street will be transformed into a pretty lively area with a 4-star hotel entrance, restaurant, Vetri, etc.

This looks bad, though not as bad as the Locust-facing side. This building reminds me of Canadian public housing. See the first two and fourth picture in this article: https://www.vox.com/2017/6/27/157164...-rich-toderian

^If that were Canadian public housing, the banner would say "Chad can wait." ;)