:yes:There's something "sexy" about a skyscraper half finished. It's kind of bittersweet to hide the "bones". I guess it's like a strip tease act, kind of half dressed! :yes:

So I guess we now know what YOU'RE doing when you're on this forum [cough . . . skyscraper porn . . . cough]. :P

Stop it! <Slap!> :D

Cars Removed Fro, 15th & Chestnut Lost Today
 

The parking lot at 15th and Chestnut was closed to parking. Does this mean they are getting started on construction of the W?

depends. Were there any permits posted?

Just the truck from what I saw. Earlier in the day they were drilling in the lot on the East side and after 5:00 just blocking the entrance to the Parking Lot with a sign that the lot is closed with directions to another Parkway Lot.

Sounds like this thing is getting going!

Since we haven't seen any full fledged renderings yet, I'm going to say they're taking soil samples.

I located parts of some plans that are dated fairly recently. Pretty cool stuff to see how the hotel will be laid out.

Perhaps someone can load pdf for viewing without clicking on the link.

See link:
ftp://rivermechanical.com/W%20Hotel-...RK/TN-120A.pdf

when trying to answer the question as to how close they are to beginning real construction I seem to remember that some people went to a website where bids on construction contracts were advertised to get an insight into this. Does this make sense and are there places to find this information for the W hotel?

I'm not sure if this was posted on a thread here yet, but here is an article about Philadelphia's hotel scene and how it is changing.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-N...a-hotel-scene/

If you read through the RFP you can find all of the information

ftp://rivermechanical.com/W%20Hotel-...RFP_051514.pdf

Shrinking W from 57 to now 46 or optional 51 stories
 

According to this RFP, the New W hotel will be 46 stories with an option by the owner (Blenfest) to increase it to 51 stories.

If I recalled it correctly, I think he said at least 49 stories in his previous post on this thread.

http://www.phillymag.com/property/20...15th-chestnut/

Philly Chit Chat’s HughE Dillon explains:

This week they are beginning to test the soil in anticipation for the building as well as the extensive underground parking lot they’re building. Last week officials from the project went around to the surrounding buildings, including the new Alterra project (right across 15th Street, Alterra Property Group and the Scully Company’s conversion of 150,000 square feet of class B office space into 180 apartments, with a small amount of office and retail space), and took photos of them inside an out – “The Before Photos”, just in case vibrations from the drilling and building the W causes any cracks in the neighboring buildings.

They shouldn't let wendy's remain as a tenant. I can't for the life of me know why you'd want to live above a wendy's.

Fast food tenants can afford the rent. It's pretty hard to kick out someone like Wendy's and allow someone like Dunkin' Donuts. At least it's occupying a high density space and not like the nearly-standalone one at 11th and Walnut.

Since the CCD is going to manage Dilworth I feel very good about their ability to maintain it properly. Take a walk down to Sister's cities park on the parkway and you can get a little pre-view. This is Paul Levy's dream project and he's going to keep it nice as long as he's with us.

I took some pics on Building Philly website today.

That's fine, but put something higher end in there. That place is the epicenter of the flash mob crowd and always looks like a Greyhound bus stop. I cannot imagine living in the Ritz, Ellington, The Grande, etc and having Wendy's as their neighbor.

Then again that entire street needs to clean up and get ride of the endless sneaker stores and other crappy storefronts.