LANCASTER (PA) | Queen Street Apartments @ 202 N. Queen St.| 130 FT | 12 FLOORS
Main Line developer eyes downtown Lancaster for 16-story, $45M apartment building
By: Tim Meekel LNP Quote:
I am not too thrilled with a vehicle entrance on W. Chestnut Street and a pedestrian bridge over North Queen Street. The pedestrian bridge seems unnecessary. Lancaster is not Minneapolis during the winter and all this bridge will do is draw pedestrian traffic up off the street. I would also like to see more than 900 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Hopefully, the design will be tweaked a little more. Overall this is a great project. Hopefully, the project team can get a zoning variance and other city approvals while securing financing. |
Interesting. I like the conceptual design at least.
Emporis lists the Griest Tower at 192' which would make this proposal the second tallest. That might be roof height only, so 210' might include any rooftop equipment / antennae? Either way, this would be a skyline impact for sure. I'm not crazy about the pedestrian bridge over N Queen St. either, although I guess I understand its purpose to connect to the existing parking. I'm wondering, is that proposed vehicle entrance on E Chestnut meant for loading / unloading / drop-offs only, or is there also going to be some below-grade parking? It is very close to the intersection of N Queen & E Chestnut... Posting the renderings from the above article here, for others to see. Following! South Elevation - https://uwsjjg.sn.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none East Elevation - https://uasrjg.sn.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none Pedestrian bridge across Queen - rendering - https://uassjg.sn.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none Source: Architectural Concepts PC |
That's fantastic. Lancaster is a beautiful little city.
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After examining the renderings of the building's W. Chestnut Street side again, I am becoming more disappointed with this building's street interaction. It is mainly a blank wall and a vehicle egress/ingress for, if I read the plans correctly, approximately 10 below grade (or at grade :shrug:) parking spaces. I mean the stretch of Chestnut Street from Prince to Duke is arguably downtown's worst as far as pedestrian experience goes. The County Government Center, the Holiday Inn Express, two parking garages, the Police Headquarters, etc. are all large scale buildings with little street level engagement. This building does little to help improve the situation, but at least there will be retail on North Queen Street :rolleyes:. So overall it is a slight improvement in terms of pedestrian experience over the Magnolia Place travesty on the corner of N. Duke and E. Chestnut Streets. What I do not understand is this property has a right of way back to N. Market Street so why not locate the vehicle entrance/exit on the building's northwest corner leading to N. Market. It is not like 10 more cars are going to overwhelm Market Street. Instead, it looks like the developer is planning on constructing a pedestrian cut-through from North Queen Street to North Market using that right of way. After investigating the developer's background, Berger Rental Communities, this is their first foray into urban development and there are certainly elements of the building's design where their inexperience shows. Hopefully, the design changes a little (for the better) and Berger can get financing for this project. Although their inexperience in urban development leads me to believe, they may not have the expertise to get a project of this scale off the ground especially in this environment. |
Love it! Lancaster is a great little city. :cheers:
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12-story version of proposed downtown Lancaster high-rise gets Historical Commission'
https://lancasteronline.com/business...6c0e70241.html
Sounds like this one has been down-graded to 12 stories but at least it got approved by the Historical Commission. Sounds like it still needs some more City approvals but it's at least heading in the right direction! :cheers: Should/can the title be updated? New rendering: https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...ize=853%2C1280 |
https://lancasteronline.com/news/loc...bbcf448ee.html
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Here are the new architectural renderings for three Lancaster city housing developmen
https://lancasteronline.com/news/loc...24a4ed93c.html
202 N. Queen St. Quote:
https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...ize=1035%2C685 Good to hear! :cheers: |
Construction underway on North Queen apartment high rise
https://lancasteronline.com/news/loc...9a38af50c.html
Not sure if this qualifies as under construction yet, but looks like it broke ground, which is really exciting IMO! :cheers: Also, the title should be changed to 12 floors from 16. Quote:
https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...size=859%2C500 https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...size=750%2C500 https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...size=750%2C500 |
I drove by the site today. I was unable to get a picture, but it looked like they were drilling caissons into the ground in the middle of the lot. It looks like they dug approximately 10-15 feet below grade for this building. Final building height according to the below LNP article is 130 feet.
Also during excavation, crews uncovered tunnels underneath North Queen Street that dated back to when Lancaster's main train station was located at on the northeast corner of North Queen and East Chestnut Streets. It is believed the tunnels were constructed in the late 1800s to allow pedestrians to safely cross North Queen Street but were possibly abandoned even before the train station was moved to its current location on East McGovern Avenue in 1929. Here is a link to the article: https://lancasteronline.com/news/loc...095fd9c87.html |
Awesome, thanks for the update! And very interesting to hear about the abandoned tunnel. :cheers:
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There is a webcam for this project. The link for it is below.
https://app.oxblue.com/cameras/7d108.../202northqueen |
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The webcam has a nice time lapse feature so you can get caught up quickly!
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The tower crane will be disassembled sometime between mid-January to early February depending on the weather.
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The tower crane is being removed now. Exterior work should be wrapped up in the next 2 months or so. From what I have heard and read, Berger and Benchmark are hoping to complete this building by the end of June.
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Has anyone been up close to this building? The facade looks real cheap. It already looks weathered and it’s only been up for a few months.
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Of course it's cheap. In order to make the numbers work, developers of sizable commercial projects in small cities will more often than not choose something lame, claiming they can't afford masonry or assuming city officials and townspeople desperate for economic development won't care or won't know the difference. It's not universally true but widespread and an unfortunate reality. A lot of smaller cities in the last 10, 15 years have seen TOD or "urban style mixed use", usually pitched as some sort of novel concept, and a big chunk of it is truly dreadful architecturally. Pretty much the worst 2000ese clichés and trends that are on their way to looking bad or already are. Not to be gloomy but many will look at some of the stuff currently going up 20 years from now and think "what were they thinking?" in the very same way people look at crap from the 70s and 80s.
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Lancaster is also a city that very much prides itself on its architecture and historic form, so it's disappointing if this project somehow "fell through the cracks," so to speak regarding an agreement or conditions for material type. Ballooning material costs I'm sure played a role, as well, but still important to hold developers to account. |
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