Cladding on the Locust facing side. Kind of ugly (and uglier in person than shows in this picture)...Fortunately, it's largely masked by the church and trees. Still, I hope that the floor about the church transition to glass or at least incorporate some heavy doses of glass even if this cladding continues to the top.
This definitely seems value-engineered and to depart from their materials from CDR submission:
https://www.phila.gov/CityPlanning/p...%20-%20CDR.pdf See page 23 and page 32. I don't know what the hell this is, but it's not "Type A" brick panels it was supposed to be. In any case, doesn't bode well for the nice render of the hotel by the Estia folks, which I think is also DAS-designed. DAS buildings always seem much uglier than the reality. Cambria Hotel is another example.
Honestly, developers should be forced submit material changes to CDR as soon as they are made. And CDR should immediately file them publicly. Even if CDR doesn't have the power to stop them in most projects. We need more transparency.