PHILADELPHIA | 418 Spring Garden Street | 151 FT | 12 FLOORS

[summersm343]

One Hour, Eight Miles, and 5,758 Units, Part 6: Lower Northern Liberties & Old City

Read/view more here:
https://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phil...rties-old-city

[SouthCentralPA]

Taken 03/25/2023.

[SEFTA]

shocking!

[TonyTone]

by Tony Valuez, on Flickr

[Gatorade_Jim]

This whole area is gonna feel so much different in a few years. I can’t wait until 2nd street is built up and the road improvement projects are finished. So much opportunity here.

[blart]

5/14

[SEFTA]

This will be a handsome addition.
The scale and density of all the projects in this area, just astounding.
Most truly likeable and urban.
This was the middle of nowhere.
And boom boom boom, up they're going.
When these projects fill, the entire area will be unrecognizable.
Before and after pics will be amazing
And the development that will follow them...
Like an entire new neighborhood from scratch.
Appropriate infrastructure please.
So exciting.

[Milksteak]

This might be one of my favorite projects going up. Simple yet sophisticated. The South/West facing sides of this building will have killer views.

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by SEFTA

Appropriate infrastructure please.
So exciting.

Spring Garden is getting re-done in 2024/2025. The city/state/private-fundraising already has put aside the money for phase 1 of the construction. The final designs will probably be out by the end of the year. Honestly, since we were just talking about bike lanes in the other thread, a completely separated one like this one will be is the only design that should move forward. Unless you can put Jersey Barriers on the Spruce/Pine style bike lanes, delivery trucks and others will just abuse the shit out of it.

The Spring Garden Connector

Current rendering are a little cheesy, but you can get the idea.

[mja]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Spring Garden is getting re-done in 2024/2025. The city/state/private-fundraising already has put aside the money for phase 1 of the construction. The final designs will probably be out by the end of the year. Honestly, since we were just talking about bike lanes in the other thread, a completely separated one like this one will be is the only design that should move forward. Unless you can put Jersey Barriers on the Spruce/Pine style bike lanes, delivery trucks and others will just abuse the shit out of it.

The Spring Garden Connector

Current rendering are a little cheesy, but you can get the idea.

I think people now wrongly believe me to be anti-bike lane. I'm not. I've been frustrated with the execution at times, i.e. unsightly plastic posts everywhere and overly complex lane configurations (Chestnut between 34th & the river might as well have no lanes at all drivers are so confused) and would like to find ways of doing it better.

I'm a big fan of extending the sidewalks like this and incorporating the bike lane into the side walk. Would love to see it.

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by mja

I think people now wrongly believe me to be anti-bike lane. I'm not. I've been frustrated with the execution at times, i.e. unsightly plastic posts everywhere and overly complex lane configurations (Chestnut between 34th & the river might as well have no lanes at all drivers are so confused) and would like to find ways of doing it better.

I'm a big fan of extending the sidewalks like this and incorporating the bike lane into the side walk. Would love to see it.

My opinion is PennDot/Phila Streets/OTIS/whoever else has a say in these affairs has absolutely no idea what they're doing. Washington DC and a lot of NYC bike lanes are LIGHTYEARS ahead of Philly's just because the design is absolute dogshit. It truly makes no sense to me. I don't actually think it's a terrible thing to say we're going to pause bike lane expansions until proper design like Spring Garden can be done. And let's pray SG turns out right lol.

[SEFTA]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Spring Garden is getting re-done in 2024/2025. The city/state/private-fundraising already has put aside the money for phase 1 of the construction. The final designs will probably be out by the end of the year. Honestly, since we were just talking about bike lanes in the other thread, a completely separated one like this one will be is the only design that should move forward. Unless you can put Jersey Barriers on the Spruce/Pine style bike lanes, delivery trucks and others will just abuse the shit out of it.

The Spring Garden Connector

Current rendering are a little cheesy, but you can get the idea.

Yes.
It's very exciting.
As well as 2nd Street upgrades.

This pic is the new design?
I always wondered why they just didn't place the bike lanes on the sidewalk level with a curb. I hate those plastic "bollards" that line some bike lanes.
A curb separating the lanes from traffic along with pedestrians just eliminates the need for separate protection.
Just make sure there are proper curb cuts.

[BroadandMarket]

That Spring Garden connector looks nice but it's just too ambitious. Instead of waiting another 5-10 years for that I'd rather just improve what they have and fix/clean the medians, add some trashcans, lighting and repave the street. I've been hearing about the Spring Garden Greenway for 15 years now.

The intersection of Ridge/Spring Garden/11th looks especially terrible. The project at 1200 Ridge is stalled with no movement in nearly a year. The handsome building at 1106 Spring Garden was demolished with no movement on the new building there. The church steps are basically permanently used as a homeless encampment. The whole area is covered in so much trash.

These are everywhere in NYC and look great with minimal upkeep, just do this.

[Knight Hospitaller]

^ But what about the welfare of consultants and bureaucrats?

[TempleGuy1000]

Speaking of the devil:
Philly’s first curb-protected bike lanes are planned for Market Street in Old City

4-block-long East Market Street lanes will be the first on-street bikeways that run next to the sidewalk with raised concrete protection on the other side, physically keeping cars from entering the lanes.

For Philly, that’s “unusual, and it’s exciting,” said Brugger, a planner with the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability or OTIS.

“In many, many other cities across the nation — in New York and Boston and DC, in Portland, Chicago, Seattle — they’ve all gone towards concrete separation, and we’re excited to do it as well,” she said.

[mja]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Speaking of the devil:
Philly’s first curb-protected bike lanes are planned for Market Street in Old City

Yeah, but in the article there's mention of redoing Walnut from 33rd to 63rd the same way they did Chestnut. That's....not promising.

[Gatorade_Jim]

Originally Posted by mja

Yeah, but in the article there's mention of redoing Walnut from 33rd to 63rd the same way they did Chestnut. That's....not promising.

What’s wrong with the west Chestnut redesign? It seems to have increased safety for pedestrians and drivers in that area.

[MadhattersLT]

Because Chestnut street is a shit show. Traffic is now compressed into less lanes. The city isn’t gonna maintain the roadway and those plastic poles in the street are already half destroyed. And the lanes were made more narrow so now emergency vehicles are having a hard time navigating. Same with the speed cushions they stuck on Cobbs Creek Parkway, made it worse.

[TempleGuy1000]

Originally Posted by MadhattersLT

Because Chestnut street is a shit show. Traffic is now compressed into less lanes. The city isn’t gonna maintain the roadway and those plastic poles in the street are already half destroyed. And the lanes were made more narrow so now emergency vehicles are having a hard time navigating.

This obviously untrue and there are far more narrow roads all around Philly.

Same with the speed cushions they stuck on Cobbs Creek Parkway, made it worse.

To be clear: this road has seen multiple fatalities and measures were made to slow people down because people drive like insane lunatics.

[Gatorade_Jim]

Originally Posted by MadhattersLT

Because Chestnut street is a shit show. Traffic is now compressed into less lanes. The city isn’t gonna maintain the roadway and those plastic poles in the street are already half destroyed. And the lanes were made more narrow so now emergency vehicles are having a hard time navigating. Same with the speed cushions they stuck on Cobbs Creek Parkway, made it worse.

The city’s data says the improvements made the street significantly safer, so I question your claims. I do agree about the plastic poles though. They need something more durable.