PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[Lincolndrive]

[Kripke]

With the new plans (or lack there of) I think they should really consider turning the Spectrum into a Philly Sports History Museum possibly with some mixed use. I'm getting nervous that they're going to screw the pooch on this.

Philly is a HUGE sports town, all of our stadiums are in one place (except for the Union’s new stadium in Chester), the stadium complex is already special in that respect, why not build (or reuse) part of this complex to acknowledge this?

I can live with the death of the Spectrum, but only if something great springs up from it’s ashes.

[hammersklavier]

May 2010:

[hammersklavier]

May Developments:

South Street Bridge:






The last time I popped by there there was a truck and a crane on a float by the Locust Circle on the Schuylkill Banks. Are they starting work on the boardwalk that'll extend down to the South Street Bridge?

[christof]

The Spectrum will be torn down and made into a parking lot. It will remain a parking lot until the Wachovia, er, Wells Fargo Center becomes out of date. The land will then be used to build the Comcast Center.

The Philly Live idea never made any sense when it was first introduced. It was based on obtaining funding to build. This was in the fall of 2008, when the financial crisis was its worse. If anyone actually thought they were going to obtain financing for this project at that time, or at any time in the near future, they were nuts.

[hammersklavier]

Bringing love back to the skateboarding bunch

Nearly a decade after skateboarders were chased from Philadelphia’s Love Park and given an alternate site by the city on the banks of the Schuylkill River, their new home remains a plan on paper.

The Franklin Paine’s Skatepark Fund has raised about half of the $7 million originally sought for the project, which is to occupy a 2.5 acre parcel just south of the Philadelphia Museum of Art alongside the Schuykill River trail.

The non-profit group hopes to make a final push this year to close the funding gap to complete the park as originally envisioned by designers Anthony Bracali and Brian Nugent. Or the group could opt to build a scaled-down version with a $5 million price tag. In either, case the goal is to break ground by early 2011.

Read more: http://planphilly.com/bringing-love-...boarding-bunch

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by Kripke

With the new plans (or lack there of) I think they should really consider turning the Spectrum into a Philly Sports History Museum possibly with some mixed use. I'm getting nervous that they're going to screw the pooch on this.

Philly is a HUGE sports town, all of our stadiums are in one place (except for the Union’s new stadium in Chester), the stadium complex is already special in that respect, why not build (or reuse) part of this complex to acknowledge this?

I can live with the death of the Spectrum, but only if something great springs up from it’s ashes.

The Spectrum is still a viable arena. The only reason the Phantoms left town was due to the fact that they lost their home. Add concerts and the circus every year, etc.

It’s obvious to me that Snider has an ulterior motive for tearing down the structure when there is plenty of space for building new down there. My guess is that a structural inspection showed that the arena would need xx millions in repairs over the next ten years.

[jrdizzy]

The seldom photographed view from Race

.



Back to Broad






On to Arch

[Muji]

Wow this thing looks awful on Race Street...a real streetscape killer. Thanks for the photo update!

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by Muji

Wow this thing looks awful on Race Street...a real streetscape killer. Thanks for the photo update!

The original portion of the PCC does the same thing to poor Race St. Now it will just be a longer desolate stretch.

Any idea for how City Place or whatever the skyscraper of the corner of Broad and Arch is called, will be incorporated into the PCC?

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by Muji

Wow this thing looks awful on Race Street...a real streetscape killer. Thanks for the photo update!

Also is trite, out of scale, obtrusive, a tax-payer supported white elephant waiting to happen....I mean exactly how many monster sized conventions does that thing need to just break even on the investment....?

[bucks native]

It's not intended for monsters. It can handle one, but the plan will also enable the center to now host several moderate or small events at a time. Events can now be ongoing, eliminating the down-time required previously as one event leaves and another waits to set-up.

[Cro Burnham]

[phillyaggie]

Great pics; I still can't believe the state and the city allowed this huge building (bigger surface area than Ritt Square) to get built without a solar roof, a roof garden, or some mix of the two or even any other green technology. That's an utter waste. The solar roof might have reduced the center's utility bills quite a bit.

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by phillyaggie

Great pics; I still can't believe the state and the city allowed this huge building (bigger surface area than Ritt Square) to get built without a solar roof, a roof garden, or some mix of the two or even any other green technology. That's an utter waste. The solar roof might have reduced the center's utility bills quite a bit.

You're right. They really did execute this monster with an outdated mindset. It's basically a big shed.

[volguus zildrohar]

Originally Posted by PHL10

Any idea for how City Place or whatever the skyscraper of the corner of Broad and Arch is called, will be incorporated into the PCC?

The original intention was a hotel. There are a lot of "original intentions" that have gone unrealized in this town so don't be surprised if this building remains empty for sometime after the expansion is complete.

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by phillyaggie

Great pics; I still can't believe the state and the city allowed this huge building (bigger surface area than Ritt Square) to get built without a solar roof, a roof garden, or some mix of the two or even any other green technology. That's an utter waste. The solar roof might have reduced the center's utility bills quite a bit.

You know better than to ask such questions. We're talking about Pennsylvania politicians, Philadelphia City Council Members, and Union employees. You might as well be speaking another language. Most of these people don't know what any of those words mean, and to those who do, they see it as a threat.

And yeah, Race Street is appalling. Believe it or not there's a small neighborhood behind this monstrosity's rump: my neighborhood. They can't even plant trees to masque the Race Street side because the roof hangs over past the sidewalk. I hope the location alone encourages healthy development along Race Street and maybe replaces some of these ugly surface lots, because its appearance does absolutely nothing to make people want to venture down that street.

I'm also a little concerned where they plan to park all these people. As it is, this area is littered with heinous surface parking lots. It's a giant, asphalt prairie. When a private company develops something in the city, they have to account for parking and traffic. None of this was taken into account for the Convention Center. Will they just level more of the area north of Race Street for more surface parking?

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by philatonian

I'm also a little concerned where they plan to park all these people. As it is, this area is littered with heinous surface parking lots. It's a giant, asphalt prairie. When a private company develops something in the city, they have to account for parking and traffic. None of this was taken into account for the Convention Center. Will they just level more of the area north of Race Street for more surface parking?

I could be way off on this assumption but I always assumed most conventioneers are from out of town. Therefore they would be coming in from the AP or 30th Street, cabbing it to Center City, and then staying in hotels and walking everywhere. I didn’t think a convention center would need parking like a sports stadium would.

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by PHL10

I could be way off on this assumption but I always assumed most conventioneers are from out of town. Therefore they would be coming in from the AP or 30th Street, cabbing it to Center City, and then staying in hotels and walking everywhere. I didn’t think a convention center would need parking like a sports stadium would.

I'm sure that's true. There are often buses idling in the tunnel taking conventioneers to and from their hotels, particularly business conventions. But I'm also assuming the number of parking lots in the vicinity is partially due to its presence. The VSE didn't help the situation by leaving a vast wasteland of demolished property right before the initial phase was completed, most of which became surface lots and hasn't changed since.

The center employs a lot of people, some who commute. An expanded center will employ more people, many who will want parking. A lot of conventions also attract a regional audience that drives in: Flower Show, Car Show, SciFi Convention, etc. They all want ample parking that the center left to private lot owners.

[Nightman]

Spectrum Demo to begin in November.