PHILADELPHIA | 700 Chestnut Street| 146 FT | 12 FLOORS

[PurpleWhiteOut]

“More likely, it would read as a weak representation of the original building, which no one alive today has ever seen.”

Yes, and it will be. I listened to the minutes of one of their past presentations. Their issue with using the historic building as-is is that the floor levels don't line up. You can see in the renderings, they'd "rebuild" the building with matching floor heights, which is already not accurate by definition

Are the buildings structurally unsound?

Nope. They never claimed that in previous minutes.

[skyhigh07]

Originally Posted by PurpleWhiteOut

Yes, and it will be. I listened to the minutes of one of their past presentations. Their issue with using the historic building as-is is that the floor levels don't line up. You can see in the renderings, they'd "rebuild" the building with matching floor heights, which is already not accurate by definition


Nope. They never claimed that in previous minutes.

It looks like the owner contracted an engineer to determine if it’s unsound (see link). Apparently, there are some issues and they recommended demolition. Frankly, I wonder how legit these inspections are. Sure, there are some honest ones out there, but how many take the wink and the nod? I mean it can’t be that hard to brace a narrow three story facade.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20230120...hestnut-St.pdf

[PurpleWhiteOut]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

It looks like the owner contracted an engineer to determine if it’s unsound (see link). Apparently, there are some issues and they recommended demolition. Frankly, I wonder how legit these inspections are. [/URL]

Getting OCF chocolate factory flashbacks

The recommendation is a little confusing so I guess we'll see what the full commission says eventually

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by skyhigh07

It looks like the owner contracted an engineer to determine if it’s unsound (see link). Apparently, there are some issues and they recommended demolition. Frankly, I wonder how legit these inspections are. Sure, there are some honest ones out there, but how many take the wink and the nod? I mean it can’t be that hard to brace a narrow three story facade.

https://www.phila.gov/media/20230120...hestnut-St.pdf

I for one closely followed all the meetings regarding these buildings and have read all the materials. I believe this has the potential to become a very good project as the deliberative process with the committee and the full commission continues.

It’s worth noting that ownership originally was going to court to overturn the designation, but withdrew their court action in order to work with the PHC toward a satisfactory resolution. When a demolition of 704 was subsequently ruled out by the Commission, the developer and their architect, Herb Schultz, embraced the concept (suggested by at least one member of the Architectural Committee) of restoring a full 5-story Evening Telegraph building (only 3 stories remained in recent decades), but is still seeking a demolition to accomplish that objective.

Tomorrow’s meeting of the Arch. Comm. and the subsequent full PHC meeting next month won’t be the last word; this is still very much a work in progress. The overbuild (addition) portion of the project is still at the ‘review in concept’ stage, not yet for final approval. Expect further discussion of the massing and materials.

My bias here is that I’m a sucker for old newspapers and their edifices, so naturally I would love to see a close replica of The Evening Telegraph — owned in its latter years by Rodman Wanamaker — in a neighborhood that once was home to a dozen or so papers. Relatively few of those buildings survive.

TIME: 9:00 A.M.
ADDRESS: 700-02 AND 704 CHESTNUT ST
Proposal: Demolish building; reconstruct façade; construct addition
Review Requested: Final for demolition; In Concept for addition
Owner: 700 Chestnut Street Associates
Applicant: Michael Phillips, Klehr Harrison Harbey Branzberg LLP
History: 700-02: 1922; Washington Square Building; Magaziner, Eberhard & Harris, architects
704: 1853; new façade and other modifications, 1896; G.W. and W.D. Hewitt, architects
Individual Designation: None
District Designation: Chestnut Street East Historic District, Contributing, 11/12/2021
Staff Contact: Jon Farnham, jon.farnham@phila.gov

Zoom link for meeting: https://bit.ly/acjan24
Password: 461548

[McBane]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

Chestnut Street hotel project proposes demolishing and then rebuilding a historic building

Overbuilds (which is sort of what this would be) are very difficult to pull off successfully. But damn, that is hideous. And super lazy, too. Hey, let's just plop a cheap metal paneled addition to a (reconstructed) pre-war building. There's no attempt to unify the old and the new to create something new and bold (which, at least the Hearst Tower attempts to do). Nope, just throw it on top, set it back a bit, and fingers crossed nobody notices the cheap addition too much. Maybe glass would mesh better? Or get inspiration from what Pearl did at 16th and Walnut, which turned out pretty decent.

[allovertown]

Originally Posted by UrbanRevival

Ugh. Why does demolition have to be immediately presumed as the "only" option?

Are the buildings structurally unsound? Has the developer even considered a rehab/overbuild with the existing structures? Have they put any money into an engineering study? How would a developer even be held liable to reconstruct a building as promised?

I'm not trying to be "flip" off the bat. I do love the idea of invigorating corners like this across the city, but there has to be a middle ground. I detest when demolition is the first suggestion by a developer, especially given so many recent boondoggles involving demolition.

Philadelphia has to be so much smarter than to continually allow these scenarios to play out. At least the article suggests that someone has an iota of awareness.

Generally speaking I like to preserve historic buildings, but I'm not dogmatic and context matters. And in this case, I think the context of the current state of the building matters. This is what the building looks like today:



Now I know this building is very old and that it has a lot of great history; it was once the home of the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph and it was once a very handsome building. But clearly those glory days have long... long... long faded.

This isn't a case of a building needed some sprucing up. It has been irreparably altered. The original façade was destroyed when the street was widened. The current 1896 façade is basically completely destroyed. Multiple floors have been removed. At this point, if someone wanted to "repair" this façade how would one even go about doing so? And in the end, how much more original would the repaired façade be as compared to the rebuilt one that they're proposing?

There is no reason to preserve this building. Them knocking this building down and trying their best to approximate what this building looked like in it's glory days sounds like a fine solution.

So yea, completely fine with knocking it over and rebuilding. But on a separate note, they need to go back to the drawing board on the overbuild. Looks like shit. But conceptually this seems like a great project.

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

...the developer and their architect, Herb Schultz, embraced the concept (suggested by at least one member of the Architectural Committee) of restoring a full 5-story Evening Telegraph building (only 3 stories remained in recent decades), but is still seeking a demolition to accomplish that objective.

On the surface, that seems like a great compromise.

[PHLtoNYC]

Philadelphia architectural panel recommends changes to proposed hotel at 7th and Chestnut

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadel...-historic.html

Plans to build a hotel at 7th and Chestnut streets were given a recommendation for approval, with key conditions, by the Philadelphia Historical Commission's Architectural Committee on Tuesday.

The ruling means the proposal can advance, but the project still awaits final approval from the full Historical Commission.

Despite concerns, the committee unanimously recommended approval of the demolition of 704 Chestnut St., which housed the closed Las Vegas Lounge, as long as the entire project is approved by the Historical Commission. The committee recommended denial of the design concepts that were presented Tuesday after arguing the additions to the buildings would overshadow the existing building and the would-be rebuilt building.

Committee members also raised questions about the overbuild portion of the proposal. The additions on top of the historic parts of the building would feature a mix of a white limestone color and a dark color.

Detwiler said the overbuild is “chaotic” and called it the “least successful” part of the proposal. Other committee members agreed, saying the additions to the building would be more eye-catching than the historic elements. Committee member Amy Stein said the overbuild design is too dominant and recommended farther setbacks.

[BroadandMarket]

I'm more worried about the current building being demolished and then having nothing rebuilt. We've been burnt enough times with Jewelers Row and other cases like Front and Chestnut, 3rd and Chestnut (arson), 17th and Walnut (arson) etc. They are massive eyesores.

[summersm343]

New Historical Commission Submission:

https://www.phila.gov/media/20230203...t-Feb-2023.pdf