PHILADELPHIA | Lowrise/General Developments Thread

[Swinefeld]

Nice pics, hammer. Here's one from earlier this week. Not much to see yet. Just a big ditch. I guess that's better than a dig bitch.

[Swinefeld]

Some updates from yesterday.

Looking north on Juniper Street.


Broad Street façade looking south.


Looking west along Arch Street.


Broad Street view looking north.


13th and Arch looking north.

[apetrella802]

The Arch street facade is broken down into a series of gabled bays, that mimics to some extent a traditional Philadelphia streetscape made up of row houses. Now that this "row" has been extended beyound the origianl CC it is a little less sucessful in avoiding a monolith but still visually interesting.

Of course another thing that helps avoid the monolithic feeling is the fact that the walls are more glass than masonry. I think its one of the most sucessful CCs as far as avoiding the big box blank wall look.

[hammersklavier]

Originally Posted by apetrella802

The Arch street facade is broken down into a series of gabled bays, that mimics to some extent a traditional Philadelphia streetscape made up of row houses. Now that this "row" has been extended beyound the origianl CC it is a little less sucessful in avoiding a monolith but still visually interesting.

Of course another thing that helps avoid the monolithic feeling is the fact that the walls are more glass than masonry. I think its one of the most sucessful CCs as far as avoiding the big box blank wall look.

There's more than one meaning to the word "seamless". Since the new Arch Street façade blends into the old Arch Street façade without any sort of visual interruption, I am justified in calling it "seamless". And since this is a façade that is effectively two city blocks of an almost completely blank wall (although nowhere near as bad as the Race Street antifaçade) I am justified in calling it "monstrous".

And besides, "seamless, monstrous" has a certain poetic ring, don't you think?

[apetrella802]

i didn't mean to imply that you were wrong about anything, you can and should say whatever you think

your comments just lead me to say what i think

"let 10,000 flowers bloom"!!!

[pwp]

This is ancedotal but I was at the auto show Sunday and exited the convention center on Arch St. I looked down Arch from east to west, starting at one end of the convention center and did not realize how long this structure looks with the addition. The southern facing facade's framework is complete so you can now see how it all comes together. Really impressive. Can't wait for the finished product, especially the Broad St side.

This is really going to "wow" visitors/tourists in my opinion.

[hammersklavier]

Creep them out, more likely.

I hope they get that bit of Cherry Street alongside PAfA turned into a plaza soon. That'll be much more livable...

[Don098]

Great, great shots. Thanks for sharing! So does anyone have some updated pictures of the South Street Bridge?

[Don098]

Have any renderings been developed for this yet?

[hammersklavier]

New photos (from yesterday, if you want to get technical about it):

















As you may have noticed, the façade design along Arch is slightly modified in the new portion. Instead of the brick only being a cornice-type decoration with most of the main accents being limestone (?: it's not concrete, though, that's for sure) as it was in the older part of the building, the newer part will have the window bays accented by bricking with limestone columns separating them...

...At least, that's what I can infer from what I saw at the site.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Johnland

I actually like the brick tower. The blend of historical red brick executed a in crisp, articulated form seems to work. It's a good height. I say keep the tower and lose the rest.

I like the tower too. The building was designed by Cambridge Seven, which designed many of the T stations in Boston, and most of the aquariums on the East Coast.

[hammersklavier]

The South Street Bridge from the Locust St. trailhead of the Schuylkill Banks Trail as of Friday (2-12-2010):



Note the main piers have all been completed,which means when the weather clears up some and construction season starts in earnest, the laying of the deck beams should be the next job. I would suspect that that'll be done by mid-May at the latest (remember, the South Street Bridge is a long span)--but probably sooner.

[Aaamazarite]

Thanks for the pics.

[Muji]

Thanks to the Federal stimulus program, the Great Philadelphia area has won $23 million in TIGER grants for bike and pedestrian paths.

link: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/br..._stimulus.html

New bike paths for region, courtesy of U.S. stimulus

by Paul Nussbaum
Inquirer Staff Writer

Ten new bike and pedestrian paths will be built in Philadelphia and South Jersey with $23 million in federal stimulus funds, local officials announced today.

The trails will fill in some of the gaps in a planned 108-mile network that eventually will link Philadelphia, Reading, Chester, New Hope, Cherry Hill, and Trenton.

"This will transform the network we have and make it accessible to a much larger and more diverse segment of our population," said Sarah Clark Stuart, campaign director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, which helped prepare the proposal approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The three paths in Camden County and seven in Philadelphia will be constructed in the next two years, said Stephen Buckley, Philadelphia's deputy commissioner of transportation.

The Philadelphia paths will extend existing trails along the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. The seven include new trails along the Delaware in North Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia, said Spencer Finch, director of sustainable development at the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. The council helped write the proposal.

The most expensive path is a 2,000-foot boardwalk to be built for $10.6 million along the east bank of the Schuylkill, from the end of the current trail at Locust Street to South Street. Construction could begin in a few months.

[...]

Amazing news for anyone who loves the Schuylkill Banks!

[Chtorr00]

Reposted from a comment over at the Philly Bicycle Coalitition:

If you look at the original grant proposal (located on the Complete the Trail website), you can make a pretty good guess which of the bike projects are going to get funded.

Philadelphia and Camden are the only two areas that received money under the grant. So, that eliminates all the proposed projects in Montco, Delco, Bucks County and Schuylkill County.

Camden received 5.8 million, so all three of their projects are going forwards.

Philadelphia asked for 20.4 million for their projects, and are going to receive 17.2 million from the TIGER grant. That means 3.2 mil worth of projects are not getting grant money.

Also, the intent of the grant was aimed at improving bike access to jobs and improving opportunities for commuting, as well as expanding bike access for poorer neighborhoods.

My guess is that two projects in Phila. are not getting funding. One is the Walnut Street Gateway (2.2 mil requested), which would have improved the streetscape where Walnut meets the Schuylkill Trail. The other is the gap on the Schuylkill River Trail between Shawmont Avenue and Port Royal Avenue (1 mil requested). Both of these are more nice to have than need to have, so I am guessing that given the math, they are what is not going to get funded.

The projects in Phila. that are going to get the 17.2 million from this grant are still very exciting:

• CSX Ramp (connecting Schuylkill Trail and Spruce street, for 4.4 mil).
• South Street Boardwalk (extending the Schuylkill Trail past the South St Bridge for 6.9 mil).
• Bartram's Garden Trail (extending north from Bartram's Garden to approx. the Gray's Ferry bridge for 2.4 mil).
• 58th Street Connector (greenway connecting Bartram's Garden and Cobbs Creek Trail for 1 mil).
• ECG / Delaware Avenue Trail (between Allegheny Avenue and the Betsy Ross Bridge for 2.5 mil).

It is kind of a bummer the neighboring counties got short thrift, but considering the fierce competition for these TIGER grants, we should be extremely pleased with this result.

[hammersklavier]

Methinks they put the JFK Bvld sign up on the wrong side of the abutment:

[FerrariEnzo]

^ Haha, now all those boaters will know.

[phillyaggie]

One good thing about this round of TIGER grants was that they funded mass transit in most cities and not highways. In that sense, it's a victory.

More related to Philly, however, I am surprised that Philly area would ask for funding for bike/ped trails while almost all other major cities asked for (and received) funding to extend their mass transit systems.

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2...-distribution/

Boston is extending one of its commuter lines.

D.C. is improving its bus service in 13 corridors.

Tucson (yeah, Arizona!) is (re)building a trolley line to modern standards

Dallas is building a downtown trolley loop to connect to its expanding long-distance LRT

NYC is building a major new station for its trains

Portland... new streetcar tracks

Detroit...new rail line

Las Vegas... new BRT line


But Philly chooses to ask for grant money to fund what are essentially recreational trails.


Any thought given to providing modern LRT (or even just restarting the old service) to the dense neighborhoods just south and north of Center City?! BSL is simply not enough.

It simply amazes me that so much of mass transit infrastructure of Philly was built almost 100 years ago and not a lot of new stuff has been built nor a lot of upkeep has been gone into what's there...yeah yeah, the MFL got rebuilt but INEPTA has also abandoned services along the way. I think downtown and areas nearby could use a new, modern people mover with single-seat service as much as possible. Trails could be funded via other sources.

[Capsule F]

.

[Capsule F]

Originally Posted by phillyaggie

One good thing about this round of TIGER grants was that they funded mass transit in most cities and not highways. In that sense, it's a victory.

More related to Philly, however, I am surprised that Philly area would ask for funding for bike/ped trails while almost all other major cities asked for (and received) funding to extend their mass transit systems.

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2...-distribution/

Boston is extending one of its commuter lines.

D.C. is improving its bus service in 13 corridors.

Tucson (yeah, Arizona!) is (re)building a trolley line to modern standards

Dallas is building a downtown trolley loop to connect to its expanding long-distance LRT

NYC is building a major new station for its trains

Portland... new streetcar tracks

Detroit...new rail line

Las Vegas... new BRT line


But Philly chooses to ask for grant money to fund what are essentially recreational trails.


Any thought given to providing modern LRT (or even just restarting the old service) to the dense neighborhoods just south and north of Center City?! BSL is simply not enough.

It simply amazes me that so much of mass transit infrastructure of Philly was built almost 100 years ago and not a lot of new stuff has been built nor a lot of upkeep has been gone into what's there...yeah yeah, the MFL got rebuilt but INEPTA has also abandoned services along the way. I think downtown and areas nearby could use a new, modern people mover with single-seat service as much as possible. Trails could be funded via other sources.

The money received in this grant wouldn't put a dent into any of these transit projects. On the other hand, it will improve bicycling in Philadelphia in a big way, remember a lot of people commute via bicycle, I do everyday.

I doubt that Philadelphia didn't try to get mass transit funding, the funding they did receive was probably best used in this capacity.