In April of last year, YIMBY reported foundation work is underway at The Bordeaux, a five-story mixed-use building at 2600 West Girard Avenue in Brewerytown, North Philadelphia. Since that time, construction has made significant progress. Our recent site visit has revealed that the structure has been topped out and a red brick facade is steadily climbing up the structure’s exterior. Designed by Ambit Architecture and developed by the Argo Property Group, with Tester Construction Group as the contractor, the building rises at the southwest corner of Girard Avenue and North 26th Street and will span 17,365 square feet, which will include a 3,500-square-foot ground-level retail space and 16 residential units. Permits list a construction cost of $2.75 million.
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Building axonometric (looking southwest). Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Building axonometric (looking southeast). Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Site plan. Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Girard Avenue elevation. Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Building section. Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Zoning table. Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux rises 55 feet tall to the top of its main roof, maxing out the allowable zoning height, and 65 feet to the top of the pilot houses. This prominent height will allow for panoramic views in most directions, most notably of the Center City skyline to the south. Even the slightly taller apartment building proposed a block to the west at 2620 West Girard Avenue will not block any significant views.
The building’s height allows for tall, nine-foot-plus ceilings at the middle floors, and even taller heights at the ground-level commercial space and at the top level. The design capitalizes on this feature by utilizing floor-to-ceiling windows, which nevertheless remain grounded in the neighborhood’s rowhouse vernacular via their narrow form, relatively wide piers between the windows, and an exterior of traditional-looking red brick, which so far is turning out to be a rather close match to the renderings.
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Rendering credit: Ambit Architecture
Most of the ground floor, as well as much of the basement, will be dedicated to retail, which will surely spruce up the pedestrian experience at the street corner. The corner also gains an added touch of urbane flare from the turning trolley tracks of the Girard Avenue trolley, which offers a near-direct commute to Temple University to the east and a single-transfer trolley ride to University City to the southwest.
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Ground floor plan. Credit: Ambit Architecture via the City of Philadelphia
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The Bordeaux at 2600 West Girard Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2022
The building will also offer elevator service, two stair banks (a generous yet not-unwanted safety feature for a structure with such a small footprint), bicycle and tenant storage, video entry access, an online portal, and outdoor space along North 26th Street.
The developer website indicates an expected completion for The Bordeaux in the first quarter of this year. While the project is clearly behind this anticipated date, the lag is minor, and we may expect to see completion within the next half year or so.
We look forward to further progress on this attractive, high-density, and apparently high-quality development.
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Love red brick and the texture this building brings with it!
Solid, simple, handsome design. We need more buildings like this!