Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, four-unit apartment building at 31 North 63rd Street in Haddington, West Philadelphia. The development will rise from a vacant lot on the east side of the block between Market and Arch streets. Designed by Anthony Maso Architecture & Design, the structure will span 4,706 square feet and feature a cellar and a roof deck. Permits list ATG Construction as the contractor and specify a construction cost of $535,919.
The development will replace one of four contiguous vacant properties that sit across from verdant Cobbs Creek Park, where the eponymous waterway demarcates the western city boundary. The roughly 80-foot-wide vacant lot is the only break in a row of stately, albeit generally dilapidated, two-story prewar rowhouses that boast deep, double-level porches facing the park.
31 North 63rd Street. Zoning submission. Credit: Anthony Maso via the City of Philadelphia
31 North 63rd Street. Site plan. Credit: Anthony Maso via the City of Philadelphia
The new structure’s footprint will be similar to its rowhouse neighbors, as it will measure 20 feet wide and 70 feet deep. Furthermore, the structure will maintain context by matching the street wall set back of its neighbors and will similarly include a deep recessed area on one side. An 11-foot-deep yard will be situated in the back.
Although the building will be a freestanding structure, at least for the time being (in contrast with the attached rowhouses), the ground floor plan’s dedication to established dimensions is commendable. On the other hand, the structure will rise 38 feet to the main roof (around 41 feet to the parapet and 48 feet to the top of the pilot house) and three-and-a-half floors (the ground floor will be elevated six-and-a-half feet above the sidewalk, allowing for ample sunlight to reach the nominal basement level).
While this height significantly exceeds that of its neighbors, the minor increase in both height and density is easily justified with the site’s near-immediate adjacency to the 63rd Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line. If anything, given the rare transit adjacency, the combined four vacant lots could have justifiably supported a building with significantly more residential units, even at the expense of contextuality.
31 North 63rd Street. Building section. Credit: Anthony Maso via the City of Philadelphia
31 North 63rd Street. Zoning table. Credit: Anthony Maso via the City of Philadelphia
More regrettable is the proposal’s lack of a two-level front porch (or any porch at all, save for the recessed side stoop) to match its neighbors, as well as the decision to end the somewhat contextual brick cladding at the first floor; cladding that apparently consists of panels and siding extends on the two stories above.
Despite its questionable facade treatment, the ground dimensions and matching street wall setback of 31 North 63rd Street will ensure that it will be at least a somewhat respectful neighbor to its established context, rather than an outright out-of-place eyesore. In any case, transit-proximate development, even if it contributes only four residential units, is definitely welcome at any location, and we hope that the adjacent vacant lots will see new construction in the near future, as well.
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They should do the uptown in north Philadelphia PA and the North Philly train station and the 2400 north broad street please respond thank you.