Permits Issued for 2118 East York Street in Fishtown

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story single-family rowhouse at 2118 East York Street in Fishtown. The new building will rise from a vacant lot on the southwest side of the block between Amber Street and the Fishtown Roundabout. Designed by Leake Engineering, the structure will span 2,800 square feet and will feature a basement and a roof deck. Permits list Simo Ayer as the contractor.

Construction costs are specified at $350,500, of which $220,500 is allocated toward general construction, $30,000 for electrical work, $30,000 for mechanical work, $30,000 for plumbing work, and $45,000 for excavation work.

2118 East York Street. Site map. Credit: Google Maps

2118 East York Street. Zoning table and oning map. Credit: Leake Engineering via the City of Philadelphia

2118 East York Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Looking southwest. March 2023. Credit: Google Maps

The building, situated in an RSA-5 zoning district, will measure 20 feet wide and 63 feet deep, backed by a 23-foot rear yard. The structure will rise 36 feet to the main roof, 37 feet to the street-facing parapet, and 46 feet to the top of the roof access pilot house. The ground floor, elevated four feet above the sidewalk, will be accessed via a sideways stoop. Floor-to-ceiling heights will measure around ten feet at the first and third floors and around nine feet at the second story and in the basement.

Since the zoning documents offer no exterior renderings or elevations, we cannot gauge its aesthetic design quality. However, despite being sited at the edge of a predominantly prewar rowhouse neighborhood, an avant-garde design would not be out of place, as the surrounding blocks house some of the most aesthetically intriguing new construction built in the River Wards in recent years.

2118 East York Street. Site plan. Credit: Leake Engineering via the City of Philadelphia

2118 East York Street. Building section. Credit: Leake Engineering via the City of Philadelphia

2118 East York Street will rise just to the north of Metal Works Apartments at 2120 East York Street, a five-story rental residential building completed around 2020. The structure is notable for its rigorous facade with checkerboard-staggered projections and corrugated metal siding that resembles stacked shipping containers.

Across the street and just to the south stands The Dash, a four-story, 15-unit rental apartment building recently completed at 2400 Frankford Avenue. Designed by CANNOdesign, the development is notable for its gently rounded corner and an astute dark brick facade with a rectilinear coffered grid.

Across the street to the east of The Dash stands the Fishtown Flatiron at 2401 Frankford Avenue, also recently completed. Designed by Ambit Architecture, the four-story, 15-unit rental building boasts a distinctive wedge shape with a rounded corner and an eye-catching gridded facade with red brick and off-white mullions.

The two abovementioned buildings center upon a traffic circle completed around 2021 at a particularly complex intersection of Frankford Avenue, Trenton Avenue, and East York Street. Sited at the junction of three neighborhoods (Fishtown to the southwest, East Kensington to the north, and Olde Richmond to the southeast), naming nomenclature varies for the street feature. For simplicity’s sake, we will refer to the traffic circle as the Fishtown Roundabout, one of the commonly used names along with those such as the Frankford-Trenton-York Roundabout and the East Kensington Round About, with the latter used on Google Maps.

Fishtown Roundabout (aka East Kensington Roundabout). Aerial view. Looking north. Credit: Google Maps

While traffic circles have been proven to dramatically increase safety at intersections they are employed at, the feature is still rather novel for Philadelphia. As such, the Google reviews page, which currently gives the circle a glowing 5.0 rating, has amassed a collection of offbeat and endearing reviews. Below we quote some of the more intriguing ones:

From Colin Weir:

The presence of this roundabout was the primary factor in our decision to move to Fishtown. Dog-friendliness: Great for dogs, but they don’t appreciate it on the same level. Picnic area: I guess you could have a picnic in the middle of it

From Cameron Blyth:

Love, love, love the flowers! Best round about in the city. A must see for anyone visiting East Kensington

From Dana McCall:

A vast improvement over the previous traffic light situation. Was also a great neighborhood skating rink for a few weeks 🙂

From Keaton Daley:

There is nothing negative I could say about this roundabout except that I wish it was rounder and maybe a little more about.

From Nicole Donnely:

I love the circle, I’m so about the rounds. Fun and ergonomic on the bicycle.

From Jon Morris:

This is the roundest roundabout I’ve ever ridden around and written about.

From Angela Ricci:

It makes East Kensington go ‘round!

Route 5, 39, and 59 buses service the surrounding blocks. The Berks and York-Dauphin stations on the Market-Frankford subway line are situated at a roughly equal distance within an under-ten-minute walk to the southwest and the northwest, respectively.

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