Permits have been issued for the construction of a new school building at 3350 Richmond Street in Port Richmond, Kensington. The structure will house a rebuilt and modernized AMY at James Martin school, a part of the school district of Philadelphia. Once completed, the new building will stand four stories tall and will span 88,576 square feet of space. The property will also see the construction of a new playground space and a new surface parking lot/drop off loop. KSS Architects is the firm behind the school’s design.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
The new building will feature a simple, brick-clad exterior that offers a modern look for this location. The facade’s brick composure will be separated in multiple sections, with some area (such as the ground floor) being clad with red brick and other portions seeing the usage of tan brick (such as the portions of tan brick situated at the corners on upper floors). Windows of varying sizes are arranged throughout the exterior, with some large, statement windows located in areas that see higher volume/usage.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
The school aims to make a pleasant street presence, with an abundance of street trees slated to be planted around the perimeter. Beyond this, renderings suggest that there will be garden space incorporated within the project that will add more greenery to the street scape around the playground space. As for the building itself, there are few sections that do not interact nicely with the surrounding sidewalk, with no blank walls creating significant dead space around the school’s footprint.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
The only real hindrance to the project’s street presence are the curb cuts included at the surface parking lot. In order to access teacher parking space or the student drop-off/pickup loop, cars will cross the sidewalk along Richmond Street and Salmon Street. Around the beginning and end of the school day, this will create a steady flow of cars crossing the sidewalk, though thankfully this is confined to these select times. Additionally, these curb cuts already exist on the school property as it is today, and so this new project is not actually creating these curb cuts.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
Speaking of the former site conditions, this lot has observed an academic occupancy for a significant portion of its lifespan. The new school building will be replacing an older school situated in the exact same space. The old school offered an attractive stately exterior that stands out as one of the more visually appealing structures in the area. The detailed stone exterior included arched windows and a prominent cornice that rested atop a staggered building crown. Overall, it is admittedly disappointing to see this beautiful relic bite the dust, even if its replacement offers a solid design itself.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
3350 Richmond Street. Credit: KSS Architects.
It is certainly positive to see significant investment and development on this site, and the modernized school will be a fantastic improvement for the surrounding area. Having an improved, brand-new school with a flashy playground should do wonders for the surrounding community. While it would have been nice to see a renovation of the older building, it likely would have required far too much money and work to make the renovation justifiable in comparison to starting from scratch.
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Beautiful project and the with 100neighborhood will benefit from this. Another school was just opened in West Philadelphia last week and it was funded with 100 percent of Federal funds. Will this school be funded with Federal funds likewise?
This isn’t Port Richmond, Kensington. This is just Port Richmond.
Why does it say Kensington?