Construction Still Not Started at 1816 Seybert Street in Cecil B. Moore, North Philadelphia

A recent site visit by Philly YIMBY has observed that construction has still not started at a three-story single-family rowhouse proposed at 1816 Seybert Street in Cecil B. Moore, North Philadelphia. The development will replace a vacant lot on the south side of the block between North 18th and North 19th streets, situated a block east of the Girard College campus Designed by Carolina Pena of Parallel Architecture Studio, the structure will span 1,987 square feet and will feature a cellar, a roof deck, and full sprinkling. Permits list BI Direct as the contractor.

The total construction cost is listed at $170,000, lending an average cost of $86 per interior square foot. Within this sum, $140,000 is allocated toward general construction work and $10,000 apiece for electrical, mechanical, and plumbing work.

1816 Seybert Street. Photo by Jamie Meller

1816 Seybert Street. Photo by Jamie Meller

The building’s scale and general style will match that of its prewar rowhouse neighbors. The structure will rise 32 feet to the main roof, 35 feet to the parapet, and 41 feet to the top of the deeply setbacked pilot house. The building will measure 14 feet wide and extend 35 feet into the lot, leaving space for a seven-foot-wide rear yard. Features such as a raised porch and extensive use of brick will provide a contextual match for the surroundings, although the deep setback of the porch and cantilevered upper floors are a contemporary adaptation to the extremely narrow, alley-like street with six-foot-wide sidewalks and a 12-foot-wide roadway.

1816 Seybert Street is situated in something of a transitional area, at the junction of several neighborhoods that have long shared a similar history, as well as architectural and sociological composition, yet today display markedly distinct development patterns. After World War II, this rowhouse-lined section of the city at the junction of Lower North Philadelphia and North Philadelphia West has seen significant depopulation general disinvestment, which resulted in numerous demolitions that gutted its formerly densely built-out cityscape.

Today, however, the area has found itself in the midst of a revival that originates from several nearby loci. Cecil B. Moore, which extends to the north, is seeing a surge of growth fueled by the ever-growing student housing demand for nearby Temple University, with some real estate developers ditching the name of the civic rights’ leader in favor of “Templetown,” much of the chagrin of the local population. To the south, numerous new mid-sized apartment buildings are transforming the unique angled street grid of Francisville. Even Sharswood, a particularly distressed neighborhood situated to the west, is seeing an influx of new construction in a spillover of the above-mentioned development surges, as well as from yet another construction hotspot in Brewerytown to the west. As such, we fully expect further construction announcements from the blocks surrounding the site of 1816 Seybert Street.

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