Philadelphia YIMBY’s recent site visit took a close look at the recently completed, seven-story, 128-unit mixed-use building at 4240 Chestnut Street in Spruce Hill, West Philadelphia. Designed by DAS Architects, the structure is located on the south side of the block between South 42nd and South 43rd streets. The project will span 141,928 square feet, of which nearly 40,000 square feet will be used as office. Apartment sizes will likely average at just below 800 square feet each. Permits list Intercultural Family Services as the owner, Morris Clarke as the design professional, and HC Pody Company as the contractor.
4240 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
4240 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
4240 Chestnut Street replaces a parking lot and a vacant grassy parcel, filling an unsightly gap in the streetscape with a high-density building. The only downside to the proposal was that it blocks a blue-green-toned floral mural that was painted on the side of the adjacent prewar rowhouse to the east which was painted around fall 2009. Otherwise, the building will be a fine addition to the centrally-located, transit-adjacent (the 40th Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line sits a few blocks to the east) neighborhood.
4240 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
4240 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller
The final product relatively closely matches the original project renderings, yet adds an extra touch of color compared to the originally presented composition. Although the palette is rather basic and unornamented, the building brightens the streetscape mood with the colorful panels, bright red brick at the ground level, and asymettrical apertures in various sizes on the second floor and at the stories above. A two-story entrance module makes for a prominent visual centerpiece. Although separated from the sidewalk with a raised railing, expansive floor-to-ceiling storefront windows create a sense of transparency at the ground level. In all, 4240 Chestnut Street makes for an attractive, high-density, mixed-use addition to the rapidly developing neighborhood.
Rendering of 4240 Chestnut Street. Credit: DAS Architects.
Rendering of 4240 Chestnut Street. Credit: DAS Architects.
Rendering of 4240 Chestnut Street. Credit: DAS Architects.
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Why does Philly have the ugliest new buildings?
The initial CDR presentation occurred in November 2019. The proposal was for a seven story, ‘by-right’ 128-unit building scheduled to begin construction in early 2020. Primarily one-bedrooms and a few studios, the target renter was U. City students. The 141,900 square foot building included two lower floors of 35,489 square foot office, therapy and training space for Intercultural Family Services, a community services agency then located in two Chestnut St. row homes and at various other sites around the neighborhood. Initial renderings were similar to the built structure but with much less color — only pale green and blue.
The project included a courtyard and green roof located in a setback over the second floor, and an additional green roof and roof deck at the top, planters, new street trees, bike racks, and 40 underground parking spaces for Intercultural Family Services employees and renters, which regrettably were accessed via Chestnut St. The site of new construction on the south side of Chestnut (4240 Chestnut) held two surface parking lots, one paved and one dirt, and two matching, rust colored, somewhat dilapidated row houses with good bones then used by Intercultural Family Services. The Sansom St. plot had been surface parking since 2007.
Intercultural Family Services is a non-profit organization which provides critical services to the local community, including Family Empowerment Services, children’s behavioral health, money management, and truancy prevention. Its main office is currently located on the north side of the 4200 block Chestnut St. but now that their new space is ready for occupancy, it will be moving south.
Construction started in late 2022.
The finished product Chestnut St. side shows a brash orange and pale blue, yellow, and green, mostly dark and light gray, exterior. The windows are scattershot. The huge box is broken up only by the mid-building third floor setback. The office entrance is on Chestnut while the residential entrance is on Sansom St.
Although this starkly modern edifice is not as terrible as some new apartment houses, it’s bad. Worse are The Eleanor at Chestnut Apartments at 4258-60 Chestnut St. just west and 4042 Chestnut Street just east. The latter is described on University Realty’s website as “[t]his property is conveniently located within University of Pennsylvania’s security patrolled corridor. All apartments are equipped with individual alarms and front door monitors. All of our newest buildings have state of the art monitoring protection. Student safety is our #1 priority! This great property offers Free Shuttle Service, Free Flat Screen TV, Alarm System, Video Monitoring, Keyless Entry and a Parking Garage. Contact us today to learn more or apply now.” With that much security provided, I’d be fearful.
The latter has no street activity, just a few small windows and two curb cuts leading to metal gated garage doors. And the uPenn police station is next door.
Compare the current project with Solo on Chestnut at 4233 Chestnut across the street. It too uses color but a single tone in a subtler and more appealing way. The ground floor has at least two retail spots and the residential entrance. The garage door is narrow and blends in with the rest of building. There is texture – the window frames pop out, the entrance awning protects and is attractive, there are multiple setbacks, and there is a cornice.
4240 Chestnut St. has two pluses, however – the low profile Sansom St. portion is attractive and pedestrian scaled and Intercultural Family Services gets modern offices and medical space. In addition, density is almost always good.