Permits Issued for Single-Family Rowhouse at 3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue in Strawberry Mansion, North Philadelphia

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story single-family dwelling at 3210 Cecil B. Moore Avenue in Strawberry Mansion, North Philadelphia. The new rowhouse will replace of a currently vacant lot situated on the south side of the block between North 32nd and North Natrona streets. The building will span 1,377 square feet. The project team consists of the Philadelphia Housing Authority as the owner, Moto Designshop as the architect, and Spruce Builders as the contractor.

Construction costs are listed at $132,050, which equates to approximately $96 per interior square foot. This total includes $94,050 allocated for general construction work, $6,500 for electrical work, $7,500 for mechanical work, $21,000 for plumbing work, and $3,000 for excavation work.

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site map. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site map. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

The proposed building will bear rather compact dimensions, measuring 18 feet wide and just 30 feet long. Rising 34-and-a-half feet to the main roof and 36 feet to the top of the parapet, the vertically oriented structure will extend greater in height than it will in length. Matching its prewar rowhouse neighbors, the front facade will be set back from the sidewalk by 16-and-a-half feet, where a seven-and-a-half-foot-long, three-and-a-half-foot-wide stoop will project onto the front yard. The street-facing facade will be articulated in running and stack bond brick, which will make for a pleasant historicist touch for the surrounding architectural context, albeit lacking the stately articulation, dormer-capped mansard roof, and a covered front porch present in the neighboring structures.

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site plan. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

3210 Cecil B Moore Avenue. Site plan. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

A generously-sized, 53-foot-long yard will extend to the rear of the proposed structure, although, curiously, only 12 feet of this depth will be enclosed by a fence. Another missed opportunity is a lack of a roof deck, where the building’s considerable elevation would have offered its residents reasonably ample views of the relatively proximate Center City and University City skylines.

Situated on the far western fringe of Lower North Philadelphia, 3210 Cecil B. Moore Avenue sits at quite a considerable distance from the subway, though route 3, 32, 446, and 448 buses run in the vicinity, as does the G1 trolley on Girard Avenue within a 15-minute walk to the south. Expansive Fairmount Park sits just one-and-a-half blocks to the west. The John Coltrane House, a National Historic Landmark at 1511 North 33rd Street that was home to the legendary jazz musician from 1952 to 1958 and currently houses a community garden, sits within a five-minute walk to the southwest.

Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail

Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews