Permits Issued for Construction of Single-Family Residence at 111 East Springer Street in Mount Airy, Northwest Philadelphia

Residential building permits have been issued for the construction of a two-story single-family residential rowhouse at 111 East Springer Street in Mount Airy, Northwest Philadelphia. The building will rise from a presently vacant lot sitting at the northwest side of the block between Ross Street and Musgrave Street. The proposed structure will span 1,300 interior square feet. The project team consists of the Civetta Property Group and the City of Philadelphia as the owners, Moto Designshop as the architect, Ruggiero Plante Land Design as the civil engineer, The Ramtin Group as the structural engineer, and Spruce Builders as the contractor.

Development construction costs for the project are specified at $125,300, which calculates to around $96 per planned interior square foot. The total includes $93,800 for general construction work, $6,300 for electrical work, $7,200 for mechanical work, and $18,000 for plumbing work.

111 East Springer Street. Project map. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

111 East Springer Street. Project map. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

111 East Springer Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

111 East Springer Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

The property is more wide and less long in shape than the typical rowhouse site, measuring 25 feet wide and 51 feet long. The footprint for the semi-detached structure will span 17-and-a-half feet wide, with a seven-and-a-half-foot-wide yard at the southwest side offering direct access to the backyard from the street, which is a rather uncommon feature; it is also intriguing as to why the yard enclosure will sit 28 feet away from the street, rather than three feet away to match the building setback. The structure will extend 40 feet wide, leaving space for a rather awkward L-shaped rear yard.

The building will rise 25 feet to the main roof and 26 feet to the top of the parapet. Unfortunately, the plan omits both a basement and a roof deck, making for suboptimal use of the property (likely a cost-savings measure for the city-associated development). The ground level will sit nearly four feet above the sidewalk. Floor-to-floor slab heights will measure ten feet at the ground level and 11-and-a-half feet at the second floor.

111 East Springer Street. Site plans. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

The front facade will be clad in running and stack bond brick courses, a common design style for projects delivered by the development team and a reasonable deference to the prewar rowhouses that predominate within the neighborhood.

Route23 bus runs along Germantown Avenue, the neighborhood’s primary commercial thoroughfare, within a three-minute walk to the southwest, and the route 18 bus may be accessed via a slightly longer, five-minute walk to Chew Avenue to the northeast.

111 East Springer Street. Zoning table. Credit: Moto Designshop via the City of Philadelphia

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