Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, three-unit residential building at 1454 North 57th Street in Carroll Park, West Philadelphia. The development is located on the west side of the block between Master Street and Media Street. The wood-framed structure will contain 2,497 square feet of interior space and will feature a basement and full sprinkling. Permits list Bensu Developments LLC as the owner, Scott Woodruff as the architect, and AIMES LLC as the contractor.
1454 North 57th Street. Credit: Google
1454 North 57th Street. Looking northwest. Credit: Google
The structure will replace a vacant lot within a generally intact ensemble of two-story prewar rowhouses that stretches along the full length of the block. The rowhouses are wrought in a style common to the surrounding area, which features front yards, covered porches clad in rusticated masonry, bay windows at the second floors, cornices, and decorative turrets at façade corners. Over the years, most of the buildings were altered with remodeled porches and siding, though they maintain enough architectural integrity to read as a single composition.
1454 North 57th Street. Looking east. Credit: Google
North 57th Street, with 1454 North 57th Street on the left. Looking north. Credit: Google
North 57th Street, with 1454 North 57th Street on the right. Looking south. Credit: Google
In this context, the new three-story building will stick out like a sore thumb. However, on the positive side, the building will eliminate a nuisance lot, close a gap in the streetwall, and add density to a block that has no seen new construction since the end of World War II. A few more vacant lots are still available on either side of the block, where we may expect to see further construction in the near future as an ongoing construction sure, spurred by the development boom in University City, continues unabated throughout West Philadelphia.
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Is there a driveway in the back with a garage?
The pictures illustrate how different the layouts are from one side of the street (front lawns) to the other side.
West Philadelphia is no different than other neighborhoods in Brooklyn/Queens.
Northeast Philadelphia (in the neighborhood that I grew up in) had consistently for many city blocks with huge front lawns, driveways and garage parking.
I often wondered why Kensington (and parts of Frankford Ave.) had to make things different.
No, there doesn’t appear to be a rear driveway. Rear driveways are rare in inner parts of Philly, incl. West Philly. As of Brooklyn/Queens, there are all sorts of variations. In both Philly, Brooklyn, and Queens I’ve lived on blocks with rear driveways, side driveways, or no driveways at all. It all varies block by block, most notably in western Queens IMO.