The 6th Place on Philly YIMBY’s December Countdown Goes to Two Cathedral Square, 227 North 18th Street in Logan Square, Center City

The 6th place on Philadelphia YIMBY’s December 2021 Development Countdown goes to Two Cathedral Square, a 470-foot-tall, 34-story mixed-use commercial and residential tower proposed at 227 North 18th Street in Logan Square, Center City. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and developed by EQT Exeter, with Studio Bryan Hanes behind the landscape design, the 700,000-square-foot-plus building is part of Cathedral Square, a redevelopment master plan for the block-sized archdiocesan campus around the iconic Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The building will offer 450,000 square feet of office space on floors two through 14. Luxury residential space will span 250,000 square feet on floors 15 through 34. The ground level will feature 4,500 square feet of retail. The development will also include parking for 200 cars as well as a bicycle storage room. The building will be serviced by eight office elevators, two residential elevators, a freight elevator, and a swing passenger-freight elevator within the residential component.

The building will bring vitality to a hostile, anti-pedestrian block that, aside from the cathedral and a few humdrum institutional buildings, until recently chiefly consisted of parking lots and otherwise vacant land, and was fenced-in on most sides. Instead, the new building will energize the streetscape with a transparent, glassed-in ground level, retail, and new landscaping. In the meantime, the curvy, setbacked bronze tower will have a notable presence on the skyline, extending it further to the north.

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: JLL and Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: JLL

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: JLL and Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Last year, Two Cathedral Square, then known under its tentative name of Cathedral Place Phase Two, topped our December Countdown list with a speculative height of 685 feet. Although the building’s height has since been significantly scaled back, we are still pleased with the trade-off because the city will get an exquisitely designed building that will fill a problematic gap in a central portion of the city.

Since the latest design was unveiled only recently, the project is still clearly in the planning phase. As expected, our site visit revealed that no demolition work has yet begun on the four-story structure that currently stands at the site nor at the adjacent parking lot.

This current status juxtaposes in stark contrast to One Cathedral Square, a residential building that currently stands nearly topped out at 244 feet and 23 stories tall just to the south at 1701 Race Street. Its shorter yet still notable stature earned the building the 30th place on this year’s Countdown, and construction may be finished by the time the next year’s Countdown rolls around.

1700 Vine Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021

1700 Vine Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021

1700 Vine Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021

1700 Vine Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021

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