Permits have been issued for a massive mixed-use development at 1223-45 Washington Avenue in Hawthorne, South Philadelphia. Designed by BKV Group, the high-rise building will stand 12 stories tall and span 372,721 square feet of interior space. The development will offer 375 residential units as well as commercial space on the ground floor along Washington Avenue as well as a parking garage. Construction costs are listed at $62 million.
Rendering of 1223-47 Washington Avenue via BKV Group.
The new building will feature a modern design, with a large C-shaped mass situated atop a podium covering the entirety of the site footprint. The podium setback will include an amenity green space here that will be a pleasant attraction for tenants. The facade will look very similar to that of the building next door at 1001 South Broad Street, to which it is essentially the sister project. White and black cladding will cover the near entirety of the exterior, alternating in different locations, with massive windows allowing for ample natural light. Green cladding will also cover a portion of the façade. Along the retail podium, floor-to-ceiling windows and street trees will help improve the Washington Avenue streetscape.
Aerial view of 1223-46 Washington Avenue. Credit: Google.
The development will rise on the site of a massive surface parking lot that takes up a significant portion of the block, with street frontage in three sides. However, despite the lot’s large size, the lot is frequently underused.
The removal of this drab gray space will be beneficial to the surrounding blocks and especially Washington Avenue, adding an urbane mixed-use building with nearly 400 residential units to a site that is currently not occupied by either a single retail space nor residential unit. This is a common story for many new developments along the high-potential Washington Avenue, which could soon see the addition of thousands of residential units in the near future. Hopefully, the city will move forward on its planned redesign of the street that will take back space from cars and give it to pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders. Once that project is underway, there truly is nothing holding this corridor back.
No completion date is known for the project at this time, but construction may be finished by late 2022 or 2023.
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This property and 1001 S Broad St seem to be cursed. I sure hope this happens–but I’ll believe it when I see it.
And bring on the redesign of Washington Ave!
That site was destroyed in the mid 1970’s by a fire in the Frederick Levey Co chemical dye facility. The fire and resulting explosions during that event were responsible for the deaths of several firefighters and the permanent disabling of several more. A total of 38 firefighters were injured due to the explosion. The fire produced multicolored smoke plumes and the South Philly neighborhood showed up to watch it burn until the explosions chased them away. It was a sad day in the City’s history. Let’s hope this site’s new use is happier.