Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story single-family dwelling at 1027 West Arizona Street in Hartranft, North Philadelphia, near Temple University. The structure will be constructed upon a currently vacant site situated at the north side of the block between North 10th and North 11th streets. The planned development will hold 2,064 square feet of interior space and will offer a basement and a roof deck. The development team includes The Door LLC as the owner (alternately listed as Thedoor LLC in city databases), KCA Design Associates as the architect, and Elegance Group LLC as the contractor.
Project construction costs are noted at $177,300, which translates into approximately $86 per proposed buildable interior square foot. This total includes $115,000 for general construction work, $6,800 for electrical work, $7,500 for mechanical work, $23,000 for plumbing work, and $25,000 for excavation work.
1027 West Arizona Street. Zoning map. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
1027 West Arizona Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
1027 West Arizona Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
The design displays rather narrow, although not atypical for a rowhouse, dimensions. The proposed building will measure 12 feet wide, 43 feet long, and 34 feet high to the main roof, or 38 feet high to the parapet and 44 feet to the top of the roof access pilot house. Given the future building’s prominence over adjacent two-story structures, the deck promises to offer open views of the city skyline. The ground level will sit four feet above the sidewalk. Ceiling heights will span just over nine feet at the above-ground floors and eight feet in the basement.
The contemporary-styled street-facing facade will be clad in brick, in a nod to neighboring prewar rowhouses, upon its principal face, and in panels on the upper-levels cantilever, which will be angled and will project slightly over two feet over the sidewalk and the front stoop. Horizontal siding will encase the rear exterior.
A 14-and-a-half-foot-long yard will sit in the building rear, abutting a two-and-a-half-foot-wide mid-block alley.
1027 West Arizona Street. Rear building elevation. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
1027 West Arizona Street. Site plan. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
The surrounding area, predominantly a bedrooom community similar to much of the rest of eastern North Philly, saw a significant degree of disinvestment, population loss, and subsequent demolitions. As recently as 15 or so years ago, the block was a rather dreary place replete with vacant lots and abandoned buildings. The two-story prewar rowhouse at 1025 West Arizona Street, adjacent to the proposal site to the south, sat as an empty shell with its second story apparently charred by a devastating fire.
Today, thankfully, the neighborhood is in the midst of a decade-long insurgence, driven in large part by the city’s generally improving fortunes and desirability, student housing demand driven by nearby Temple University, and local community organizations such as the Village of Arts and Humanities, which manifests itself on the block at hand via unmistakable tiled low fences wrought with undulating crenellations and emphasized at the corners with totem-like pillars.
1027 West Arizona Street (left). Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Looking northeast. September 2014. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
1027 West Arizona Street (left). Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Looking northeast. April 2025. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
At least two new three-story residential developments had been connstruct4ed on the block within the past decade or so, and even the dilapidated rowhouse at 1025 West Arizona has been brought back to habitable condition, although it has began to again show signs of dilapidation in recent years.
Route 23 and 39 buses run in the vicinity. The Susquehanna-Dauphin station on the Broad Street subway line sits within a nine-minute walk to the southwest, and the North Broad and Temple University regional rail stations are situated within a ten-minute walk to the northwest and to the south, respectively. The university may be reached via a ten-minute walk to the southwest.
1027 West Arizona Street. Zoning table. Credit: KCA Design Associates via the City of Philadelphia
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Although in the past many Temple University students lived in Hartranft, that is no longer true. Temple’s enrollment has decreased by 10,000 in the last dozen years, creating higher off-campus apartment vacancy and lower rents. This project is a single family home, unlikely to be leased by Temple students.
The article never implied that this particular development is likely to be geared toward Temple students. It only mentioned the university in terms of general proximity (in the first paragraph) as well as in terms of its general, years-long effect on the ongoing revival of the surrounding area as a whole, as one of several factors:
“the neighborhood is in the midst of a decade-long insurgence, driven in large part by the city’s generally improving fortunes and desirability, student housing demand driven by nearby Temple University, and local community organizations such as the Village of Arts and Humanities”
Elegance Group’s contracting license was revoked. As a result, the construction schedule for this project and dozens of others probably will be delayed.