A recent site visit by Philly YIMBY has revealed that construction has not yet started at a three-story, five-unit apartment building at 4029 Powelton Avenue in West Powelton, West Philadelphia, for which permits were issued around March. The structure will replace a vacant lot on the north side of the block between Wiota Street and North Preston Street. Designed by Cadre Design & Development, the building will feature a basement and two private roof decks. Permits list Yuhua Wang and Emily Xiao as the owners, JS General Contractor Inc. as the contractor, and a construction cost of $150,000.
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
4029 Powelton Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. September 2022
The building will rise 36 feet to the top of the main roof and 46 feet to the top of the two pilot houses. Although adjacent properties also rise three stories tall, the new building will rise over ten feet higher than its neighbors, meaning that the roof decks will offer sweeping views of the skylines of nearby University City and Center City.
Given the structure’s low floor count in relation to its height, we would typically expect an elevated base and tall floors. Surprisingly, the opposite is true. The ground floor appears to sit level with the sidewalk, and while the two upper floors offer paltry eight-foot floor-to-floor heights, the ground floor subsequently adds up to a whopping 20-foot height. It is hard to explain such an arrangement, which would be more likely for a structure with ground-floor retail, for an all-residential building instead. Our guess four an explanation would be is that perhaps the project is being built by owners that intend to reside in a large ground-floor unit with palatial ceilings, while reserving the upper floors for rentable units to generate additional income.
4029 Powelton Avenue. Zoning map. Credit: Cadre Design & Development via the City of Philadelphia
4029 Powelton Avenue. Zoning table. Credit: Cadre Design & Development via the City of Philadelphia
4029 Powelton Avenue. Site plan. Credit: Cadre Design & Development via the City of Philadelphia
The site is also situated two short blocks to the west of the nine-story parking garage with ground-level commercial retail planned at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center campus.
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The figure given for construction of $150,000 must be a typo – missing 0? Unless it’s to be made of cardboard and cheesecloth, which these days would not surprise me. The drawing looks better, I suppose, than an unkempt lot, but marginally so.