Philadelphia YIMBY’s recent site visit has observed that construction work is nearing completion at a multi-building development at 1301-07 Ridge Avenue in Poplar, Lower North Philadelphia. 1301 Ridge Avenue, the building situated at the south end of the wedge-shaped site, boasts stats representative of the complex; it will span a footprint measuring 994 square feet and will hold 3,814 square feet of interior space, which translates into spacious apartments measuring well over 1,000 square feet each. The structure will be fully sprinkled. Permits list Greenway Plaza LLC as the owner, Brett Harman as the design professional, and Liu Construction LLC as the contractor. Construction costs are listed at $380,000.
1301 Ridge Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2023
1301 Ridge Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2023
1301 Ridge Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2023
1301 Ridge Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2023
1301 Ridge Avenue. Photo by Jamie Meller. March 2023
The buildings are constructed in an avant-garde aesthetic, boasting gray and black metal paneling and robust geometric massing. While the structures at the north end of the site are more conventional in their form, the designs shift into more asymmetric, stacked shapes.
The project site is located on a through-block lot situated near the tip of a narrow triangular block between Ridge Avenue to the west and North 13th Street to the east. The asphalt-covered lot has sat vacant for well over a decade as one of many blighted sites in the once-flourishing commercial and industrial neighborhood. The persistent desolation on the surrounding blocks is surprising, given its proximate location to bustling Broad Street, several-block adjacency to both Spring Garden and Fairmount stations on the Broad Street Line, and immediate proximity to vibrant and high-demand neighborhoods such as Center City to the south, Spring Garden to the west, and the Temple University area to the north.
Judging by basic urban planning logic, the centrally-located, transit-adjacent site could have, and should have, easily supported a much larger development with a significantly greater number of units and perhaps street-level retail. Such a development would not had been out-of-scale with the neighborhood, either, given the presence of much-larger buildings of both prewar and contemporary vintage in the vicinity. However, even in its present form, 1301-07 Ridge Avenue is an astute and attractive addition to the neighborhood.
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Just awful.
You said construction was stalled. Will they add another house to the white gravelled area and why haven’t they completed an unfinished house along the properties?
Boy, talk about a bleak, uninviting ground floor, this project is a poster child for how *not* to engage the street. Ugly with a capital UGH! -Jim
Totally agree!! The only thing the ground floor invites is graffiti. It’s already been tagged once. Cover up the cinderblocks or at least paint them. A horror show!!
HIDEOUS!
AS UGLY AS IT GETS. TEAR THEM DOWN. GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD.
This as bad as it gets. What were they thinking???
Damn this is bad and who picked the Home Depot discount entry doors?
I will like to put on the waiting list for PHA thank you.
The very definition of fugly.