Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, 16-unit apartment building at 4814-18 Griscom Street in Frankford, Northeast Philadelphia. The structure will rise from an overgrown vacant lot and a two-story building on the northwest side of the block between Foulkrod Street and Harrison Street. The building will feature elevator service and a roof deck. Permits list Star Homes Management as the owner and Tri Construction LLC as the contractor. Construction costs are specified at $386,000.
4814-18 Griscom Street. Site map. Credit: Star Homes Management LLC via the City of Philadelphia
4814-18 Griscom Street. Site plan. Credit: Star Homes Management LLC via the City of Philadelphia
The building will be set back from the sidewalk by 15 feet, matching the setbacks of adjacent houses on the block. The detached structure will measure 54 feet wide along the street, with a five-foot alley on either side. From the street-facing setback, the structure will stretch 96 feet into the lot interior, spanning almost the entire property length save for a nine-foot-wide yard in the rear.
The new building will replace an attractive, if somewhat dilapidated, two-and-a-half-story prewar rowhouse, ordinary yet cozy with its red brick facade, covered porch, and upper-level dormer. Judging by elevations submitted to the planning department, the replacement can hardly be called an aesthetic improvement.
4814-18 Griscom Street. Side building elevation. Credit: Star Homes Management LLC via the City of Philadelphia
The sheer street-facing brick wall will lack any ornament whatsoever, and the sparse handful of windows is hardly an adequate aperture assembly for such a broad brick expanse. Elevations of the side facades are indicated to be treated with “stucco or vinyl siding.”
The ground level will be elevated just half a foot above the sidewalk; as a saving grace, the lower elevation will make the elevator-serviced, ramp-equipped building all the more ADA accessible.
While we do wish that the building proposed at 4814-18 Griscom Street had more going for it in the aesthetics department, the added density is well-suited for a neighborhood replete with a mix of low- and mid-rise buildings and located at the terminus of the Market-Frankford subway line (the Arrott Transportation Center is situated a block and a half to the south of the proposed building). Although Frankford, a Near Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood, has blissfully maintained most of its prewar building stock, a number of severely underbuilt development sites, particularly along the subway, are ripe for further mid- to large-scale development.
4814-18 Griscom Street. Zoning table. Credit: Star Homes Management LLC via the City of Philadelphia
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Along the Frankford El in Frankford they do have available sites created from fires which burned down older buildings since demolished. I have noticed closure of many storefronts due to urban blight. Apartments could be created like they are doing close to Girard Ave on where the Frankford El is now running.
I {NEED} information on how to get a application for residence
Good afternoon need information how to apply an application and also do they take anyone with SSI
The beginnings of GENTRIFICATION???