Permits Issued for 804-16 North Orianna Street in Northern Liberties, North Philadelphia

Permits have been issued for a sizable multi-family renovation of the existing school building at 804-16 North Orianna Street in Northern Liberties, North Philadelphia. Once completed, the entirety of the existing three-story building will be converted in favor of residential use, containing 20 new residential units. The total floor space under renovation within the structure is 14,009 square feet.

804-16 North Orianna Street. Credit: Google.

The building slated for renovation is certainly an attractive one, and one of the more stately buildings in the surrounding vicinity. As mentioned previously, the structure was formerly home to a school for St Agnes church, though no longer serves this purpose. The stone-clad building has arched entryways and a triangulated crown at the top of the structure that add to its visual appeal. The high quality materials coating the building’s facade do most of the work in terms of contributing to the attractive exterior.

804-16 North Orianna Street. Credit: Google.

It should also be mentioned that the school building sits in a prime location positioned near the center of the neighborhood. Second street is just a few steps to the east, offering plenty of commercial destinations, while plenty more businesses are scattered about in surrounding blocks. The structure, which has stood for nearly a century, has certainly observed quite a bit of change in the surrounding area. Northern Liberties is now one of the densest neighborhoods outside of Center City and has filled in with countless mid-to-large scale multi-family and mixed-use developments.

Considering this, it is unsurprising to see the school building slated for a multi-family conversion. The intense demand for housing supply in the neighborhood has urged the construction of plenty other adaptive reuse and new multi-family buildings occur in remaining developable lots, although the supply of these properties is quickly dwindling. The added residential density in this location obviously makes plenty of sense considering the increasingly walkable and dense nature of the surrounding neighborhood and proximity to transit. It is certainly a positive that this attractive old stone construction will remain on site and will be preserved as an historic balance to the increasingly modern nature of the vicinity.

No completion date is known for the project at this time.

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