Permits Issued for 3114 North Broad Street near Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, six-unit residential building at 3351 North 19th Street near Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia. The new building will replace a vacant lot situated on the west side of the block between West Clearfield Street and West Allegheny Avenue. Designed by JLS Architects, the structure will span 5,200 square feet. Permits list Smart Cents Construction as the contractor.

Permits indicate a construction cost of $592,000, which yields an average cost of around $114 per interior square foot. Of this total, $52,000 is allocated for excavation work.

The structure will be a welcome addition to the block as it will help fill a large, glaring gap in the street wall of Broad Street, the neighborhood’s (and arguably the city’s) principal thoroughfare, even though the unadorned design is underwhelming, especially when compared to beautiful, ornate prewar rowhouses that still line parts of the block.

More concerning is the fact that such a centrally-located, transit-accessible site (the Allegheny Station on the Broad Street subway line sits at the northern end of the block) is being squandered on this relatively minor, low-rise structure. If combined with adjacent vacant lots, the site could have easily supported a large, high-density mixed-use development with plentiful new housing stock and ground-level retail space that would have gone a long way to add vibrancy to a rather forlorn stretch of the most important thoroughfare in the neighborhood. However, even the six units offered by the proposed structure are clearly much more beneficial to the neighborhood than is the lot in its current vacant state.

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