1541 South Bambrey Street

Urban development is a delicate balancing act, and sometimes we must say goodbye to cherished local destinations in order to make way for a plan that is ultimately more beneficial to the community and to the city at large. One of such trade-offs is slated to occur at 7619 Germantown Avenue in Mount Airy, Northwest Philadelphia, where the Trolley Car Diner is set to meet the wrecking ball, to be replaced by a six-story, mixed-use residential development designed by Morrissey Design. Although the charming chrome, neon, mural, and freestanding trolley of the diner will be missed, the proposal at hand makes for more effective use of the site, bringing significant residential density within a two0-block walk of the Mount Airy Station of the SEPTA Regional Rail and replacing the auto-centric restaurant with pedestrian-friendly retail.

Last week, Philadelphia YIMBY looked at a new proposal for an eight-story mixed-use building slated to rise at 1527 Callowhill Street in the Franklintown neighborhood in Lower North Philadelphia. The development will replace a parking lot at the northeast corner of Callowhill and North 16th streets with a 208,000-square-foot structure that will incorporate 188 rental residences, ground-level retail, parking for 24 cars and 63 bicycles, and a sizable green roof. Today we assess the development’s technical details and conceptual blueprints as presented to the city’s Civic Design Review committee in a submission by the project team, which includes Omega Home Builders as the developer and Designblendz Architecture as the designer.