1543 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.

In order to further enhance the reader experience, at the start of the year Philadelphia YIMBY introduced a series of new categories that cater to specific classes of structures and topics, which we are covering in our ongoing “category spotlight” series. Moreover, we began to heavily feature architectural blueprints that have been submitted to the planning department for review. These project blueprints provide valuable insight into aspects of construction ranging from generally aesthetic to deeply technical, and are especially useful when no building renderings are currently available. For those looking to find recent project blueprints without browsing through Byzantine city record databases, we have created a dedicated “Blueprints” category, with a few examples listed below.