2442 North Marshall 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.

Philly YIMBY’s recent site visit at 2100 Hamilton Street, located in the Franklintown section of Spring Garden, North Philadelphia, has revealed that the 115-foot, 10-story-tall residential tower’s cladding having climbed more than halfway up along the concrete structure. The project was designed by Cecil Baker, which is also behind two condo developments that have risen within the past four years, and developed by Brock Development Group. The development, located just to the north of Center City and three blocks to the southeast of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, rises from a masonry-walled pit where a freight train line once ran and was taken out in the 1970’s, with a tunnel remaining under several other blocks.