897 North 40th 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.

Philadelphia’s compact yet extensive skyline has been rapidly expanding though the years, especially in the last four decades. In the late 1980s, five new towers were constructed gave shape to the skyline as we recognize it today, most prominent of which was Willard Rouse’s Liberty Place project, where One Liberty Place was completed in 1987. Over the past few years, a new boom of high-rise buildings has been underway after the construction of the Comcast Technology Center. In this publication, Philadelphia YIMBY observes the rising