South 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.

A recent site visit haas revealed that construction is nearly complete at One uCity Square, a mixed-use building in University City, West Philadelphia. Designed by ZGF Architects and developed by Wexford Science & Technology, the University City Science Center, and Ventas Inc., with Turner Construction as the contractor, the $280-million, 13-story building will hold 389,000 square feet of office, laboratory, and retail space. The 250-foot-tall structure, also known as Wexford One uCity Square, is part of the greater mixed-use uCity Square development, which will feature 10.5 million square feet within 15 existing and 10 newly-constructed buildings. New construction will account for three-quarters of the total square footage.