Permits have been issued for the renovation of a four-story prewar rowhouse at 140 North 2nd Street in the Old City section of Center City. The building will see a change of occupancy to make room for five transient dwelling units described as “visitor accommodation units.” In total, the building holds 4,523 square feet of space. Renovation work is expected to cost $200,000, according to the permit.
One of the most highly-anticipated developments in Philadelphia is the mixed-use high-rise planned at 210 South 12th Street in Washington Square West, Center City. Recently, developer Midwood Investment & Development shared with YIMBY updated details and renderings for the mixed-use project, which will rise 32 stories tall and will feature a two-story commercial space containing approximately 17,000 square feet. The structure above will hold 378 rental apartments. The development wil span 401,870 square feet. London-based Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners is the architectural firm behind the project’s design, with BLT Architects as the architect of record.
At the time when the Liberty Place project was proposed in Center City, other developers scrambled to join Philadelphia’s skyline race to top the Statue of William Penn atop City Hall. At 1735 Market Street, the skyscraper formerly dubbed Mellon Bank Center, now known as BNY Mellon Center, has long been a major fixture of the Philadelphia skyline. The project, which started to rise in 1987, rises to a height of 824 feet, with a 792-foot-high roof, and 54 stories. The tower was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by CommonWealth REIT. Silverstein Properties, the owners of the World Trade Center in New York City, purchased the property in 2019 for $451.6 million; renovations were later announced for the tower.
Philadelphia’s City Hall has loomed proudly in Center City since it topped out in 1894, but its tower continues to stand only thanks to several renovations. While the municipal floors of the building only rise nine stories high, the clock tower remains the largest freestanding masonry structure in the world to this day. The edifice is topped by a 37-foot-tall statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, which brings the tower to a full height of 548 feet. The structure was designed by John McArthur Jr. and Thomas Ustick Walter, and was completed in 1901. In this feature, Philadelphia YIMBY takes a look back at the direly-needed renovation for the top of the clock tower that took place in the 1980s.
Center City continues to grow upward as multiple projects are changing Philadelphia’s core neighborhood. In Rittenhouse Square, a tower crane was recently erected at 1620 Sansom Street, where a high-rise residential tower is under construction. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and developed by Southern Land Company, the building will rise 315 feet and 28 stories high. The tower will also feature 306 rental units and retail space on the ground floor.
