Plans Presented for the “Divine Lorraine” of South Philadelphia

It’s early days for the renovation of Mt. Sinai Hospital, which has been vacant since it closed in 1997. Last year, Grojlart called the abandoned building “the Divine Lorraine of South Philadelphia,” and “a big, useless mountain of bricks collecting dirt, graffiti, weather, and squatters.” Since 2006, a couple developers have tried their hands at pitching ideas for the site, and indeed Barton Partners, the architects of the most recent plans, still have the old plans for the Sophia on their website.

At last night’s public meeting at Mount Moriah Temple Baptist Church, Barton and new developer Gagar Lakhmna provided several details of the latest plan, but those are likely to change depending on community response and zoning variances and Lakhmna’s ability to move things forward; he’s not without some credibility issues.

But here’s what is pitched so far:

- 38 new four-story townhomes, approximately 2,2oo square feet, with roof decks, basements and garages, priced between $400-450K

- 198 rentals

- 137 parking spaces

Like the Sophia project, this one also plans an adaptive reuse of part of the hospital.

In terms of the community reaction, Pennsporter reports, For many in attendance, parking was the main concern due to the size of this project…People in attendance also lamented the “cookie cutter” design likening it to those seen in Northern Liberties, something that will surely come up in the proposal to the Civic Design Review on January 7th.

Also likely to come up: Lakhmna’s plan for a restaurant on Fourth Street. He says he’s in talks with someone “who may or may not be Jose Garces.”

Source: Phillymag.com