Proposal: Core out part of Lits for new apartment tower

Brickstone Realty Cos. is proposing to construct a 35-story residential tower at the Lits building that would entail coring out a portion of the building and putting the new structure on an original foundation.

The new building would be an independent structure and stand a total of 429 feet. It would poke out of the back of the building north along Filbert Street. The real estate company is proposing cutting a hole in the roof, demolishing seven stories and building anew, according to plans filed with the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Seven stories facing Filbert would be retained.

The Lits, which takes up a city block on Market Street between 7th and 8th streets, has an enormous amount of unused floor-area-ratio, or FAR, or the amount of square feet a site can accommodate by its size and through zoning. More than a dozen connected structures make up the building, which has office and retail space. The property now has about 900,000 square feet and could legally — without taking into consideration its historical designation — total 2.2 million square feet, said Jonathan Farnham, executive director at the Philadelphia Historical Commission.

“They are looking for a way to take advantage of that value,” he said.

The proposed structure would bring the Lits to 1.4 million square feet, which is still below the maximum FAR.

The historical commission has not made a recommendation on the project and is still reviewing it.

“It’s a complicated,” Farnham said. “The staff here hasn’t come to a conclusion.”

The historical commission has jurisdiction over the exterior appearance of the building, the facades and roof. The new structure would be constructed without any demolition of the Lits historical facade and be 160 feet removed from Market Street where its historical facade is most prominent. At first glance, a 429-foot tall building could satisfy the preservation standard even though the roof is under historical commission purview, Farnham said. The question, among others, comes to whether this construction alters important spaces that make up the building and whether it hinders the public from appreciating its historical characteristics.

“I’m not quite sure where this is. It will be a difficult one for the commission to grapple with,” Farnham said. “There aren’t many cases like this.”

There have been just a few of these complicated situations such as 10 Rittenhouse Square and its relationship with the historical Rittenhouse Club as well as the St. James, which rises out of important rowhouses along Walnut Street. Dilworth House is another one but that has never been constructed.

The Lits plan, which was first reported in Hidden City, goes before the architectural review committee of the historical commission on Tuesday.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal