A South Broad Street development from Bart Blatstein
failed to impress the city's Civic Design Review board in its second go-around
before the agency.
Blatstein wants to construct a more than 30-story tower
at South Broad Street and Washington Avenue. Plans for the project show roughly
1,000 apartments, some office space and 160,000 square feet of retail space –
with about half of that going several floors up instead of at street level.
Totaling about 1.8 million square feet, the development
was previously criticized by community members for its height, many saying it
is out of character with the surrounding neighborhood.
The Civic Design Review committee last month found issues
with the amount of parking and the location of the retail space, saying it
didn't create the street-level activity one would expect from such a mixed-use
project, according to Philly.com.
Some changes were made to the design before Blatstein
returned for the next presentation to the committee, but the board remained
steadfast in their criticism of the proposed development.
"It still
feels like a wall between Center City and South Philadelphia," said [CDR
chairwoman Nancy Rogo] Trainer, who suggested a throughway to break up the
four-acre site. Blatstein defended his project, saying many modifications, such
as the consolidation of two towers into one, had already been made in response
to community input, in addition to the most recent round of changes.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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