Philadelphia Construction: The Skinny

The folks at Philadelphiaskyline.com have been much more industrious when it comes to keeping up with the state of new construction projects in the city than I have. Take a look at their compendium of projects in The Skinny.

I covers most projects ranging from residential construction, cultural projects, transit projects etc. A good resource.

Poked out of my hiatus

Well,

I have neglected this place for a while but have been prodded by a recent flood of comments to two entries about Philadelphia:

• Future Philadelphia Skyscrapers?
• Philadelphia Public Transit in Trouble

Not surprising given the recent news that Comcast will be proceeding with building its national HQ in Center City Philadelphia with, what will be, the tallest tower in the city and the news that SEPTA has been given some stop-gap funding to prevent huge fare increases and substantial reductions in service.

Alright, I have been shamed by the readers who are more willing to post here than I have been. I will re-energize this place.  Thanks.

Seattle

Just came back from a long weekend in Seattle with Laura. We visited the following neighborhoods:

• Downtown
• Pioneer Square District
• Belltown
• Capitol Hill
• Ballard
• Fremont
• Wallingford
• Lake Union area (Montlake/Eastlake)

The aesthetic appeal of the city involves the transitions between a dense, skyscraper-heavy hub and the lush, watery neighborhoods around it. High-rises and high-density housing blocks concentrate, for the most part, around the Downtown, Belltown and Capitol Hill neighborhoods. Significant portions of the other neighborhoods have higher concentrations of low-elevation homes designed in a "mild" modernist style.

This offers residents a smooth shift between a highly urbanized visual experience and a less hectic and greener experience without having to travel "out" to the suburbanized areas. The greener areas of Seattle do not have the traditional suburban features (i.e., sprawled clusters of homes, roads leading to shopping hubs, reliance on traffic arteries). These neighborhoods are surrounded by northwestern greenery, but homes within them do not have large tracts of empty land isolating them from other homes. Modernist homes and bungalows lie close to each other but their privacy and individuality are conserved by the lushness around them.

Of course, this is an initial impression gathered from a four day visit and selective sampling of the neighborhoods. Other parts of Seattle will not fit this description (e.g., industrial South Seattle and certain spots in Ballard); but I think this description captures the essence of what was appealing about Seattle.

While I was there, Forbes Magazine released a list of the Most Overpriced Places of 2004 and Seattle came in as #1. In a nutshell, their reasoning boils down to the claim that "the cost of living and housing is not proportionate to the job and income growth in the area." A scan of real estate listings revealed that rentals are about 10-20% cheaper than in Philadelphia while the sales market was comparable (perhaps slightly higher). Given that I am mulling over a potential move and that Seattle is a prime candidate, I must admit that I did not sense it as overpriced -- though that may change if I know more about the typical salaries in the area and whether the homes in the removed islands and uber-wealthy regions are outrageously priced.

I shall post a Seattle photo album shortly.

Slots in Center City?

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a good article by architecture critic Inga Saffron on the impact of proposed casino/slot construction in the Market East area.

A few observations:

• One proposal would like to demolish the entire block between 11th and 12th / Market and Chestnut.


• The proposed building in the article’s illustration is a travesty. Do we really need another concrete box on Market East? Isn’t the Gallery enough damage?


• Can you imagine what adding slot machines to service up to 40,000 people a day will do to that already unappealing area?


• Will the $160 savings in wage taxes per $40,000 of income be worth this?

If we must accept the existence of slots in Center City, couldn't we think of better spots for it? One that comes to mind: Tie them in to the Convention Center area without disrupting Chinatown. Focus on the area between North Broad and 13th Street / Arch and Callowhill.

Even more disturbing:

But the city will have to pay dearly for this infusion of revenue. The slots bill, which was rushed through the legislature without the usual opportunities for public comment, strips Philadelphia of planning and zoning powers over its future casinos. Instead, a seven-member, state-run gambling control board will decide the big design issues, from the location of the casinos down to the location of their garage driveways.

Benjamin Franklin Parkway

The Philadelphia Daily News has posted a special section discussing possible ways to improve the Parkway. In addition to several articles championing different projects and maintaining current features (e.g., introducing a line of cafes along the Parkway, keeping the baseball park, etc.), they offer a couple of PDFs depicting how the western and eastern halves of the Parkway could be developed.

| Philadelphia Daily News: "Rethinking the Parkway" section |
| PDFs: Eastern half :: Western half |

Philadelphia views: 1800 - 1960 - 2000

Someone in the Phillyblog.com forums posted a link to a wonderful site that collects engravings and photographs of spots in Philadelphia as they looked in 1800, 1960 and 2000. The changes and continuities are truly intriguing to view.

| Birch's Views of Philadelphia |

Update: Tax breaks for Comcast Tower

Following up on the previous post about the future of Philadelphia's skyline:

| Philadelphia Inquirer - "Tax breaks for two projects advance" |

Future Philadelphia Skyscrapers?

Skyscraper proposals have been swirling around this city lately. Some of them are residential in nature while others are designed to convince high-profile companies (e.g., Comcast) to stay put. The viability of these proposals depends, in part, on whether developers and tenants receive significant incentives and tax-breaks to make their commitment worth their while.

One particular area of debate with commercial developments is the creation of "Keystone Opportunity Zones" (KOZ) that would give tenants significant tax-breaks for occupying these new developments. The typical KOZ break includes a 10 or 15 year tax-free period. This has caused significant debate that can be sketched out quickly in this way:

KOZ tax-breaks will bring high-occupancy tenants and construction projects to the city leading to an increased number of Center City workers and development that will have a long-term economic impact on the area. Additional employees would pay the city wage tax and spend some of their funds in the city. vs.

The loss of tax-revenue allowed by the KOZ breaks will outweigh the economic impact of tenants and workers that would rather escape the city and spend their time and dollars in their suburban neighborhoods. In particular, the loss of revenue would be most damaging to the school district.

Many Philadelphians are worried that long tax breaks will cut off an important source of revenue for the city and replace it with the less predictable economic impact associated with office workers dwelling in the city. With this in mind, Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. has introduced an alternative incentive package for some of these proposed developments.

The city is about to undertake significant budget and city service cuts as a result of a shortfall in revenue. It is no longer clear that wage tax breaks that were going to be implemented in the coming years will, in fact, be implemented. Will the creation of KOZ tax breaks help or hinder the city's revenue?

Here are renditions of some of the new proposed developments in the works. Some hinge on the tax break situation, some do not while others are still in the earliest stages of their development.

• One Pennsylvania Plaza
  (commercial, 17th and JFK Blvd, Comcast Tower)
• Cira Centre
  (commercial, next to 30th St. Station)
  web site
• Philadelphia World Trade Square
  
  (commercial)
  web site
• CityCenter Tower
  (residential, off City Hall)
• 1441 Chestnut
  (residential)
  web site
• Symphony House
  (residential, Broad and Pine, near Kimmel Center)
  article
• 17th and Vine
  (unknown)

For those of you interested in the nitty-gritty details, here are some dueling reports to consider:

• The developers of the 17th and JFK Comcast Tower have posted a commissioned analysis of the economic benefits of their project (PDF),
• while the Center City Owners Association has posted a commissioned analysis outlining the potential demerits of the 17 & JFK and Cira Centre projects (PDF).

Visual Collections

I bumped into a wonderful site that collects hundreds of thousands of "maps, fine artwork, photographs and other items from over thirty renowned collections." These are not simple jpg images, however. You will need to use their Insight Browser or Java client in order to search and zoom in to view the fine details.

The Visual Collections site from Cartography Associates contains dozens of digital image collections from Museums, Universities and private collections throughout the world. Our mission is to encourage the development of future collections and facilitate their worldwide distribution to both scholars and the general public.

Cartography Associates strives to provide an on-line environment wherein all types of digital collections from a wide range of resources can be seamlessly fused together into one large, comprehensive collection.

| Visual Collections |

Skyscrapers, Thesaurus and GWB

Alright, alright...

...I should be more diligent with my posting. In the meantime, here are some fresh links to some noteworthy places:

The Skyscraper Museum's Web Projects: Includes Flash interfaces mapping the Manhattan skyline and its transformations through time.

Visual Thesaurus: hours and hours of fun with language. A trial version of ThinkMap's spidery thesaurus.

Whitehouse.org: Just go and visit.

More writing and less link listings in the future, I promise (or is that, "threaten").