From mjd@plover.com Wed Nov 29 11:09:46 EST 2000 Article: 15697 of phl.misc Path: newshog.newsread.com!bad-news.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!POSTED.monger.newsread.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: phl.food,phl.misc Subject: Re: Proposed destruction of 18th Street Distribution: phl Organization: Plover Systems Co. From: mjd@plover.com (Mark-Jason Dominus) Message-ID: <3a09f46e.3a08$1fb@news.op.net> X-OpNet-Trace: news1.op.net 973730926 14856.507 plover.com i/juniper c/local Lines: 84 Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 00:48:47 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.29.195.22 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: monger.newsread.com 973730927 207.29.195.22 (Wed, 08 Nov 2000 19:48:47 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 19:48:47 EST Xref: bad-news.newsread.com phl.food:13960 phl.misc:15697 I went to the meeting today, which turned out to be the meeting of the Historical Commission. The proposed development is in a historic district, so the Historical Commission must give approval for major changes to the buildings, including demolitions. This meant that a lot of people who showed up to complain about the destruction of local businesses went away unsatisfied, because it is not the Historical Commission's job to worry about local businesses. They are only interested in the preservation of architecture and the historical character of the neighborhood. However, I did learn a lot about the proposed development that I had not understood before. Here are the facts as well as I can remember them. The developer in this case has acquired not only the 18th Street properties, but actually the entire parcel on the northwest corner of 18th and Walnut. On the very corner is the Van Rensselaer mansion, which houses Anthropologie. West of that on Walnut street is the Allison building, which is the Barnes & Noble, and next to that is the Rittenhouse Club building, which has a handsome facade but has been vacant for 18 years. North of the Van Rensselaer mansion on 18th Street is a small courtyard (where the food cart is parked now) and then the four stores in question: Lombardis, Moos, Rindelaub's, and Rittenhouse Sporting Goods. The developers, named Wheeler, have acquired all of these properties and the ones behind them, except for the Van Rensselaer mansion itself. They have also acquired the air rights over the Van Rensselaer mansion and transferred them to their own parcel so that they will be allowed to build higher. (The usual limit is 25 stories.) The original planned height for the tower was 480 feet, but after consultation with the neighborhood associations, they agreed to reduce it to 380 feet. (Also, I suppose that they thought they couldn't get the necessary variances.) The next-tallest building on the square is the Rittenhouse building on the northwest corner of the square, which is 360 feet tall. The transfer of the air rights from over the Van Rensselaer mansion will prevent anyone else from trying to build on that site, protecting the mansion for the indefinite future. The tower itself will not come up to Walnut Street. It is set back >from Walnut street by 88 feet. The Rittenhouse Club will be converted into an alternate entrance which leads to the main lobby via an arcaded gallery. The facade of the Allison building will remain intact. I'm not sure from what was said if the plan is to retain the entire building. The original plan for the building was to have the main entrance to the lobbe be on 18th street. The developers had planned a semicircular driveway adjoining to the main entrance which would have replaced the four stores there now. (Not, as Holly said, a garage entrance.) After objections from the neighbors, they revised the plans so that the driveway would be around the corner on Sansom Street. They also planned to refurbish the small courtyard (which presently houses the food cart) as a garden, with an adjacent entrance to the building lobby so that people entering and leaving the building pass through the garden. The space that is presently Lombardi's would become this entranceway. The other three stores would remain as retail space, although it was too soon to say whether it would be one, two, or three stores. The concern of the Historical Commission was for the 18th street buildings---they seemed satisfied with what was being done to preserve the Van Rensselaer mansion and the Walnut Street buildings. I think they were glad that something was finally going to happen to the Rittenhouse Club. The architectural committee said that those four buildings do have some architectural interest. The developers had originally planned to demolish the properties entirely, but their current plan now involves retention of the facades of either two of them or all four. Several plans were discussed; the developers wanted to have the tower be set back from 18th street by only five feet, which had bothered the architectural committee. In the end, the commission voted to approve the concept. The developers will have to come back later with a more specific plan for approval. -- @P=split//,".URRUU\c8R";@d=split//,"\nrekcah xinU / lreP rehtona tsuJ";sub p{ @p{"r$p","u$p"}=(P,P);pipe"r$p","u$p";++$p;($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;map{$P=$P[$f|ord ($p{$_})&6];$p{$_}=/ ^$P/ix?$P:close$_}keys%p}p;p;p;p;p;map{$p{$_}=~/^[P.]/&& close$_}%p;wait until$?;map{/^r/&&<$_>}%p;$_=$d[$q];sleep rand(2)if/\S/;print From mjd@plover.com Wed Nov 29 11:09:56 EST 2000 Article: 15701 of phl.misc Path: newshog.newsread.com!bad-news.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!POSTED.monger.newsread.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: phl.food,phl.misc Subject: Re: Proposed destruction of 18th Street References: <3a09f46e.3a08$1fb@news.op.net> <3A0AF99A.8CBB0008@NOSPAMdolphin.upenn.edu> Organization: Plover Systems Co. From: mjd@plover.com (Mark-Jason Dominus) Message-ID: <3a0b90d2.d28$202@news.op.net> X-OpNet-Trace: news1.op.net 973836498 3368.514 plover.com i/juniper c/local Lines: 47 Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 06:08:20 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.29.195.22 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: monger.newsread.com 973836500 207.29.195.22 (Fri, 10 Nov 2000 01:08:20 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 01:08:20 EST Xref: bad-news.newsread.com phl.food:13982 phl.misc:15701 In article <3A0AF99A.8CBB0008@NOSPAMdolphin.upenn.edu>, Paige Oliver wrote: > > >Mark-Jason Dominus wrote: > >> I went to the meeting today...> devoplements in 18th St area> > >Thanks for taking the time to post this. It was my pleasure. I had a good time at the meeting; I had never been to one before and it was really interesting. The Historical Commission considered 24 other matters that day in addition to the 18th Street development. Among other things, I learned that the Belle Epoque antique store on Pine Street between 10th and 11th is going to turn into a garage. The Historical Commission was OK with this because the building it is in was originally a garage, back in the 1920s or so. Also someone wanted to build a deck on the back of his house on Elfreths Alley. The commission was worried that it would be visible from the street, but the architect was there and explained that the photograph he had given to the commissioners had been taken with a telephoto lens while he was standing on a planter. I appreciate his efforts to depict the complete situation, but if I had been him, I think I would also have supplied a photograph taken from the sidewalk. The folks at the Drake Tower are refurbishing the old metal 'DRAKE' sign, which was originally illuminated, and wanted to know if they could re-illuminate it with small christmas tree style lights. The commission said no, they had to use neon-style tuble lighting in keeping with the original effect. One issue that came up more than once was people who need to replace their slate roofs who can't afford new slate, which is very expensive. The H.C. doesn't want to allow replacement with cheap asphalt shingle, but at the same time they don't want to condemn people to having leaky roofs. They didn't figure out a policy while I was there. -- @P=split//,".URRUU\c8R";@d=split//,"\nrekcah xinU / lreP rehtona tsuJ";sub p{ @p{"r$p","u$p"}=(P,P);pipe"r$p","u$p";++$p;($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;map{$P=$P[$f|ord ($p{$_})&6];$p{$_}=/ ^$P/ix?$P:close$_}keys%p}p;p;p;p;p;map{$p{$_}=~/^[P.]/&& close$_}%p;wait until$?;map{/^r/&&<$_>}%p;$_=$d[$q];sleep rand(2)if/\S/;print