AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Skyscraper forum philadelphia4/19/2023 ![]() ![]() The developer is seeking to more than double the amount of space current zoning allows. The current zoning of the site would not allow a building of this size to be constructed, according to people familiar with the situation. Plans for the parcels’ Chestnut Street frontage - which now include a Target store, offices including Pearl’s own, and upscale Spanish eatery Tatel behind the Boyd’s restored façade - were approved that June. Pearl jettisoned the multiplex plan after acquiring the theater and some adjacent buildings the following year and had the auditorium razed to make way for a residential tower. Site work on the tower, which Pearl is calling the Harper, began in August, capping a development saga that began in 2014 when a previous owner tussled with preservationists and film-house buffs over plans to demolish the cavernous art-deco auditorium of the Boyd – known as the Sameric in its most recent incarnation – to make room for modern multiplex screening rooms. That’s instead of the 32-story, 250-unit structure that it presented during the project’s permitting process. Pearl is building a 24-story, 183-unit tower at 1910 Chestnut St., according to a zoning permit issued Tuesday to the Philadelphia-based developer. More information about the Lights Out program can be found here.Pearl Properties is scaling down its apartment tower project on the Rittenhouse Square-area property where the Boyd Theatre’s ornate auditorium once stood, as Center City faces an abundance of high-end rental housing that landlords may struggle to fill. “If we can continue monitoring for a couple of years and we see that this reduction continues, then we have more confidence that it’s the lights, and not anything else,” Keith Russell, a program manager with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, told the local PBS affiliate finally. Philadelphia lies within the major Atlantic Flyway route and therefore serves as a bellwether for the Lights Out program, which currently includes participation from 45 cities and 7 different states and regions. It’s also environmentally friendly.”Īs part of the program, participating buildings in the city shut off or drastically reduce the number of lights used from April 1st to May 31st and again from August 15th to November 15th. It makes sense to help preserve the bird population. “We’ve had such a robust response to this and such great participation from our members that it just makes sense,” local building manager Kiphorn told the paper. Previously on Archinect: Amidst a growing glass skyline, Philly looks to keep buildings from becoming an avian death trap Lights Out Philly is managed under the larger umbrella of Bird Safe Philly, a consortium of interest groups that includes the National Audubon Society and Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences, among others. The program has shown a 70% decrease in the number of bird deaths caused by accidental collisions with buildings in the Center City area since being inaugurated in April of 2021. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published an interesting look at the success of the Lights Out Philly initiative, which encourages building owners, businesses, and individuals to turn off or reduce unnecessary lighting, especially during peak migration periods, minimizing light pollution and allowing migrating birds to navigate more safely. A new avian-friendly program aimed at protecting bird local populations during their spring migratory period is taking off in Philadelphia with the hopes of being applied elsewhere in order to combat a mostly invisible problem impacting the ecological systems surrounding major cities across the world. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |