http://technical.ly/philly/2013/01/0...t-3701-market/
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University City Science Center to build large and sleek apartment tower on Market Street in University City
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The University City Science Center is the nations first urban research and office park, founded 50 years ago to attract and maintain high-tech industries that seek to capitalize technology that was developed at the citys many universities, or based on those universities research and breakthroughs. It is situated along Market Street, in University City, between 34th and (eventually) 39th Streets, and has 2 million square feet of office and research space in 15, mostly mid-rise buildings, over 17 acres. Vacancy is extremely low and the Center attracts foreign companies and helps incubate new high-tech businesses. The Science Center is undergoing a huge expansion that will add approximately 1.5 million square feet of new office and research (lab) space, an increase of more than 50%... The leadership of the Science Center has started to try to make Market Street livelier, in an urban way, by adding more retail and restaurants to new construction, but now they want to take that to a new level by building a large highrise apartment tower at 36th & Market Streets, on a current surface parking lot, that will start to create a true neighborhood for the Science Center and a community of high-tech workers in University City. The tower will be developed by Wexford Equities, a subsidiary of Wexford Science and Technology, a major landlord of office and research space in the Science Center, and Southern Land Company, and it will be designed by BLT Architects. The new apartment tower has received approval from the City Planning Commission, last week, and from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, just yesterday, April 24. The land will be owned by the Science Center and a final agreement with the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority will be finalized within the next month. Once that agreement is finalized, then the tower can start construction. Officials at the Science Center believe that they will start that construction in the autumn. The new tower will be 27 storeys and 310 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the Science Center and the tallest on Market Street in University City. It will be at an angle, right on Market Street, but set back from 36th Street, perhaps to allow sunlight onto that block because the 18-storey tall 3535 Market Street building is across 36th Street. The apartment tower, officially at 3601 Market Street, will have 362 apartment units of different sizes, 15,000 square feet of retail space on Market and 36th Streets, 194 parking spaces, and 121 bicycle parking spaces. The entire building will have approximately 413,000 square feet of floor space. The entrance to the apartments will be on Market Street and the retail on the first level will stretch all the way to 36th Street (the developers hinted at the recent Planning Commission meeting that they may sign a large tenant for most of the space). The facade of the tower will have large-paneled windows, at the corner of 36th & Market, and staggered windows along the rest, with balconies. The parking garage will be three levels above ground and visible above the retail portion, but it will not stretch all the way to 36th Street, and it will have its entrance on Filbert Street on the northern side of the building. There will be a green roof over the one-storey retail portion and a sign saying 3601 (if the Art Commission approves it). The developers believe that building the parking garage underground is impossible, because soil testing revealed some toxins from the sites once industrial past, and that building underground would expose these toxins when they must be properly sealed with concrete. The developers will plant new street trees on 36th Street, which currently has none at this corner. [...] |
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