PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future

The Barnes Tower is a 47-story, 500-foot residential tower that would replace the Best Western Motel Center City with 247 condo units. There is an option for a second building on the site, an approximately 18-story residential tower of less than 200 feet that would stand within the height-limited proximity of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The tower is planned for the parcel directly behind the plot of the proposed Barnes Museum, though the developer claims there is no connection between the two projects.

Despite the project’s potential affect on the Parkway, developers secured a zoning permit without a public hearing because the site was already zoned for a tower. However, since then, there has been intense local opposition to this project because of concerns about auto congestion, parking constraints, the scale of the project, and shadows that may block the sun to adjacent small-scale neighborhoods. This community criticism has delayed the project for now and practically secured the fact that the tower will no longer be as tall as originally planned. Developers Daniel Katz and Dalia Shuster hired Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates for the building design, which shows a tower-in-the-park layout that many feel is unacceptable in an urban location. Katz and Shuster responded by suggesting such concessions as redesigning the façade facing Spring Garden Street, building townhomes with street-level retail on Spring Garden to re-urbanize the site and creating a strong street edge, providing more parking and easier entrance into the garage to reduce congestion, and eliminating the proposed fence around the perimeter of the property.  Address:  22nd and Spring Garden Streets
Website: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-07-13/cb3.shtml
http://www.fightthetower.net/