We have done literally hundreds of projects in the Philadelphia area.
And we've also done several high-rise projects in Center City.
We did the Hyatt Centric, the Cambria Hotel at Bron and Locus, the Beacon at 16th and Walnut.
the Harper Project, the 19th and Sansom, the Granary, and others.
Thank you. All right, I'd like to walk you through some plans so you can share with the
Board the details of this proposal. So let's start first with Exhibit 5, which is up on the screen,
which is the site survey. Could you use this exhibit and just generally describe the site
in terms of its size and shape? Sure. As you noted, it's an L-shaped site with frontage on
Sansom Street and 7th Street to the right. It is a slight L and it's it's it consists of 12,440
square feet. When you were retained to design this project for Pearl Properties was the site vacant
or did it contain any structures? It was completely vacant actually excavation had already occurred.
All right. Let's start with Exhibit 7 here, which is the zoning site plan.
I believe you already mentioned this, but could you just recap? How big is this lot?
12,440 square feet.
And that also includes the full boundary of the master condominium parcel. Is that correct?
That's correct.
Can you just generally describe the proposed project that is reflected on the zoning plans?
And while you do that, please touch on the changes that were made since the original hearing date in June.
Sure. The building, it's a 34-story residential building, 403 feet, 6 inches tall. It'll contain 99 residential units, 50 parking spaces, and one interior loading space.
Sure. The building, it's a 34-story residence.
The changes, I think we'll talk more about the changes since the prior hearing in a moment, but in general, it was just really changing the garage to an elevator garage versus a ramped garage and providing access to residents from the lobby onto Sanson Street.
Thank you. What is the total proposed gross floor area and what does that translate to in terms of floor area ratio?
So the total area of the building is 185,688 square feet, and that calculates to 1,493%.
Now, aside from the items that are listed in the referral and the refusal, was the project otherwise designed to comply with all applicable provisions of the zoning code?
Yes, it is.
All right, turning to, and again, this is the revised proviso plan. So you can see here, this was the original plan, and this is the revised proviso plan reflecting that parking elevator, as well as that entrance. And we'll touch on some of these in an additional moment.
All right. So turning to the floor plates and parking diagrams, and again, I'll just bring up the revised version of these. Can you describe generally the interior floor breakdown, starting with the cellar level?
Sure. The cellar level, I don't know if you want to show that.
Yeah, you know what, I'll bring this up.
That's helpful.
As you can see, it's a fairly small, below-grade cellar space.
It's really to accommodate utilities and some storage, and of course, the building core.
We've pulled it back significantly from the neighboring properties to avoid underpinning any sort of risk to those buildings.
So it's much smaller than the actual property footprint.
All right, I'm moving along to the second floor.
So this is showing the problem.
Okay, this is the new version.
The garage now is going to be served by an elevator.
It is a completely valet garage.
It won't be open to the public.
And you can see there's valet spaces throughout.
throughout there's three levels of parking in the project and it will be completely valet.
So, so, Councilor, I have one question. Are these 11 parking spaces as well as the
three electrical parking spaces? Are they within side of the 50 or outside?
They are. They're included in the 50. So it's 50, it's 50 total spaces with, you know, with valet
spaces it's always a little bit strange in terms of space numbers because of course in practice
valet garages you know typically operate uh and and they they typically try and fill as many spaces
as they can but in this case it is 50 spaces that have been marked out to accommodate those valet
operations and that's also consistent with the requirement it's a little bit above the requirement
for this property, but I hope that answers the question. Yeah, sure. David, if you could,
right now I have up here the second floor plan. If you can generally talk about the third floor
and the fourth floor, if there's anything different or notable to mention to the board.
No, it still operates as a valet garage. We still have the core for the building and
And now that we do not have a ramp, we have a little bit extra storage and maintenance space that's provided.
Do you want to talk about the requirements for parking?
So I was going to just ask you, is parking required for the project?
Yes, parking is required.
The code requires 0.3 or 3 per 10 parking spaces per unit.
So that's equivalent to 30 spaces.
um we've provided 50 spaces in this proposal now do the drive aisles that are leading to the
parking spaces do those drive aisles comply with the minimum required dimensions in the code
so for example the drive aisle that would lead out of the vehicle elevator up to where the
parking spaces would begin yes they do it's a minimum of 18 feet which is what we're proposing
Yes, they do. It's a minimum of 18 feet, which is what we're proposing.
We'll see you next time.
Thank you. And I believe that you already mentioned this, but in addition to removing the ramp and adding the vehicle elevator, were there any other changes made to the parking layouts since the June hearing date?
I don't believe so.
now when designing the project did you conduct a review of tolls prior plans and approval for the
site we did yes did that project provide any on-site parking it did not it relied entirely
on off-site parking okay let me turn to exhibit 13 which provides a rendering of tolls prior
project for this site. David, were you familiar with this particular rendering?
I have seen it before, yes. Okay. And again, Board, this is just for informational purposes,
as we get into our own renderings, for you to see the quite significant difference between this
prior project that was approved for this site compared to Pearl Properties' version, which
has been substantially changed in terms of design all right if we can turn back to exhibit nine
briefly um can you just share with the board the breakdown of the units range of sizes and
amenities generally sure um the building is uh is as a small footprint it's a fairly narrow
high-rise building. The total residential units are 99 total units. They're larger units than
typically you find in a residential building, and most every unit has a corner,
which we thought was important, and you'll see a variety of balconies on the various corners of
the building. The unit sizes range from 700 square feet to 3,000 square feet, and so it's a one-bedroom
all the way up to a four-bedroom unit, and again, many of them have terraces.
And what about amenities? I just wanted to say at the very top of the building, there's
double penthouses with terraces. Yeah, there's amenities. If you can go back a few slides
to the amenity floor, which is floor five.
You can see, there you go.
You can see there's a 2,400 square foot amenity space,
which will be developed into a lounge
and kind of a game and relax area.
And then there is a three-sided wraparound terrace
that will be heavily landscaped.
And that's it, the fifth story of the building.
There will be views of the park, and that will be a primary amenity for the building.
Thank you.
All right, turning to Exhibit 7, I'll bring up the skyplane diagram for this project.
Can you just briefly explain to the board what this diagram establishes in terms of zoning compliance?
The sky plane offers an additional way to measure bulk and area in a building.
So just these are illustrations.
The far left is really a profile of the building from Sansom Street.
And you can see that the building has layers to it where we've created some character.
And the base of the building is in line with the adjoining properties, which you'll see more in a moment.
The middle diagram is kind of a section through the building with Sansom Street on the right.
And the way this is calculated, you plot the lines from the center of the street up to the building facade.
And on the far right is what the code provides in terms of blockage.
So up to 80 feet, you're allowed to have 100% blockage.
and we're providing 91%, so we're less.
And then up to 115 feet, the code allows 85% blockage.
Our proposal is 73%, again, less than.
And then up to 175 feet, you're allowed 80% blockage.
Our proposal is 73%.
And from there, up to 340 feet, you're allowed 70% blockage.
We're proposing 50% blockage.
So all in all, we're well within the skyplane requirements.
So even with the refusal that this project received for exceeding gross floor area or floor area ratio, this project still complies in
floor area ratio, this project still complies in terms of its overall sky, plane, and height. Is that right?
That's correct.
All right, so let's come back to the elevations.
All right, so let's look at the, let's first look at the rendered ground floor plan.
And this, again, is the revised version.
The original version is up on the screen here.
So we can flip back and forth if it would be helpful to kind of visualize what has changed.
But just to direct your eye, you'll notice most of the changes in the areas surrounding the parking, as well as this retail space and entrance along Sansom Street.
So, David, could you just describe to the board, please, this ground floor design in detail?
and, again, hit on the changes that have been made?
You can see there's a motor court or a motor lobby that's internal to the project,
and that will be treated as a very nice, highly finished space
because it's also how residents will return to their residences.
You'll see at the bottom left there's the elevator, the car elevator,
and then above that is a loading dock.
and then above that is the base building core.
So folks, as they return, they'll drop their cars off for valet,
and they'll walk through the lobby, which you can see.
It gets labeled lobby, and one of the things that's different in this version
is the lobby is now accessible to Sansom Street, so there's cross-circulation.
And then in the pink area, that's the retail space or potential cafe space.
And David, could you just briefly touch on trash storage location in this particular design here?
Sure. Behind the loading facility, there'll be storage containers for trash. Of course,
there'll be maintenance people that handle trash on a daily basis, and it will be wheeled out that
existing alleyway to pick up, private pickup on 7th Street.
Great. Thank you.
All right. All right. Let's turn back to exhibit nine, which will start to give you a more broad
scale view of this building. So exhibit nine, of course, are colored elevations of the buildings,
has all of the materials labeled, and we're certainly happy to come back to these if you
have any questions on the materials. I will note it is important that these renderings have not
been updated to reflect changes that were made to the Sansom Street facade since the June hearing,
but we can show you those changes visually in a moment. So I just want to make sure that it's
clear that the actual renderings were not updated. So at Exhibit 11, we have all of the detailed
renderings that were prepared for this project and you should already start to get a sense of
how significantly changed uh the the visual aspects of this project are from the one that
was previously approved uh so david if you could just uh generally talk about the aesthetics of
this design and you know we can walk them through these renderings as as you're talking about them
Certainly.
As you noted, the base of the building on Sanson Street has been changed, but has not yet been reflected in these renderings.
You can see at the fifth storyline, the building recesses.
There's a significant recess that honors the streetscape and the other buildings on the block.
And then that is also the amenity floor.
That's why there's trees and greenery at that level.
And then above that level, the building has different layers, so the building has interest.
But it's treated with a mahogany color vertical fins that would be made out of metal.
Horizontal trim would be in a dark bronze color.
So fairly muted earth tone colors that we think will blend with the area.
It's not a glass building that was proposed before.
This is really a building with much more character.
In fact, the building as designed, its profile changes as you view it from different sides
because of all the different layers of the building facade and the steps in the building
and the way the fenestration is handled.
You can see balconies are going to be prominent on the exterior as well as those vertical
are going to be prominent on the exterior, as well as those vertical fins will change how you
see the building. They'll also provide shadow and character as sunlight approaches it. And then you
can see that green terrace at the base of the building that will, you know, try to connect us
to the park, frankly. This is a bird's eye view, and you can kind of see it looking down. You can
again see how the building is layered and then at the very bottom how the building the base of the
building is in line with the property but then the building sets back substantially from the street
and we also did not develop this the 7th street side we wanted to keep the tower away from that
and use that as a more chance a more late entrance but there you go that's the motor lobby
It will be open frame, almost like a big pergola, so that light enters that area,
so it would be nice and bright, not a dark space at all. And then we're proposing an artistic
element, sort of a sculptural tree, at the center of that, that will give it some light
and make it unique. Those are, if you want to continue, those are the massing studies.
in the next slides, Mary, that we've done as part of our CDR presentation to just show
how the building relates to the context of the site.
Thank you, David.
And again, there's just another view of those massing studies from a different direction.
That's correct.
All right.
So let's turn back then.
I do have a question.
The parking, again, can we go back a little bit as to how the parking entrance is, the valet parking entrance is going to be?
Absolutely.
No, I just want to make a note so I don't lose track of where I am.
All right.
So let's turn back.
Yeah, David, if you want to use the ground floor plan here and I can, we'll start with this.
and then let me flip back to that second floor
so that that board member Gaston