In addition to this project, we manage the finances of the school.
As I said, the long-term health of the school.
We've done a campus master planning exercise, which has resulted in this building being built and future phases of the modernization of our campus, which is very old.
So we have a lot going on.
I've been very active.
And prior to retiring, you were in the title business, correct?
That's correct.
I started my career as a real estate attorney at Wolf Lockshore and Solis Cohen here in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia after about three and a half years I went into the title insurance business and I
just retired from the title insurance business after 35 years. Would you consider yourself an
expert in real estate title matters? I would. Can you explain the relationship between the school
and the meeting? I kind of I probably said it too simply but could you explain a little bit?
Well it's a historical relationship. The school was founded by the meeting originally to teach
Quaker children in the 1800s. And the governance of the school was done through the school
committee of the meeting, which ran the school. We are today a Quaker school. Our bylaws require that
We are today a Quaker school. Our bylaws require that we are currently majority Quaker on the board, and we are under the care and very long and deep relationship with the Quaker meeting itself.
the Quaker meeting and the school for various reasons in the early 2000s separately incorporated
so we are a separate non-profit corporation as is the meeting but still very closely tied
and have a long and deep relationship with the meeting. For how long has the square block
bordered by Germantown, Coulter, Green, and Schoolhouse Lane been used by the meeting and
or the school? Well, as you stated, a meeting was established here in the late 1600s, 1690. The
school was actually created in 1845 and I think moved to this block in 1858. So the school has
existed here for well over 150 years uh although our history is over 175 years um and uh you know
the school has expanded the meeting house which is the meeting uh manages the meeting is the
religious uh organization that governs everything that we do um so the school has been here for
well over 150 years. It has grown by acquisition and additions of properties from Quaker families
over the years and other third parties to the size that it is now, which is virtually the entire
square block. There are several pieces that the school does not own, but we are the majority of
the block. Regarding the site of the addition to Loeb and Smith buildings, when was that land
first acquired by the friends? Where the Smith Gym was acquired in 1924, and the gym was built in
1925 uh the where the the the lobe was originally built as the uh um what am i the words i'm missing
oh yeah the second church of christ science that's where you're showing your cursor was
was built by the second church of christ scientists and was acquired by the school
in 1985 where the cursor is now is the smith gym
all right uh and good do you want me to go for it okay and the piece behind the swift smith gym
going towards green street where your cursor now is the pensbury lot
the pensbury was a uh lack of a better term a and home for elderly quakers uh on that site
and uh which ran which i think was established in um blanking on on the date
anyway the pensbury existed on that uh until 1966 when it deeded the property to the school
so that property has been controlled by the school since 1966 but in using your analogy
that you made before to a quaker school this was all quaker usage uh in among all these properties
So it was somewhat affiliated with the meeting.
And in preparation for your testimony today, who did you speak with?
I've spoken with the school's archivist, Tim Wood.
And just for the record, I've been using the – Dr. Feldman has been referring to Exhibit 9.
there is a site plan for the record, which is a site plan of the campus map, so speak.
As a school's board chair, can you explain the importance of the addition to the school
and the provision of its educational services to the students?
Sure. Well, as I said, I've been associated with the school since I went to kindergarten
garden in the early 60s. The school had a lunchroom in the main portion of its existing building and it was below grade and small.
And it was below grade and small. And with the advent of COVID, because it had inferior ventilation in the basement, we were no longer able to use the cafeteria to have the number of children in it that we needed to to serve lunch.
So it was no longer usable. So as part of our campus master plan exercise that we went through that was from pre-COVID where we had planned for a building on this site, we decided that we needed to create a lunch, a dining facility for our children, which, among other things, had been given the size of the prior lunchroom, created a block in our schedule.
We couldn't feed all the children on campus, division all at once, and therefore it created a problem with scheduling of classes because different people ate at different times, and it was a roadblock to scheduling the courses that we needed to provide to our children on campus.
So the necessity for a new and modern lunchroom and a larger lunchroom was apparent.
And also, as part of our campus plan, our goal is to consolidate different divisions of the school together.
We plan to consolidate our lower school in one section of our building.
And in order to do that, we need the classrooms where the current art classrooms are to be vacated.
And so we made a determination that along with a dining facility, we would locate our art department in this building as well to create a center for the arts.
Mr. McClure, could you show on the map where it's going to be?
With your cursor?
Right here.
I am pointing to the proposed site plan.
Mr. Chairman, I have no further questions for Mr. Feldman.
Do you or any of the board members have questions, Mr. Feldman, before I call our next witness?
Anyone from the board with a question?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. McClure, we're fine. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to call our next witness, Mr. Goldstein, Jeff Goldstein.
Could you elevate Jeff Goldstein as a panelist, please?
I am here. Thank you.
Hi, Mr. Goldstein. Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Sure. This is Jeff Goldstein, J-E-F-F-G-O-L-D-S, as in Sam, T-E-I-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. I'm going to reference the resume of Mr. Goldstein on Exhibit 17 of our packet
right here, and then we're going to be going through the plans that are on renderings on
Exhibit 9, which I'm going to show momentarily. Mr. Goldstein, can you briefly discuss your
educational background and work experience? Yes, I received a Bachelor of Arts in Biology
and Environmental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. I have a Master of Architecture
from Yale University. I've been practicing here in Philadelphia since 2001, as well as teaching
architecture here in the city. I'm a founding partner of the architecture firm Digsaw. We
started in 2007 and do a wide range of architectural projects, including schools.
And you're here today as the architect for the edition, correct?
Yes, Digsaw is the design architect and architect of record for this project, and I have been serving as the partner in charge.
Excellent. Can you explain your own experience with designing schools briefly?
Yes. I've worked on the design of 15 schools in the last 20 years, including this one.
We do a lot of work with private schools like Germantown Friends.
We've also done charter schools like Russell Byers Charter School here in Philadelphia.
Great. I'd like to offer Mr. Goldstein as an expert in architecture with a specialty in school design.
That's accepted.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We're going to use Exhibit 9, Jeff, right now.
Can you familiarize the board with the subject property and the surrounding area?
And tell me what page to slide down to.
Sure. Two more slides, I believe, is the site plan of the school. This is one that we just
Two more slides.
looked at, and you, Matt, and David both did a good job of explaining that red line shows the
area of campus that this project is being proposed for. On the upper part of the page
within that red dashed box, you see the Loeb building that David described. Toward the bottom
of that, within the box, is the Smith building that David described. They're both fronting Green
Street, which you see running top to bottom of the page on the left. If we go just to the page
south of that red box, I just want to orient everyone that is the Meeting House, which has
frontage on Coulter Street, and then to the right of the meeting house is what's known as the main
building, and that's the primary academic facility on campus, and that is currently where the dining
hall is located. Can you briefly identify the role and use of the Smith building as well as
the Loeb building? Sure. Smith is currently a gymnasium. It has a basketball court on the
main floor, which is several feet above grade. And the basement has fitness, training,
and locker rooms, all in support of physical education and sports. The Loeb building is
a performance hall. It's used for theater productions, as well as all school assemblies.
It has the normal supporting spaces, both in the basement, changing rooms, dressing rooms, storage rooms.
It also includes several classrooms that are used by several departments, and those classrooms are currently – several of those classrooms are currently inaccessible.
They do not have access via elevator.
There is an elevator in the building currently, but it only serves a portion of the second floor.
Will this project solve some of those issues?
This project is intended to solve some of those issues, correct.
Using Exhibits 7, 8, and 9, can you walk the board through the proposed construction and changes to traffic circulation?
um and if you can direct me which exhibits you would like to look at um sure i think uh
seven is the zoning plan yeah uh i don't know if uh we can certainly use that although i don't know
that i need it um i think the uh is eight the uh
Eight is the revised elevations, and nine is the renderings.
Right.
I think actually the traffic, which is 10, is the easiest to demonstrate the flow of traffic, which I know will be discussed at length.
Go to that next one, Matt.
Sorry.
This, which, again, will be described a little bit more at length, but this shows the current traffic.
a path of traffic through the campus during drop-off. You can see vehicles enter from
Coulter Street making a right-hand turn. There are two possible entry points onto the campus.
Those vehicles move through the campus, which again is primarily a pedestrian zone,
drop off students in proximity to where this project is proposed, and then continue on and
re-enter traffic on Green Street with that right-hand turn. That's currently what happens.
This project will disconnect those two campus entry points, so half of the drop-offs will happen
on Coulter Street, both entering and exiting the campus from Coulter Street, and the other half
will enter and exit the campus on Green Street. This building will serve to receive, this addition
to Smith will serve to receive those who are being dropped off from Green Street. And we're
referring to the last two pages of Exhibit 9 for the record, and we'll also have later on, Mr.
Tovini will be giving traffic testimony. Do you want to go up to the photographs of the existing
street view right now and explain to the board what they're seeing and what the changes are going
to be? Yes, thank you, Matt. This image shows a view from Green Street. We see the Loeb building
on the left. It is slightly more than 100 feet from the public right away, just about 110 feet.
slightly more than 100 feet from the public right away, just about 110 feet setback.
On the right is a paved area behind that fencing, and you see that the property is bordered by a
series of retaining walls as the grade changes throughout the campus, as well as
some landscaped areas with several mature trees.
this is essentially the same view we're just back a little farther to give a wider context
again really to to demonstrate the setback and the the effect of setting back the these buildings
from the street and if we jump forward a few slides we'll see that this proposed addition
to Smith intends to maintain the same setback that Loeb has. That was done very consciously
in order to maintain the stature of Loeb as viewed from the street. And that setback's about 100 feet
from the street? It's slightly more than 100 feet, correct. And by the way, Mr. Goldstein,
this is no longer the look, right? This change with red brick? That is correct. The general
massing the size and the shape of the building have not changed but based on conversations
with local neighbors we have proposed a a revision to this image and then the brick that is being
proposed now is more along the color that currently exists on live thank you for pointing that out
and mr chairman the the red brick is shown on exhibit 20 i know yep thank you yeah thank you
And if we go to the next slide, you'll see again, Mr. Chairman, we have not updated this image with that color.
But again, it just shows the relationship of this building to the existing.
They share the setback, and you can see the new entrance to the school, which is kind of nestled in between those two taller portions, the one currently in place on Loeb and then this new addition.
Can you briefly describe the landscaping that's being added to further buffer this from the street?
Yes. The landscape that we're seeing in this image, we are supplementing that. Existing right now are trees and a lawn. Portions of that lawn are being converted to a more native host of plants that flower and are ecologically productive and are part of a comprehensive stormwater management plan.
It will also increase on the right a deeper landscape buffer between the sidewalk and the paved area.
We are, as we'll describe, we are taking a currently paved area of the school and converting that into a formal parking area.
Jeff, what's the tallest building on campus currently?
um the tallest building on campus is the uh main building that i described earlier and that is
approximately 52 feet to the ridge of that building and the height of our uh proposed
addition is that lower than that yes our proposed height is 44 feet nine inches to the roof okay
and how about the smith building smith building is approximately 43 feet four inches to the ridge
and that's pretty similar to the lobe building as well uh can you explain the need of for the
proposed addition and and what it will be used for i mean you explain what would be used for
but really explain the need of need for it additionally especially related to ada and
other requirements yeah and david did a good job i'll i'll just piggyback on that so that this
this building has several primary functions this addition has several primary function
one is to allow Smith and Loeb the two buildings that it touches to have a continued use into the
future that is of the kind of in line with modern expectations so Smith is being converted from a
gymnasium into a dining hall that's going to allow the school to move their dining program from the
basement of main building, which does not have adequate ventilation or space for food preparation.
It doesn't have a large enough seating capacity, as David described, for the current student body.
Furthermore, that space has a low ceiling. It has no views and very limited natural daylight,
and that makes the space unflexible and hard to use for other functions. So it's very limiting.
So this will be at the center of campus. This will be a dining hall, a great
So this will this will be at the center of campus. This will be a dining hall that a grand hall that has windows in a in an important space in a building that has been on campus for a long time.
The the project also will serve as a center for visual arts on the campus, and this includes classrooms and labs and studios, along with student and faculty support spaces.
Currently, those spaces exist on campus, but they're spread across several different buildings.
The addition will serve as a pre-function space for events at Loeb. There's currently no gathering space before and after performances, so the lobby of the addition will serve as a pre-function space for events at Loeb.
And then finally, this addition will make several spaces in both Smith and Loeb for the first time accessible.
So the basement of Smith, as well as the…
When you say accessible, you mean ADA accessible?
Accessible by anyone who is unable to use the stairs, correct.
Great. Excellent.
And you said the addition is 44 feet 9 inches, correct?
To the roof, correct.
In your professional opinion, how does the height of this addition compare with the buildings, other buildings on the campus, but more importantly, new school construction on other academic campuses, public or private, that you've worked on and what you know about in the city?
How does this height compare?