Thank you, ladies, and thanks for sitting there the whole time.
Have a breath.
We appreciate it.
All right.
Number 13, MI-2025-003-331-2716 South Street.
Eric Batson is the attorney.
I'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Yes, of course.
My name is Eric Bodzin, B-O-D-Z-I-N, of blank Rome, on behalf of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
do you waive the reading of the refusals and agree with their accuracy yes I do okay and I
would say there's a letter of support from south of south neighborhood a letter of abstention from
North Washington Avenue coalition and a letter of support from the council president Johnson
please proceed sir yes thank you Mr. Chair before we begin for efficiency may we also
swear in uh my co-presenters uh jennifer flanik and john roach
they're going to be presenting with you uh john design team will be presenting
and then jennifer will adopt and affirm my testimony okay thank you
john and jennifer can you raise your hands in the virtual audience
to my bacon as a pen of it shortly sir thank you
um hello hi john could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh john j-o-h-n roach r-o-a-c-h do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do and we're your other person is jennifer did i hear that yes yes thank
you mr chair uh jennifer flanick j-e-n-n-i-f-e-r flanick f as in frank l-a-y n as in nancy i-k
referring to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes all right why don't
we start, Eric. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and members of the board. Thank you for your time this
afternoon. Application here is made on behalf of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for the
property located at 2716 South Street. And I'm glad we swore John Roach in because it is in his
virtual background. The subject property consists of a large rectangular parcel
located on South Street and Schuylkill Avenue. To the rear of the site is the Schuylkill Expressway.
As you can see, the property is zoned CMX3 Commercial. It is one parcel and members of
board, as you can see here, it is improved by two multi-story structures. The existing
Roberts Building is on the left, and the new Morgan Building is on the right. The new Morgan
Building, which is the subject of today's variance, consists of a 21-story structure,
approximately 350 feet in height. Here are additional photographs from the street.
And from the side, when these photos were taken, the Morgan building was under construction.
It is now much more complete, as you will see in the pictures and the renderings that follow and that are behind John on the screen.
Both buildings are used by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for academic and research purposes.
The property is served with approximately 400 parking spaces and 277 bicycle spaces.
The property is extensively landscaped and contains a number of public pathways connecting the campus with the surrounding neighborhood.
connecting the campus with the surrounding neighborhood.
The application before the board is to allow the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to
place additional signage on the property, consisting of two wall signs for the new Morgan
building, one window sign for the new building's retail space, and seven freestanding directional
signs for wayfounding around the expanded campus.
As John will depict in a moment, these 10 total signs will match the signs at the existing Roberts Building and Campus.
As you can see on this summary site plan of the proposed signage at the property, which is detailed for the board's convenience in Exhibit 6 of your packets,
In green are the existing signs which total 3,538 square feet. In red are the new proposed signs
which total 2,035 square feet for a combined total of 5,575 square feet. At this time,
Mr. Chair, members of the board, I would like to introduce John Roach of Canon Design to briefly
provide more detail about the proposed signage and then answer any additional questions you may
have this afternoon. Great. Thanks, Eric. This is a good place to start if we can pause on this
slide for a moment. John, just before you begin, can you state your name, title, and your role
with regard to this application for signage?
Yes, John Roach.
I am with Canon Design.
I am an engineering leader
and project manager for this project.
Thank you, John.
And can you please walk the board
through plans for the proposed signage
and just let me know
when you'd like me to proceed
with the next slide.
So like I said,
I think this is a good place to start.
And I'd like to call your attention
to the building on the right, the Morgan Center, you'll note that there's two red arcs drawn on
what is the, to the left is north and upward is to the west. So those two red arcs correspond to
the elevations that we're going to be adding building signage to. Also like to point out in
the upper right, there's something labeled the Schuylkill Green Detail. This particular element
of the campus will connect South Street to Schuylkill Avenue, providing a full loop around
the CHOP buildings for better connectivity with the Schuylkill River Trail. So people coming off
the SRT no longer need to go to the intersection of South and 27th. They can go through the site.
That will be encouraged. It's a fully accessible area. And because we're going to have that through
traffic, that pedestrian traffic, that accounts for the number of small sight signs and wayfinding
signs that are shown there. We'll also talk through the retail signage in a moment. So if we can go to
the next slide. This is one of the two building signs that I pointed out previously. You'll note
that this is roughly at the fifth floor of the building. It aligns almost exactly with
the existing sign on the Roberts building next door. So this elevation faces the South Street
Plaza. This is what you see coming across the South Street Bridge from University City.
It is designed to complement the building next door and most importantly recognize the generosity
of the Morgan family, who about a year ago now, you might recall, contributed about $50 million
for the construction of this building. If we go to the next slide, we can take a look at
the opposite face. This faces down South Street. So this is what you will see as you approach
University City from the east going towards the South Street Bridge. This sign will be much higher
They're up in the building correspondingly below the roof as the Roberts sign is on that building.
Our building is a little bit shorter, but it's about proportionally the same distance down from the roof line.
Both signs are backlit aluminum metal set off from the curtain wall for drainage.
They are like a plastic translucent letter.
but as much as I describe it
you can go out there and look at any given day
and see the Roberts Center sign
and this is essentially a duplicate of that
just for the Morgan Center
for the morgan center they will be uh led backlit so we will have full ability to control brightness
they will be LED backlit
so we will have
and make sure that we're not causing any glare issues notably this one that faces toward uh
or i guess away from university city um the neighborhood is in this area but it's high
enough in the building and again with that dimmability control we don't anticipate this
being something that will be readily visible or glaring for many adjacent residences.
And on the lower right is one example of the retail signage.
The corner of the building, we actually carved back the tower from the existing podium that was there before
that had been an unsuccessfully leased retail space, shelf space, if you will.
The new retail space is much more prominent.
It'll have a roof terrace.
And so while a particular tenant has not been identified, we wanted to get approval to be able to locate signage that will be visible to the pedestrian traffic that's going through the site.
We anticipate something fairly small in keeping with CHOP standards, likely something just as a graphic on the glass, whether it's vinyl or something else adhered to the front or back side.
This gives you an idea of what we're talking about.
Let me go to the next one.
so here's uh an updated version of the rendering that's right behind me uh this is uh the only
differences this has the signs and as i mentioned earlier you can see the two signs relative to one
another same font same construction same sign company actually uh just uh different names on
the buildings so complementary and if we go to the next slide uh you saw this previously but
just to kind of call your attention to where the other sign is going, it would be the concave
surface to the right, the one facing the AT&T building that fronts the SRT that I'm sure
everyone knows and loves. We go to the next slide. Talk a little bit about site signage.
Again, it's in keeping with everything that's already on site. So we are adding some new
pylons like the one shown to the left, mostly new post-mounted signs, five of them that's in the
middle there. And again, if you want to see examples of those two, there are plenty out
on the Roberts property right now. They'll be identical. And then a new pylon sign similar in
scale to the parking entrance sign that exists at the garage entrance on South Street. And this
have that same retail logo with just directional wayfinding so we can direct people through the
pathways up to the main entrance from the lower level because the site is on a fairly significant
slope. Go on to the next one. Just a couple of slides here. They're essentially going to be the
same but just for the purpose of completeness. It shows the dimension of the letters, the kerning,
the spacing, and the sign that faces South Street. Again, very, very similar square footage
and sizing. It is the same font as Roberts. And if we go to the next slide, this is the same thing,
but again, just for completeness to show that sign on this side of the building. Also, this
rendering shows what I was alluding to from that construction photo a moment before, the sign
facing South Street towards that AT&T building high up in the structure. And you can see the
retail at the lower right. So, and again, just bringing it back to that South Street rendering.
So, I think that concludes this presentation. Is there one more slide?
That's it.
That's it. Okay. So, thanks for your attention.
thank thank you so much john and please stand by in case uh the board has any additional
questions we appreciate your time this afternoon uh members of the board uh this
excuse me for interrupting this is a board council ryan mcsharey just wanted to let the
board know that hillary emerson has returned she's logged in and will be taking over as
board council for the remainder of the day thank you thank you ryan for coming today we appreciate
I would please proceed with your next witness.
Absolutely. No further witnesses, Mr. Chair, if I may just briefly conclude my testimony. Members of the board, at this time, we submit that, as you've heard from John this afternoon,
June, the proposed signage constitutes the minimum required in order to afford reasonable visual identification of the Children's Hospital Philadelphia's site and facilities in light of the property's large size, configuration, and location.
In light of the property's large size, configuration, and location, the signage is intended to facilitate the public's movement throughout the campus with connectivity among the public plaza areas and trails that John mentioned.
The signage has been designed specifically to prevent glare and light spillage to surrounding
properties. As you heard John detail, there has been extensive community review, and we are
thankful to Council President Johnson and the coordinating RCO SOSNA for their letters of
support included in the exhibit package. And again, as John detailed, the signage here is
virtually identical to that which was previously approved and currently exists on campus,
that being for the Roberts Center. Mr. Chair, this concludes my testimony. Jennifer Flanick
is here to adopt and affirm my testimony. Jennifer, could you please state your name?
Oh, I think I already swore you in. Am I correct? You did. Just state your name for the record and
Eric will start. Sure. Jennifer Flanick. Good afternoon, Jennifer. How are you this afternoon?
Good. Are you affiliated with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and familiar with
the project we're presenting here today? Yes, I am. And have you heard the entirety of the
testimony that I have provided this afternoon? Yes, I have. Was it true and accurate to the
best of your knowledge? Yes. And would you adopt the testimony that I have given as your own?
Yes. Thank you so much, Ms. Klinick. Questions from the board?
I don't know whether the building came to CDR when I was chair, so I'm not sure whether I need to recuse myself.
Oh, okay, Michael.
I guess.
You can do it.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Comments from the virtual audience?
I don't see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
madison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
existing cmx3 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location the proposed signs are for internal
circulation within the chop hospital campus and are necessary for wayfinding therefore the city
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variances for number of freestanding
signs directional sign area and total sign area on building frontage but deny the requested
variance for maximum sign height. Thank you. So MI 2025. Mr. Chair. Oh, I'm sorry. If I may,
before the vote, I'm glad Ms. Emerson just joined the room. We had a brief discussion before the
hearing just to confirm that this vote is on the amended refusal dated May the 5th. I just wanted
TO CONFIRM.
MI-2025-003-331-2716 SOUTH STREET, I VOTE YES WITH PROVISO, HER AMENDED REFUSAL DATED
5-5-25.
Michael Johns, I recuse myself.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes, with proviso. Thank you, counsel.
Thank you all for your time, Ms. Ashworth. Is there anyone in the verse 1s whose 2pm
case has not been called? No hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. We're going to move right on to the
3 30 list good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the
philadelphia zoning board with me is our board member cheryl l gaston present mr chairman our
board member tenetta graham present mr chairman board member michael johns mr chairman board
member taiwan present mr chairman our attorney hillary emerson our board director ian haggerty
and our board administrator to lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be posted on
the zba website by participating you consent to be recorded recording of this hearing will be
posted i'm sorry this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities whether remote or in person
if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name and then wait to be sworn in
once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before beginning your testimony