Category green

Drexel continues its expansion

Right in the heart of their campus.

This project has been in the works for some time now, and has actually already broken ground). It will fill a big void on an active block (right across the street from the Drexel Book Store and Mandell Theater).

Once labeled as one of “America’s Ugliest Campuses,” the school has literally transformed an outdated, park-less, concrete area into a modern, green, world-class student town. Not only have these large investments brought in more students, but they have also encouraged lots of off-campus development by private investors to keep those students in the neighborhood.

Jim Fry has truly picked up right where the late Constantine Papadakis left off.

All political eyes are on Philly

 
I logged a post in May 2011 about this project, and now things are starting to come together.

All political eyes are watching over our city, more specifically in South Philly, to see if the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC) can deliver on their promises. Those promises, are as follows:

“… to improve energy efficiency and operability and reduce carbon emissions of new and existing buildings, and to stimulate private investment and quality job creation in the Greater Philadelphia region, the larger Mid-Atlantic region, and beyond. The GPIC will focus on full spectrum retrofit of existing average size commercial and multifamily residential buildings.”

Needless to say, this group has their hands full.

Over the next 2 years, the GPIC will design and build their first project at Building 661. This project may be a make-or-break for the group and will certainly show whether or not the $129M investment was worth it.

Philly’s new zoning code promotes sustainability

 
Although the new code will not officially be put into effect until August 2012, zoning reform advocates are stoked to see what it can do to simplify the process.

Since Philadelphia’s current zoning code dates back to 1962, which was when suburban development was very popular, there were about 1,000 spot changes made to it during the last 50 years. Although the city thought they were doing something good by making changes when they were needed, it just complicated things even more.

When the zoning reform process began back in 2007, the Zoning Code Commission decided to focus on 7 different goals:

  1. Simplify base districts
  2. Simplify overlay districts
  3. Simplify approvals
  4. Improve readability and reorganization
  5. Protect neighborhoods
  6. Promote sustainability
  7. Promote quality and design

Although the first 4 goals, seem to be more complete than the last 3 goals (as of now), “Promoting Sustainability” seems to be one that has been focused on. In the new code, walkable development, solar/wind systems, and storm water management all play a critical role in getting city approval. Bonus space may even be given to developers who’s project achieves LEED certification.

Needless to say, the new zoning code will be a huge improvement over what we have now.