Happy Ending for Controversial Development Proposal in Philadelphia

“First proposed last summer, the [One Riverside] project at 25th and Locust has undergone a major redesign at the insistence of neighbors, who bitterly objected to the design - and even to the tower's very existence. Now the blank walls on the ground floor are gone. So is the aboveground garage. But the big surprise isn't just that the new version is superior; it's that both sides enthusiastically agree it's better. [Developer Carl] Dranoff says he will break ground in the fall,” reports Inga Saffron.

So how’d it happen? According to Saffron:

1. “the opponents - a coalition of residents and the community garden - channeled their hostility into a friendly conversation that has produced a better building for the park, for the Fitler Square neighborhood, for Dranoff, and most important, for the city.”
2. “Dranoff credits his architects at Cecil Baker + Partners for their creativity in reimagining the project.”

Saffron also points out that city planners were notably absent while the developer, architects, and community resolved their differences.