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Gotta love parking derailing a nice project. I love Philadelphia, so many positives, but sometimes I just shake my head, the backwards mentality is sad, also "invasive gentrification".... really?
A 50 story Ritz Carlton on that corner would be invasive gentrification, a 4 story apt building with a supermarket is an improvement to the neighborhood.
I guess fear of change and the "unknown" is harder to overcome than I thought.
The hysteria surrounding this project in Mt. Airy has been unbelievable. This a relatively benign project coming to a part of Germantown Avenue that has ~50% vacancy of nearby store fronts (from Phil Elena to Upsal). This is probably the first time I have EVER heard Aldis be described as a force for gentrification. I don't like Modern/Cheap architecture in NW Philly but this rendering is relatively neutral and is just replacing a vacant lot that used to be an Autobody shop.
This should probably be in a new "Philadelphia Area development Thread" but...
Great article on the success of the Village at Valley Forge. This is one the first "modern" town centers that seems to have broken the code to success, hundreds of residential units (and hundreds more on the way) mixed with retail, dining and community events all in one place. The only unfortunate part is that this is still an island in a sea of highways and corporate parks.
I know a lot of people have lumped this in with Main Street at Exton, and all the other standard "town centers" but this project does stick, and certainly has a positive impact on the entire region.
This should probably be in a new "Philadelphia Area development Thread" but...
Great article on the success of the Village at Valley Forge. This is one the first "modern" town centers that seems to have broken the code to success, hundreds of residential units (and hundreds more on the way) mixed with retail, dining and community events all in one place. The only unfortunate part is that this is still an island in a sea of highways and corporate parks.
I know a lot of people have lumped this in with Main Street at Exton, and all the other standard "town centers" but this project does stick, and certainly has a positive impact on the entire region.
I was there yesterday and I quite like the Vilage at Valley Forge. We go to Wegmans about once a month or every other month and have started going to KOP over North Wales because it is fun to grab dinner or brunch here beforehand. If my job had me in KOP instead of CC I would seriously consider living here.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KansastoSouthphilly
The hysteria surrounding this project in Mt. Airy has been unbelievable. This a relatively benign project coming to a part of Germantown Avenue that has ~50% vacancy of nearby store fronts (from Phil Elena to Upsal). This is probably the first time I have EVER heard Aldis be described as a force for gentrification. I don't like Modern/Cheap architecture in NW Philly but this rendering is relatively neutral and is just replacing a vacant lot that used to be an Autobody shop.
Aldi's new floor plans are much nicer than the old floor plans. It's still a box store, but the colors & floor plans are updated. As new stores are opened & older stores are remodeled inventory is increased. If people can get more of their shopping done near their residence then, yes, it's helping with gentrification.
This should probably be in a new "Philadelphia Area development Thread" but...
Great article on the success of the Village at Valley Forge. This is one the first "modern" town centers that seems to have broken the code to success, hundreds of residential units (and hundreds more on the way) mixed with retail, dining and community events all in one place. The only unfortunate part is that this is still an island in a sea of highways and corporate parks.
I know a lot of people have lumped this in with Main Street at Exton, and all the other standard "town centers" but this project does stick, and certainly has a positive impact on the entire region.
You know how I feel about these types of "forced downtowns," but I have to say that the article and its accompanying pictures were very interesting. The last picture, in particular, could have been a woman sitting on a bench in the middle of a city.
The "stick" here seems to be the residential, and that is what all future town centers should do. As much as the Village at Valley Forge seems to have hit upon something, I still can't get past the fact that at the end of the day, it's still a subdivision that you have to drive into (if you don't live there) and park before you walk around. When you're done whatever you're doing there, you get in your car and go home. It's not an organic walkable area, but if they couldn't have organic, I guess this is the next best thing.
The hysteria surrounding this project in Mt. Airy has been unbelievable. This a relatively benign project coming to a part of Germantown Avenue that has ~50% vacancy of nearby store fronts (from Phil Elena to Upsal). This is probably the first time I have EVER heard Aldis be described as a force for gentrification. I don't like Modern/Cheap architecture in NW Philly but this rendering is relatively neutral and is just replacing a vacant lot that used to be an Autobody shop.
That is why I wish there was a clause (maybe there is?) where the developer can just stick it to the neighbors and proceed with the project.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyers Girl
You know how I feel about these types of "forced downtowns," but I have to say that the article and its accompanying pictures were very interesting. The last picture, in particular, could have been a woman sitting on a bench in the middle of a city.
The "stick" here seems to be the residential, and that is what all future town centers should do. As much as the Village at Valley Forge seems to have hit upon something, I still can't get past the fact that at the end of the day, it's still a subdivision that you have to drive into (if you don't live there) and park before you walk around. When you're done whatever you're doing there, you get in your car and go home. It's not an organic walkable area, but if they couldn't have organic, I guess this is the next best thing.
I haven't been to the Village since the Wegmans opened a few years ago, but many people I know (and posters on here) have visited recently and were almost amazed at how it moves so far from the "town center" approach and creates a mini semi-urban district).
And I believe through Toll Brothers and another builder will create over 1000 residential units when all said and done, thats a lot of people.
Even though most will have to drive into this "town", Media, West Chester and all the others are no different in which a majority of people have to travel into the town, park, then enjoy the walk-able area.
The biggest difference is that older towns like Media do have a certain charm that can't really be replicated, but I think this Village does a good job offering a variety of park/ rest spaces, walking paths and varied architectural styles.
There article actually quoted several people who found this development as a refuge when they relocated from the city to the burbs.
It would be fantastic if there could be a some sort of walking or bike trail that led from this development directly into the mall, but that is probably a long while away.
I was there a couple weekends ago to have brunch at Founding Farmers. Had to laugh at the woman in the article that said it had a European vibe. It felt more like a college campus to me. Not knocking it though - it's a hell of a lot better than the standard alternatives and I think as more residents get added and the trees mature it will feel different (and better) from the norm.
This should probably be in a new "Philadelphia Area development Thread" but...
Great article on the success of the Village at Valley Forge. This is one the first "modern" town centers that seems to have broken the code to success, hundreds of residential units (and hundreds more on the way) mixed with retail, dining and community events all in one place. The only unfortunate part is that this is still an island in a sea of highways and corporate parks.
I know a lot of people have lumped this in with Main Street at Exton, and all the other standard "town centers" but this project does stick, and certainly has a positive impact on the entire region.
I've got a tour of AVE in the works, and I agree with your assessment of the project.
I refer to developments of this type, which are being put together with increasing frequency in edge cities and similar locations around the country, as "Instant Urbanism." I consider it inferior to the organic variety for reasons that I think should be obvious but at the same time consider it a quantum leap forward from the way we have been developing our suburban centers since the end of World War II.
In form, it doesn't look all that "urban" - especially over in the Town Center, it looks a little too much like the standard "Main Street"-type suburban shopping mall that is actually the standard island of stores in a sea of asphalt, only with an interior street where the roof of the shopping mall used to be and some storefronts that face outward to the main road as a result. But in terms of how all the pieces function and fit together internally, they couldn't have gotten it more right if they tried (with maybe one or two exceptions). You exit the lobby of the 55+ apartment building and one of the restaurants in the Town Center is staring you in the face. You're drawn through the shops via several actual internal streets that connect with others and with the boulevard that leads to AVE at the far end. The other apartment buildings are just about as close, though some of them are separated by the main parking garage for the Town Center (I note that they're wrapping some more apartments around another garage over by the CHOP clinic, which will get a new satellite hospital as a next-door neighbor - CHOP's main facility is bursting at the seams and there's demand for a full pediatric hospital out this way). And this also ties nicely in with the pre-existing Wegmans, whose parking lot is pretty shallow.
But as you note, it's still an urban island in an autocentric archipelago. Unfortunately, we can't build the proper connecting tissue to change that anymore.
The "stick" here seems to be the residential, and that is what all future town centers should do. As much as the Village at Valley Forge seems to have hit upon something, I still can't get past the fact that at the end of the day, it's still a subdivision that you have to drive into (if you don't live there) and park before you walk around. When you're done whatever you're doing there, you get in your car and go home. It's not an organic walkable area, but if they couldn't have organic, I guess this is the next best thing.
I think you, I and cpomp are on the same page in the songbook.
Of course, you know there's a concerted effort to extend the Norristown High-Speed Line light metro out to this area. This is a major goal for the King of Prussia (business improvement) District, whose executive director, Eric Goldstein, clearly has Tysons in his crosshairs.
The real reason for the push is not getting people to K of P more efficiently, though it will be better than steaming on the Schuylkill on the 124 or 125 for most city-to-suburb passengers. It's being done mainly to stimulate redevelopment of the area, especially the parking lots on the fringes of the mall, along denser lines (it's telling that the head of the KOP Rail coalition is Jerry Sweeney, head of Brandywine Realty Trust, the region's largest commercial landlord).
IMO the main mistake with the line as planned is that it will stop about 3/4 mile shy of the Village, ending instead at the Valley Forge Casino Resort/Radisson Hotel at the end of First Avenue and the existing business park. It would seem to me a no-brainer to have the line do a left turn onto Gulph Road and head down to the Village. But someone at a King of Prussia District-sponsored forum last week told me as I raised this point that SEPTA ultimately wants to take this thing to Reading and that doing this would preclude that.
Never mind that you could build a wye junction there just as SEPTA will have to put one in around Hughes Park to accommodate this spur - this strikes me as cockamamie when there's an existing mainline raliroad ROW connecting the two cities already. Furthermore, the railroad that owns it, Norfolk Southern, is apparently willing to talk about accommodating passenger trains on it, a fact that came out in reporting on Phoenixville's ad hoc effort to jumpstart restoration of rail service to it using this very branch. All SEPTA would need to do to start service on it is repair some of the stations still standing, buy some dual-mode diesel/electric locomotives and passenger coaches, and work out a deal with NS. Instead, they want to spend more money on something that won't be as comfortable for a 60-mile trip?
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