Earlier this week, we made an unplanned trek across several adjacent neighborhoods, where a boatload of development is taking place. This trip was short, but very sweet, traversing a sizable chunk of the northeast quadrant of Greater Center City. Over the next several days, we are going to check on progress of projects that are currently under construction – not proposed or permitted, but actually in the process of coming to fruition. On this one-hour, eight-mile trip, we witnessed 5,758 units on the way – and this is just a fraction of the building going on across our fair city.

As we made our way around town on our trip, we realized that the sheer scale of everything going on was difficult to process. So we did the hard part and visited the sites, all while keeping a running tally on just how many units we’ve visited. There are so many buildings under construction, we had to break our journey into several volumes. As you can see below, things sure are busy.

Let’s start at the corner of 12th & Vine, because why not. Here we go!

At 1201 Vine St., a site that had a couple of starts and stops over the years, the stately Jarvis Building is getting an overbuild and a new, eight-story neighbor. Things are well underway on this project from Cadre Design, so look for 120 units and 36 parking spaces in the future. Framing should be finished up shortly, with window/facade work to start in the coming months as this project comes into form.

Heading northeast several blocks to 1000 Spring Garden St., we come to a project has been in the works since we first checked in back in 2017. Future home to an eight-story, 21-unit building, this site has been under construction for years, with few visible signs of progress when we’ve checked it out on previous visits. As the pouring of concrete can attest, things appear to be full steam ahead again for this HDO Architecture-designed project, which will bring a modern look – and ground floor commercial space – to their next-door neighbors, Russo Music and Union Transfer.

Just a couple blocks east, 741 Spring Garden St. is now topped off and really taking form. Another building with a famous neighbor, we checked in back in July just as the steel frame was going up. This modular build from Arts + Crafts Holdings and JKRP Architecture has come into form nicely over the last several months. 146 units over commercial space, along with 29 parking spaces, will make up this industrial-inspired design. We’re excited to see the additional foot traffic here, and look for facade work to start in the coming months.

Finally, we end this leg of our journey further north at 900-18 N. 8th St., the future site of The Darien. Sitting north of Poplar and south or Girard literally across the tracks from the recently completed Poplar apartments, zoning documents for this two-building, five-story project were issued back in November, when we saw the first signs that work was afoot. This project from Post Brothers and CosciaMoos Architecture will add another 212 apartments and 69 parking spaces to the north end of the neighborhood. We couldn’t see much thanks to the fence surrounding the site, but the peeks (and sounds) we could capture showed us that things were all systems go. Look for the framing to rise on the western side of the site adjacent to the elevated train line as things move forward into the spring.

For those keeping score at home, that’s 499 units across these four projects, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of other units under way close by that we didn’t make it to on our swing through the area, but this goes to show just how much change is happening in this little pocket. More to come…