At today’s meeting, along with approving the controversial Washington West Historic District, the Historical Commission also gave final approval to the latest plans for a seven story mixed-use building at 1423 Spruce St., in the Rittenhouse Fitler Historic District. While the existing building is non-contributing, the Commission still has jurisdiction over what replaces this unimpressive building. Fortunately Commission members seem unperturbed by the demolition of the existing structure, with Paul Steinke noting it “won’t be any kind of loss” for this phoney colonial building to be removed.

This project has gone through several iterations over a year-long process which you can read all about in our previous coverage.

While the Commission had already decided a 7 story building was appropriate at this site, the specifics of the setbacks above the third story had not satisfied their demands. The latest iteration of the project seems to have won the Commission members over by further setting back the 4th story of the building to match the setback of the 5th floor. While we appreciate the intent from the Commission here, it feels a little funny to require the developers to further shrink the size of this building in the heart of Center City when the 20 story Atlantic Building just down the block soars into the sky without any setbacks at all.

Some other changes, like adjusting the color of brick used on the front facade and the addition of a canopy were also implemented. But did this whole process actually result in a stronger structure? To echo the testimony of a member of the public, the end result of this long and expensive process is a structure that’s been designed by committee. And it’s probably worse than the original proposal, at least from where we sit.

We’re happy to see this project finally get approval to proceed, but it sure was a long and difficult path to get here. Perhaps this project will serve as a template for other projects in historic districts downtown, as other developers can cut and paste the setbacks from this one and implement them elsewhere. After a huge swath of Center City was designated today, we might see similar projects to this one on the other side of Broad Street in the coming years.