We’ve already brought you the greatest architectural crime near Temple’s campus, and we don’t contend that today’s example is anywhere near as egregious. That being said, it’s still pretty unfortunate.

The 1400 block of N. 17th Street is desolate, but has become less so in recent years. With a number of vacant lots on both sides of the street owned by the City of Philadelphia and PHA, the possibilities for progress are sadly limited in the near future.

In 2009. Amazing.

1413 Dev LLC, however, has picked off two of the privately owned lots, 1413 and 1417, and is in the process of constructing two triplexes, which “fortunately” have a City lot located right between the two. On the plus side, tenants will have a side yard, probably in perpetuity. On the negative side, who wants to live next to a vacant, poorly maintained lot?

Current view. PHA home has gone up down the street

We bring these home to your attention today not because they represent yet another in a long list of new properties being developed in the area around Temple (which they do), and not because they are located a little farther south than most of the student housing we’ve seen (which they are), but because of the curious architectural choices exhibited in their construction. We’re not fans of unattractive buildings in general, but on a block that’s got so much vacant land, the architect’s decisions tend to stick out even more than on projects taking place on more complete blocks.

What's under the windows?

No thanks

We get it that the builders are trying to stuff extra units into these buildings, but did that necessitate such strange facades? We confess, we’re not architects or architecture critics but this provoked a strong reaction when we passed by. Are people with us on this? Or are we overreacting here, and the buildings are not as bad as we’re making them out to be?