IMMEDIATE NEIGHBORS DO NOT LIKE ELEVEN STORIES
By Lou Mancinelli
Special to the University City Review
A group of Woodland Terrance neighbors met with Councilwoman
Jannie Blackwell last Wednesday, to voice their opposition
to the development of an 11-story extended-stay Hilton
franchise hotel at the corner of 40th and Pine Streets, in
the adjacent lot next to the historically designated
"Italianate" mansion at 400 South 40th Street, owned by the
University of Pennsylvania.
[illustration: Rendering of the proposed hotel produced by
members of the community. It is meant to convey the
solidity and scale of the proposed Campus Inn, in
contrast with what critics say are "the rather
translucent renderings which the developer has
presented."]
Members of the group say they expected administration and
real estate services at Penn to be more responsible to the
community when attempting to develop projects, and they do
not understand why the university wants to build a building
that is, what neighbors claim to be, out of touch with the
rhythm of the neighborhood.
"An eleven-story slab of construction is really quite out of
keeping with everything in the immediate neighborhood," said
Marianna Thomas, an architect who attended the meeting as a
concerned neighbor, in a phone interview this week. "We
wanted to make sure Councilwoman Blackwell’s office was
aware there were people in the community who felt the
project was a little bit too much." Lack of parking and an
increase in traffic were two other major concerns, according
to Thomas.
At the meeting, Thomas presented artistic renderings of the
proposed hotel from different angles in the neighborhood.
According to Thomas, the drawings created by architects at
Atkin Olshin Schade (the firm responsible for the project’s
design) diminish the scale of the hotel and make the
building look almost hollow. Thomas said her pictures
actually reveal the building to be solid and inconsistent
with the rest of the neighborhood.
"We are opposed to any drastic increase in density, or
zoning of the immediate area," said Chris O’Donnell, a
Woodland Terrace neighbor who was also at the meeting, in a
phone interview this week.
"This is a drastic departure from normal urban planning
concepts," he said. O’Donnell said that Penn already has a
tall building at 40th and Chestnut (the Hub), and another
one is being built at 39th and Walnut (the site is leased
through Penn), both with little parking.
"Penn has a responsibility to use good urban planning,
modern technology, and green concepts," said O’Donnell.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell had not responded to UC Review
requests for comment at the time of publication.
According to Thomas, Councilwoman Blackwell said at the
meeting she wants to be sure the developer negotiates with
the community.
"[Councilwoman Blackwell] is committed to working with the
community," said O’Donnell. According to O’Donnell,
Blackwell suggested designating a liaison to increase
communication between the community and developers.
"The project is not yet fully confirmed, and is still going
through the process," said Tony Sorrentino, Executive
Director of Public Affairs. According to Sorrentino, there
are still a number of civic and city agencies that need to
approve the project, as must the university itself, before
any plans become official.
Sorrentino said representatives from Penn concluded an
extended-stay hotel was consistent with the retail and
commercial activity at 40th and Pine Streets witnessed
during the past decade. He said increased traffic could help
local merchants.
"First and foremost, our goal at 40th and Pine was to
preserve the wonderful mansion and restore pride in the
community and animate the corner, while providing options
for new development," said Sorrentino.
The property in question would be leased by the University
of Pennsylvania to developer Tom Lussenhop, former executive
assistant for project development at Penn, in conjunction
with Campus Apartments. It would host 113 efficiency style
apartments, according to plans presented by Lussenhop and
architects from Atkin Olshin Schade (designers of the Penn
Alexander School at 4209 Spruce).The lot is currently zoned
for residential use and would require a variance before
construction could begin.
The Mansion was built in 1856 by architect Samuel Sloan. It
served as a nursing home during the 1940s. Despite several
concrete additions to the building’s exterior throughout the
1960s, the building received individual historic designation
in 1973. It remained a nursing home until 2003, when it was
closed by the state due to inhumane conditions. Penn
purchased the building in 2003.
In the past, Lussenhop has said the hotel will be used for
six- to eight-night stays, and to house families of patients
at Penn’s hospitals, or families of students and academics
in town for conferences or fellowships. Each suite would be
equipped with a full-kitchen and the hotel would include a
"semi-public" courtyard, a pool on the roof, and an adjacent
500-square-foot café/restaurant.
In October, the Philadelphia Historical Commission ruled in
favor of the project "in concept," two weeks after the
Architecture Review Committee of the Historical Commission
offered a "denial in concept" ruling, citing the proposed
development’s "mass and scale." In between the two meetings,
plans were slightly altered to reflect the suggestions of
the review committee. Revised plans included a buffer zone
between the building and street and increased vertical
fenestration.
The project would include restoration of the mansion. In its
current state, pieces of the exterior of the mansion are
hanging from the building, its doors are boarded, and the
foundation of the building’s upper-most structure, a small
room, which comes up from the roof like a chimney, is
slanted. Development would include a two- or three-story
transitional building in between the mansion and the hotel,
to ease the difference on the eyes between the sizes of the
two buildings.
In November, members of the Spruce Hill Community
Association protested plans presented by Lussenhop and
architect Andrew Curtis, of Atkin Olshin Schade.
"Everyone thought when Penn bought [the mansion], Penn would
do the right thing," said one neighbor in a telephone
interview, referring to removing the additions and restoring
the building for something like office use.
