Building Boom Continues in South Kensington

North Front Street, in South Kensington and Fishtown, is experiencing a building boom of new apartment and office buildings.  The stretch has been popular even with the Market/Frankford El running over the middle of the street.  The El provides access to Center City and Front Street’s many industrial buildings are useful for office and creative space, as well as, retail and neighborhood services.  Some new building designs have unusual shapes, intended to shield residents from the noise of the El, and others are more traditional in shape.  Two new apartment buildings are planned at 1308 North Front Street and 1309 North Hope Street, next to one of the unusually shaped buildings, on what is now a large vacant lot.

The apartment buildings are being developed by prolific local developer Roland Kassis and designed by popular Onion Flats Architecture.  They will be four stories and about 55 feet tall.  In between them will be a small courtyard.  Each one will have seven one-bedroom apartments for a total of fourteen rental units.  The building on Front Street will have a retail space.  There will be five spaces for bicycle parking.  Each building will have a roof deck, with amazing views of the city skyline and the Delaware River.  The facade will have large industrial-style windows and metal panels, with dark brick and some wood paneling at the street level on the facade of the retail space.

North Front Street and South Kensington have come a long way in recent years, as creative workers and Center City residents find the neighborhood attractive.  Continued development will enhance this growing area of the city.

By, Gabriel Gottlieb