New Apartment Building on Chestnut Street Adds to Walnut Hill’s Revitalization

Walnut Hill is a very busy neighborhood in West Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood. It has many older apartment buildings and some commercial buildings. The neighborhood has been popular with college students and working class people alike. In recent years, new development has been occurring along Chestnut Street, with several new apartment buildings under construction or recently completed. A distinctive new apartment building is planned for the northeast corner of 42nd and Chestnut Streets. This new building will replace a two-story building, which had several retail businesses that either moved or went out of business during the pandemic.

This new apartment building is being developed by Quaker Lane Capital and Collier and designed by Coscia Moos Architecture. It will be seven stories tall and will have 136 rental units. The ground floor will have three retail spaces for a total of 7,700 square feet of retail space. The residential entrance and lobby will be located at 42nd and Ludlow Streets. The building will have a dog park and roof deck with cabanas, wood plank, and some greenery. There will, also, be terraces and amenities, including a yoga deck, at the second floor. The building will step back above the second floor and will have bays and balconies, with interesting angles, to create a unique modern appearance. The exterior will use Barcelona slate and some fibre cement panels. The building will have 37 parking spaces, too.

University City is seeing an explosion of new development, including new office and research buildings, which in turn are creating demand for more apartment buildings. Chestnut Street has been popular with developers for a while, as small residential and commercial buildings are replaced by larger apartment buildings, sometimes including retail. The corner of 42nd and Chestnut Streets will look and feel quite different now with this large new apartment building there.