bucks native
09-05-2009, 12:41 PM
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/map3.jpg
render credit: planphilly
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyedificebarracks.jpg
barracks
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyornate.jpg
Navy Headquarters Building
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/NavyKittyHawkAve.jpg
Kitty Hawk Ave.
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyBuilding79.jpg
Building 79
photo credits: planphilly; more here: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8556
Text below from here: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8556
Navy Yard: Fields, fields, fields of dreams
March 26, 2009
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard; a base that most Quaker City natives have neither set foot in, nor laid eyes on. There's all that riverfront, some of it with large, pretty white houses that were officers’ quarters – perhaps the city’s best situated riverfront homes; a yawning chasm of dry docks that could berth aircraft carriers; enormous, ornamental red-brick factories and barracks.
The Yard officially closed as a military base in 1996.
It’s about 1,200 acres – the size of Center City.
A decade later, with some significant public and private investment in new office buildings; with several historic conversions of handsome old shops, foundries and airplane hangars; with the Aker company building ships again; and with the Navy itself still a significant presence; it’s just as wide-open and just as fascinating. And nowadays, one can drive right through the front gates without stopping, at the foot of Broad Street, to its terminus at the Delaware River’s edge.
A master plan done by Robert A.M. Stern Architects earlier in this decade is ongoing, including sustainable infrastructure, the rehabilitation and leasing of historic buildings, new public open spaces and the development of seven miles of waterfront.
That’s going back to one of the first large tenants, in 1999, the Vitetta architectural firm (which took over the large former Marine Corps barracks), and spanning through the recent arrival of Urban Outfitters and other companies, and soon the new headquarters of Tastykake. In 2008 alone, 10 new companies relocated to the Navy Yard.
The Broad Street subway extension is “a very real project with very realistic numbers.” Two new subway stops within the Yard would cost in the neighborhood of $370 million, according to a recently completed feasibility study.
As for that subway extension, much will depend on continued interest from private companies, attracted by a host of city, state and federal financial incentives that are part of a Navy Yard deal. Organizations like Ben Franklin Technology Partners, now in residence at the Yard, can take advantage of research and development tax credits.
In the here-and-now, though, are major projects that feature rare sights so far in 2009: buildings under construction, with workers hard at it. Liberty Property Trust is the main player at the Yard for office space. Just inside the main gates, to the east, are two new buildings with curving glass facades on the new Crescent Drive. A putting green sits amid a new outdoor park for office workers. The second building (Three Crescent Drive, with 90,000 square feet of space) will be complete this year and is 70 percent preleased. In all, Liberty has $85 million in new projects underway.
Tasty Baking Company’s corporate headquarters will be moving to the Yard this year, with a new state-of-the-art baking facility set to open in 2010.
PIDC has some $65 million in infrastructure improvements underway, including a new 26th Street entrance. What the organization calls its “Town Center” project is in the historic area, much of it just east of Broad Street and closer the river, where spacious empty barracks, office buildings, shops and even a chapel await redevelopment.
A large-scale solar facility is to be developed in partnership with Exelon on one of the Yard’s brownfield sites, a seven-acre piece of land on the Girard Point industrial area of the Yard’s southwest end.
Driving around the Navy Yard, it is striking – but common – to see soaring, architecturally interesting buildings alongside ramshackle, rusted-out warehouses and factories. Yet, parts of the Yard’s eastern side, with the beginnings of a research park, a hoped-for marina district and the barren Mustin air field (part of which could become part of a new shipping terminal being planned by the Commonwealth: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8486), consist of some of the largest open spaces you are ever likely to see in an urban setting. Each area – industrial, office, historic center, what-have-you – is hundreds of acres in size.
On the west side, the very large Aker shipyard is humming. It is the most productive shipbuilding facility in the United States.
The Navy not only remains a big partner in the redevelopment efforts, but it is in fact expanding again. Even after the base closure, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Ship Systems Engineering Station (NAVSSES) stayed on, along with the mothballed fleet of haze gray ships in the tidal basin.
Part of the reason the Navy Yard is still such an enigma to many Philadelphians is that traditionally it had been gated, with passes needed for vehicular or pedestrian access. These days, the gate remains, but the base is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
You’ll be welcomed, and asked to pardon their appearance. Take a good look around, but don’t take any pictures over by the Aker property.
www.NavyYard.org with Stern's plan
render credit: planphilly
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyedificebarracks.jpg
barracks
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyornate.jpg
Navy Headquarters Building
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/NavyKittyHawkAve.jpg
Kitty Hawk Ave.
http://www.planphilly.com/files/images/navyBuilding79.jpg
Building 79
photo credits: planphilly; more here: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8556
Text below from here: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8556
Navy Yard: Fields, fields, fields of dreams
March 26, 2009
By Thomas J. Walsh
For PlanPhilly
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard; a base that most Quaker City natives have neither set foot in, nor laid eyes on. There's all that riverfront, some of it with large, pretty white houses that were officers’ quarters – perhaps the city’s best situated riverfront homes; a yawning chasm of dry docks that could berth aircraft carriers; enormous, ornamental red-brick factories and barracks.
The Yard officially closed as a military base in 1996.
It’s about 1,200 acres – the size of Center City.
A decade later, with some significant public and private investment in new office buildings; with several historic conversions of handsome old shops, foundries and airplane hangars; with the Aker company building ships again; and with the Navy itself still a significant presence; it’s just as wide-open and just as fascinating. And nowadays, one can drive right through the front gates without stopping, at the foot of Broad Street, to its terminus at the Delaware River’s edge.
A master plan done by Robert A.M. Stern Architects earlier in this decade is ongoing, including sustainable infrastructure, the rehabilitation and leasing of historic buildings, new public open spaces and the development of seven miles of waterfront.
That’s going back to one of the first large tenants, in 1999, the Vitetta architectural firm (which took over the large former Marine Corps barracks), and spanning through the recent arrival of Urban Outfitters and other companies, and soon the new headquarters of Tastykake. In 2008 alone, 10 new companies relocated to the Navy Yard.
The Broad Street subway extension is “a very real project with very realistic numbers.” Two new subway stops within the Yard would cost in the neighborhood of $370 million, according to a recently completed feasibility study.
As for that subway extension, much will depend on continued interest from private companies, attracted by a host of city, state and federal financial incentives that are part of a Navy Yard deal. Organizations like Ben Franklin Technology Partners, now in residence at the Yard, can take advantage of research and development tax credits.
In the here-and-now, though, are major projects that feature rare sights so far in 2009: buildings under construction, with workers hard at it. Liberty Property Trust is the main player at the Yard for office space. Just inside the main gates, to the east, are two new buildings with curving glass facades on the new Crescent Drive. A putting green sits amid a new outdoor park for office workers. The second building (Three Crescent Drive, with 90,000 square feet of space) will be complete this year and is 70 percent preleased. In all, Liberty has $85 million in new projects underway.
Tasty Baking Company’s corporate headquarters will be moving to the Yard this year, with a new state-of-the-art baking facility set to open in 2010.
PIDC has some $65 million in infrastructure improvements underway, including a new 26th Street entrance. What the organization calls its “Town Center” project is in the historic area, much of it just east of Broad Street and closer the river, where spacious empty barracks, office buildings, shops and even a chapel await redevelopment.
A large-scale solar facility is to be developed in partnership with Exelon on one of the Yard’s brownfield sites, a seven-acre piece of land on the Girard Point industrial area of the Yard’s southwest end.
Driving around the Navy Yard, it is striking – but common – to see soaring, architecturally interesting buildings alongside ramshackle, rusted-out warehouses and factories. Yet, parts of the Yard’s eastern side, with the beginnings of a research park, a hoped-for marina district and the barren Mustin air field (part of which could become part of a new shipping terminal being planned by the Commonwealth: http://www.planphilly.com/node/8486), consist of some of the largest open spaces you are ever likely to see in an urban setting. Each area – industrial, office, historic center, what-have-you – is hundreds of acres in size.
On the west side, the very large Aker shipyard is humming. It is the most productive shipbuilding facility in the United States.
The Navy not only remains a big partner in the redevelopment efforts, but it is in fact expanding again. Even after the base closure, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Ship Systems Engineering Station (NAVSSES) stayed on, along with the mothballed fleet of haze gray ships in the tidal basin.
Part of the reason the Navy Yard is still such an enigma to many Philadelphians is that traditionally it had been gated, with passes needed for vehicular or pedestrian access. These days, the gate remains, but the base is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
You’ll be welcomed, and asked to pardon their appearance. Take a good look around, but don’t take any pictures over by the Aker property.
www.NavyYard.org with Stern's plan
