New Planning Commission presentation up. A pretty full slate compared to recent weeks, with five new projects:
1. An exterior renovation of
Two PNC Plaza. The plan appears to focus on modernizing the main lobby and vestibule. The new front entrance on Liberty will look significantly less tacked on. Rather than have the revolving doors recessed, the plan bumps out the entrance a bit closer to the sidewalk, and adds a large metal rain shelter. It also seems better from the standpoint of handicapped accessibility. A minor step up, but nice nonetheless.
2. A nine-story office building on Penn Avenue at Bakery Square. This of course follows the rejection of the plan by the zoning board last month, meaning it's quite likely this is vaporware, but it seems Walnut Capital thought a change of venue might help is case. Regardless, at least it means we get more insight into what Walnut Capital was planning here. The design is very different from the other new-construction office building at Bakery Square, with little brick on the front facade and lots of curtain wall glass, which I was not expecting.
3. The proposed six-story garage on Dahlem Place is listed as a separate item from the Bakery Square 3.0 office building, and also covered in detail.
4. A new CMU building at 4265 Forbes Avenue - which seems to be the new project where the Tata building was originally supposed to go. The good news is they upgraded the size - it's now up to five stories and 90,000 square feet - almost twice the size originally proposed. The design for TCS Hall is now much, much blander, very much generic modernism with some odd-angled walls, rather than having the pseudo-organic termite mound vibe. It's still tan. It also looks like they eventually plan on knocking down
the GATF building next door and building something of similar design but a few stories taller.
5. Exterior renovations to
401 Wood Street - the Arrott Building. This is a Desmone project, with the building intended to be a hotel (something I think I read about on this forum recently). Looks nice, but the building is almost intact, so besides cleaning it and fixing the first-story facade there isn't that much to do.
There was supposed to be a ZBA hearing today, but the agenda was never posted. Dunno if it was canceled or just someone took a ganja break instead of uploading it.