For years, international lighting company Artemide had a showroom on 2nd Street in Old City, just a block north of the Ben Franklin Bridge. For the convenience of their customers, the business also had a small surface parking lot at the end of the street. Somewhat recently, Artemide sold their retail space and moved on from having a storefront in Philadelphia. Along with selling their retail condo space, they also sold their parking lot, located on the southwest corner of 2nd & New. That's where we recently spotted a zoning notice.

The lot

We've unfortunately not been able to get much info on this project so far. From the zoning notice, we can see that the developers are intending to build a sixteen unit building on the site, not to exceed 102' in height. There's no commercial on the application, but since the parcel is zoned for commercial use, it's possible we'll still see some retail aspect of the project. It went to the ZBA back in March, but it was continued. Expect it to be heard again soon, at which point we'll be very interested to hear what kind of response the project receives.

Looking south on 2nd St.

Some might suggest that too much height is being proposed here. To them we would only say, look up and notice the bridge looming over the entire block. A hundred feet isn't such a tragedy here.

Has anyone out there heard any more about this project? Architect? Number of stories? Commercial aspect? Enquiring minds want to know.