13th Street, Green Street, and Ridge Avenue together form a triangle that’s located within spitting distance of the still-blighted Divine Lorraine. For over a hundred years, we’d wager, a building has stood on this lot at 1244 Ridge Ave., though its better days are clearly many years in the past. We first told you about plans to bring this property back to the world of the living exactly two years ago, but it’s barely been touched since. That is, of course, until about a month ago. A reminder, we predicted that work would soon resume back in February.

In 1960

Another view

Over a year ago

Progress!

The photo above clearly indicates that workers have returned to this building, and are set upon the task of renovating it into twenty rental apartments. As you can see, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been able to preserve the original bays- we’re guessing they were pretty rotted out after years of likely exposure to the elements. But the good news is that the old bays are being replaced with new bays that appear to match the shapes of the bays they’re replacing. Whether the finish details will be there as well, we won’t know for many months. This rendering from Harman Deutsch would seem to indicate that they will.

Coming soon

As you can see in the rendering, the developers are also adding a fourth floor to the building, restoring it to something that approaches its original height. We’re not sure when the original fourth floor was lopped off, but it’s pretty cool to see that it’s coming back. And why not? The structure can clearly handle the extra weight, and the added density at this location will be a nice bonus.

From the north. You can see the beginnings of the 4th floor

Closer look

Now, if only we could get some similarly good news about the Divine Lorraine, our weekend would surely be made. Anyone hear anything lately?