What do you do with old industrial properties like electric substations that have outlived their original purpose? Sometimes the answer is to knock them down and move on to the next thing. As we saw with a former substation in Pennsport, sometimes they can be rehabilitated for another purpose. Now it looks like another former Peco property in West Philadelphia will be saved from demolition with an adaptive reuse project, converting an old utility building into a small apartment building.

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The present view of the building

The substation at 5601-07 Race St. once played a critical role in the distribution of power to nearby residential customers, but it’s been closed and unoccupied for some time now. The impressively designed masonry building remains a nice monument to an earlier era when industrial buildings included classical details, but it’s clearly deteriorating from dis-use. Fortunately, a new plan to convert the former substation to 20 apartments is in the works. Earlier this week, the ZBA heard and approved this project, which will include an addition atop the existing building.

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The former substation from Race St
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Rendering of the rehabilitated building

Though the property has a long industrial history, it’s oddly zoned for single-family use. From where we sit, there are exactly two by-right approaches that could be taken. One idea would be to reuse the existing building and turn it into one of the more unique homes in Philadelphia. The other thought would be to demolish the building and build five new homes, with frontage on Race Street. We don’t think that either of those plans would have worked out economically even if the building was free, hence the aforementioned plan for 20 units.

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The corner balconies will act as private outdoor space for four of the units

As we can see from the plans for Terra Studio, the addition will be set back from the four corners, in an attempt to limit the impact of the massing of the addition. Interestingly, the project will include mezzanines in many of the units, which will be easily accommodated by the 17′ high ceilings in the original structure. The addition will have unusually high ceilings as well, also allowing for mezzanines in those units. With the ground floor four feet above the sidewalk, the original basement is only partially below grade, allowing a decent amount of light and air through the ground level windows. The safety and livability of these partially submerged rooms has been a real concern from the ZBA recently, but board members seemed satisfied that residents will be able to safely exit those units in case of emergency.

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Axonometric view of one of the second floor one bedroom apartments
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The layout of the basement, ground level, and addition

This project will bring life to a long vacant property and preserve a local architectural landmark, so we can understand why HMC2 Community Association supported this project. Affordability wasn’t specifically discussed at the hearing, giving us the impression that this is expected to be a market rate project. If that’s the case, this is rather unexpected given the location, fairly north and west of most of the development going on in West Philly, so it’ll be all the more impressive if they can pull it off. Let’s hope these variances power the project all the way through completion and we soon see new energy in this building, which has been dark for too long.