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Tue
Oct 4
2011

Unique Building Already Making a Statement on South Street

We’ve gotten numerous emails about 1318 South St., a double-wide building currently under construction that looks different from just about every other building in the neighborhood.

In the past

About a month ago. The foundation is curved!

And that's why.

Very unusual

Looking north, standing on Clarion St.

The developers, Michael and Mario Carosella, own C&R Building Supply, and have gotten some (virtual) ink on our site for their upcoming project at 18th and Washington and their rapidly progressing construction at 20th and Fitzwater Sts. When we spoke with Michael Carosella, we found out that the new building on South St. will house two high-end bi-level rental apartments and a large first floor commercial space. The commercial space isn’t leased yet, but they intend to market the space once construction moves along a little further.

With regard to the interesting look of the building, Carosella explained “South Street is a very unique street and we wanted to build something that makes a statement. We knocked down the buildings that were there- we could have rehabbed them but we wanted to make something special.” As it turns out, the one building in the area that most closely resembles the new structure sits right next door on Clarion St. The yellow stucco bay on that house also has a slight curve to it, echoing the larger, more pronounced curve of the new building.

The fancy house next door

Whether you love or loathe the Carosellas’ design, you have to admire the brothers for thinking outside the box and taking a risk. Hopefully, the look will inspire some forward-thinking tenant to lease the commercial space on a block that would benefit from additional retail. And with a new high-end development at the corner coming sometime soon, it seems that there will many more customers close by in the near future.

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COMMENTS
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Posted in Bella Vista | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments
  • palvar

    I just drove by this over the weekend – looks great!

  • Guest

    I’ll always be sad to see an old building with a nice cornice go but this seems to make better use of the corner than the previous building.

  • Allitia

    Very happy to see development here and innovative design. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BQDPUN6THXVE3H44CTTE5O345E Sj A

    The architecture of both buildings doesn’t really seem to adhere to the character of the neighborhood. The yellow house looks like it be on a beach somewhere in Florida.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BQDPUN6THXVE3H44CTTE5O345E Sj A

    If you look at the property on google street view, which I assume was taken a few years ago, it appears to be under construction. While it seems that the facade was being replaced, the cornice appears to be intact.The the plan that was being executed a few years ago doesn’t seem to correspond to what is being built presently. Anyone know what happened?

  • GroJLart

    I’ve been wondering about this one.. glad to see development on this part of south street… hopefully this and the new broad/south building will spur some retail to move into the 1352 Lofts spaces. While the eastern third of South Street continues to decline, the western 2/3rds continues to blossom.

  • imake

    I know Naked Philly is not blogging about GOOD architecture, otherwise it would be out of ‘business’ by now as Philadelphia lacks GOOD architecture. With all of the new construction and renovations in this city, few are innovative. Being “green” is not innovative. Just like throwing a curve facade with abundance of window openings just to ‘probably’ put in home depot type windows, or worse, is not innovative. The Architect who allow this to happen should be a shame of him/herself. This is not innovative nor unique, this is just terrible! So sad to know that there are so many bad Architects in the city. What a waste of an opportunity for a prominent corner property. Please see Interface Studios, Erdy McHenry, Fishtank PHL, PlumbBob, Digsau for GOOD architects. Please.

  • http://nakedphilly.com/bella-vista/who-want-to-take-advantage-of-the-opportunities-on-13th-and-south-sts/ Who wants to take advantage of the opportunities on 13th and South Sts.? | NakedPhilly

    [...] under construction to the south, a new Dranoff building in the works at Garden of the Arts, and creative new small-scale construction happening all around, this is clearly an area with momentum. We’re imagining progress in the [...]

  • Guest

    There is a ton of new construction in that area, with some really unique buildings.  I love green and black building on the corner of Clarion and Kater Street.

  • http://nakedphilly.com/bella-vista/even-more-construction-near-13th-and-south-sts/ Even More Construction near 13th and South Sts. | NakedPhilly

    [...] we’ve written about a couple of  projects within half a block of this site, including the curved bay window, mixed-use space at Juniper and South Sts. and the condo building going up around the corner on the 1200 block of Bainbridge St. One of the [...]

  • http://nakedphilly.com/bella-vista/update-round-bay-building-on-south-street-nearing-finish-line/ Update: Round Bay Building On South Street Nearing Finish Line | NakedPhilly

    [...] October, we told you about 1318 South St., one of the more unique buildings we’ve seen go up recently, with round bays you just don’t see very often around town. It replaced two traditional row [...]

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