Wow! What a beautiful rehab! I hardly ever say this, but the new design is infinitely better than the original. Hats off to whoever the developer is! Finally, a Philly developer who actually has some taste!

Amen to that.  They broke up a long facade, made the corner look inviting.  I wish more rehabs took that kind of effort to look good.

Now, THIS is how it”s done!

Please find out the name of the developer, architect, and contractor. They should be applauded.

I agree about Christian St – it would add so much to the neighborhood if it could get some momentum as a commercial corridor.  GHo lacks a center of gravity…

Finally a developer in the area who knows how to build Philly-style accents to buildings the correct way.  Hopefully this puts all of the idiots who build “bay windows” in a boxy, rectangular way on notice.  Honestly, I can’t even begin to tell you how amazed and impressed I am that they actually did things like an old-school bay window correctly, from scratch!  They even added the little designs old bay windows used to have on them too.

I still think the rear mansard section is a little too tall but they really did a great job with the entrance and the bays.  They really went above and beyond and set a standard for other developers to emulate.  Great attention to detail on the adornments of the bays.  I’d love to know what materials they used for the exterior finish and trim.  Hardie panel and azec/fypon?

AGREED!

I didn’t get his name, but, from a brief converrsation, all three roles were apparently performed by the owner.

The builder is long time resident of Gho and independent builder. Might not even been his full time job.  This is an example of not only a great design but brings to light how terrible the product of most of the bigger builders are in the neighborhood.

That’s the difference, this is someone who is building this as an investment and wants to have some pride in his building.  Too many of these other developers are only concerned with churning out cookie cutter houses and don’t have much incentive to pay attention to these details because they’re successful at what they do. 

If just one or two developers building houses for sale put that extra effort in at the right price, maybe it could start a trend.  But so long as there are undiscriminating buyers willing to pay several hundred thousand dollars for architectural abortions, mediocrity will reign supreme.  

They did a really beautiful job!

Any word on an opening for the shop?

We have a great
Philadelphia
Condo For sale at 751 S. 19th St. just 3 blocks away! We love to see beautiful rehabs to spice up the neighborhood!! It will be a great addition!

I think a lot of local developers have taste.  Just rarely the ones in G-Ho do.

Thank you Thank you THANK YOU for restoring an architecturally appropriate facade instead of just stuccoing or covering everything with siding. And thank you for restoring the corner entrance which makes so much sense in terms of layout as well as softening the corners of the cityscape. Please someone tell me why 9 out of 10 “rehabs” brick up the corner entrance and add a random side street door!?!?!?!?  

Someone in this town finally gets it. Awesome awesome awesome.

Is this the same as the new Ultimo Coffee location or another development South of South?

I could give you quite a long list of the many unfortunate developments located throughout Philly.

#1 Symphony House…

#2 777 Broad.  Oh wait, that doesn’t look too bad, it just leaks like a sieve.

Its a different one.  Ultimo Coffee is going in at the corner of 22nd and Catherine.

This is a mostly great rehab, but holy crap those white vinyl windows with the totally inappropriate 6 over 6 fake muntins (a house this age never would have had that many panes of glass in the windows) are completely awful, and they’re made even more awful by mismatching the much nicer windows in the bays and mansard.  The mansard is also a little ridiculously out of proportion.

That said, I look forward to the sandwich shop opening in that very attractive storefront.

[...] on its way to being dramatically improved. And just in time, too. The upcoming sandwich shop that we’ve checked in on a couple of times before appears to be getting closer; front windows were installed just the other [...]