Don't Call It The Barnes Tower

Sometimes good things happen for the wrong reasons. Take the Tower Formerly Known as Barnes, at 21st and Hamilton Streets, planned for the current site of the Best Western Motel. The original, clocked in at 500 feet. Even though it stuck up like giant obelisk in the middle of the nearly block-size site, and was a seriously anti-urban building, it was all legal under the city's zoning code.
That didn't stop Vince Fumo and Spring Garden neighbors from protesting - or Lord Auspitz of the Zoning Board from throwing out the building permit. The developers, Dalia Shuster and Daniel Katz, were forced to negotiate a compromise.
The process was scarily undemocratic and arbitrary, yet there is no doubt that the new version - by architect Steven J. Brittan of Burt Hill Kosar - is much, much better - and not just because the height of main tower is down to 406 feet/ 37 stories. The real reason it's better is because the site is now being treated like a part of the city grid. As you see in the rendering above, the new version calls for street-wall buildings on three sides of the site. Instead of occupying just 20 percent of the land, buildings will cover about 50 percent.
On the lower right, you should be able to make out a white rectangle that will be a seven-story loft-style condo building with space for a ground-floor restaurant. It will be attached to the tower and clad in the same glass-and-metal materials. The plan calls for a green roof - not out a commitment to the environment, but so residents of the nearby towers won't have to look at an ugly sheet of tar paper.
Moving up to Spring Garden Street, in the top left corner of the block, you should be able to make a red rectangle. Brittan is proposing brick townhouse condos that will mimic the scale and materials of Spring Garden Street's grand houses. Depending on whether they are built as full houses or duplexes, there will be 6 to 12 units hugging the corner of 21st Street.
Just below the main tower, also on the left, is a second, smaller tower that would be 187 feet tall (16 stories), although the neighbors are still discussing the details. In any case, the developers have scheduled that tower for some far-off second phase, so we won't see it until long after everything else is built. It's not clear whether there will be room for retail, but there should be. Can you believe that the neighbors scotched the developers' plan for retail in the 22nd Street corner of the townhouse units, even though there is currently retail on the three other corners of the Spring Garden intersection?
As to the tower itseelf, it remains in the same spot, with its front facade running parallel with the diagonal of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It may be 100 feet shorter than before, but it will still be bigger than the neighboring Buttonwood and Parkway House buildings. But the peaks and valleys of the local skyline cluster will be less extreme. The project's main building is still set too far from the street, because of the 200-foot setback required of all parkway towers, and still has a big curving driveway. The footprint will now be 11,000 square feet. It won't be a skinny, tower, but it won't be one of those wide, JFK- Boulevard blockbusters either. Fortunately, the garage didn't grow in size, and is still buried in the natural hillside. Entrances and exits are from 21st and 22nd Streets.
It's the little seven-story condo building at 21st and Hamilton that really elevates this project. Not only is the design smart and crisp, it will do wonders for that cluttered corner. The white-tablecloth restaurant will finally provide a refuge for visitors to the parkway and the Rodin Museum. Other than Whole Foods, which is supposed to move to 16th and Vine one of these days., there is not a single place t eat on the parkway between 17th Street and the art museum.