From Hidden City Philadelphia writer Stephen Stofka: "Wrapping up major construction, and soon to be rented, are the LEED certified Norris Apartments, a low-slung townhouse-and-apartment public housing complex replacing a dreary tower-in-a-park. On the outside, this ambitious project, designed by Blackney Hayes, is akin to other new examples of highly progressive architecture like Sheridan St., the forthcoming Paseo Verde, and the work of Onion Flats and others in Northern Liberties, Fishtown, and East Kensington. Contrasting with the barracks-like 1960s-era garden apartments of the rest of the complex, the new development offers a vision: the city that could be.
"Yet the project’s design undermines key values of green architecture and good urbanism. Market Urbanism’s Steve Smith, then writing at Forbes, points out (correctly) that there is an excessive amount of parking. (By providing excessive parking here, one public agency – PHA – is undermining another – SEPTA.) The vestigial front yards are congruent with the rest of the Norris Apartments–the older, garden-barracks project–but out of step with most housing in North Philly, which comes right up to the building line save in the most regal cases." Full post with photos here.