The St. James
Encyclopedia
The St. James is a luxury residential skyscraper in Washington Square West
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, United States. The 498 feet (151.8 m), 45-story
high-rise stands along Walnut Street
and Washington Square
and is the 12th tallest building in Philadelphia.
The Chicago-style
, glass-and-concrete skyscraper incorporated into its design several historic 19th-century buildings that lined Walnut Street. These buildings included three Federal-style
rowhouses
built in 1807 called York Row and the Italianate-style
former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
, built in 1868–1869. After lying vacant and neglected for years, the only part of York Row preserved were the rowhouses' facades. Only a back portion of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building was demolished, the rest being incorporated as retail and office space.
Developer P&A Associates first attempted to develop the site in 1995, but was delayed because of a lack of investor confidence in the project. When the Philadelphia residential market improved in the late 1990s, St. James Associates Joint Venture, a joint venture of P&A Associates and others, began construction in November 2001. The high-rise building, completed in 2004, features 306 units, with each but the studio apartments having a private balcony. Its amenities include a 60 feet (18.3 m) swimming pool, a private courtyard, and a nine-story parking garage that makes up the base of the building.
in the Washington Square West neighborhood
in Center City
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. The most notable of these was the former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
(PSFS). Designed in 1868 by Addison Hutton
, the granite-faced Italianate-style
building was the second headquarters building that PSFS had built. Construction began on the building on June 13, 1868 and it was opened for business on October 11, 1869. An addition designed by Hutton was added in 1885, and another designed by Frank Furness
in 1895. The building served as the PSFS headquarters until 1932 when the company moved to the PSFS Building
on Market Street
.
The other buildings are a group of three brick three-story
rowhouses
called York Row. Built in 1807 in the Federal style
, they are an early example of speculative
housing development. York Row was built at a time when Philadelphia's population was shifting westward, away from the Delaware River
.
The buildings were bought for US$4.7 million in 1988 by real estate investor Samuel A. Rappaport. Rappaport, who made a fortune by buying, improving, and then selling run-down properties, announced in 1989 that he planned to turn the building into his own personal headquarters and add a glass-enclosed ballroom on its top. Rappaport also planned to have an apartment in one of the York Row houses. However, like many other Rappaport-owned buildings, they ended up being left vacant and neglected, becoming a target for vandals and the homeless.
Rappaport died in 1994, and in January 1995 developer P&A Associates announced its agreement to buy the properties from his estate. The developer also disclosed plans to build a luxury residential tower at the site. The plan called for dismantling part of Furness's additions to the PSFS headquarters, which would serve as the tower's lobby. The York Row houses would have been completely demolished. The plan was controversial as preservationist
s wanted the buildings to remain unchanged. P&A Associates met with representatives of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and in February 1995 advanced a new plan that would preserve most of the PSFS headquarters and the York Row facade. The new plan, which was approved by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, included renovating the PSFS headquarters and converting it into restaurant and office space. The York Row building interiors had been stripped of everything except for one fireplace mantle and could not be restored. P&A Associates would instead preserve the front facade of the houses, back to the roof ridge line.
neighborhood in Center City could be successful. The delay allowed another developer to announce an agreement to acquire the property. In March 1999, Chicago-based developer the Barton Group announced its plan to build a 37-story, 322-unit luxury residential tower. The Barton Group's plan would also incorporate the PSFS headquarters building and York Row into the tower.
At the end of the 1990s, Philadelphia was experiencing a condominium
boom, with more than 70 Center City office and manufacturing buildings being converted into rental and condominium apartments between 1998 and 2004. With the residential market in Center City growing, P&A Associates found financing by going into a partnership with real estate firm Boston Financial to fund its planned residential tower. Around the same time, the Barton Group ended its intentions with the site and sold its interest in the property to P&A Associates and Boston Financial. The tower announced by P&A Associates and Boston Financial would be a 300-unit luxury rental tower called St. James Court, named after an adjacent street. The high-rise would still incorporate the preservation efforts for the 19th-century buildings it agreed to in 1995.
P&A Associates received final approval from the city zoning board and the historical commission in August 1999, but continued to seek more financing, which it was able to secure from Corus Bank
of Chicago
in September 2001. To develop the tower, now called The St. James, P&A Associates formed the St. James Associates Joint Venture with Clark Realty Capital LLC and Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, which represented an undisclosed client. With financial backing from its partners and tax breaks for new residential construction passed in 2000, construction began on November 28, 2001. Philadelphia had not seen any residential high-rise development since the 1980s, and The St. James was one of the first to begin construction in the city, preceded only by the 16-story Residences at the Dockside, which broke ground in 2000.
By the beginning of March 2004, 20 percent of the 306 units in The St. James had been leased. Construction was completed later that month, with finishing touches added later in the year. In March 2005, a year after the building was completed, P&A Associates and Clark Realty Capital, under the name of 700 Walnut LP, announced The St. James was for sale. At the time, 45 percent of its units were being rented. P&A Associates sold off its interest in the building that same year.
high-rise was designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates Inc. with assistance by architectural firm Bower Lewis Thrower. Located between 8th Street, Walnut Street, St. James Street, and Washington Square
, The St. James stands two blocks from Independence Hall. The glass and concrete skyscraper's east and west facade is split between a curved wall, a squared-off wing, and a strip of blue glass that separates them.
The St. James contains 415790 square feet (38,628.2 m²) of residential and commercial space. This includes 8290 square feet (770.2 m²) of office space, 14500 square feet (1,347.1 m²) of retail space, and 393000 square feet (36,510.9 m²) of residential space. The 306 residential units feature 9 feet (2.7 m) ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. The building features a four-pipe heating and air-conditioning system, and every unit, except for the studio apartments, has a private balcony. Building amenities include an 11th-floor health club and a 60 feet (18.3 m) swimming pool.
The first nine floors of The St. James house private parking for building residents. The street-level retail floor is occupied by a Starbucks
and an Oceanaire seafood restaurant. Along Walnut Street, The St. James incorporated the front facades of the York Row houses, while the rest of the buildings were demolished. The main tower is set 15 feet (4.6 m) from the York Row facades to preserve the Row's original look. All but the rear wing of the PSFS headquarters building was incorporated into the tower. The demolished portion of the PSFS building was converted into a hidden courtyard for residents.
Preservationists were critical of how the York Row houses were preserved. Calling them "facadectomies", vice president of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia J. Randall Cotton felt that saving the facades did not preserve the essence of the buildings, but that it was better than nothing. Cotton said, "At the eyeball level, it will give something of the coherence of the Philadelphia cityscape, which is a human scale. The beauty of Philadelphia is that its lots were 20 to 25 feet, which allowed for a door and two windows. It's a falsehood to put a big building behind them. But it's preferable to demolition." The Philadelphia Inquirer
architecture critic Inga Saffron was critical of the parking garage on the lower floors, saying it "detracts from [The St. James's] crisp, vertical lines and bumps clumsily against the historic buildings. The garage also makes the tower feel distant from the life of the city." The St. James has won several awards, including the 2006 National Association of Home Builders
awards for Best Luxury Rental Apartment Primary Market and Best High-Rise Rental Apartment.
Washington Square West, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Gayborhood is a neighborhood in downtown, or Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The neighborhood roughly corresponds to the area between 7th and Broad Streets and between Walnut and South Streets, bordering on the Independence Mall tourist area directly northeast, Market East to the...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States. The 498 feet (151.8 m), 45-story
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
high-rise stands along Walnut Street
Walnut Street (Philadelphia)
Walnut Street is located in downtown Philadelphia and extends from the city's Delaware River waterfront through Center City and West Philadelphia. Walnut Street has been characterized as "the city's premier shopping district"...
and Washington Square
Washington Square (Philadelphia)
Washington Square, originally designated in 1682 as Southeast Square, is an open-space park in Center City Philadelphia's Southeast quadrant and one of the five original planned squares laid out on the city grid by William Penn's surveyor, Thomas Holme. It is part of both the Washington Square West...
and is the 12th tallest building in Philadelphia.
The Chicago-style
Chicago school (architecture)
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style. In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century...
, glass-and-concrete skyscraper incorporated into its design several historic 19th-century buildings that lined Walnut Street. These buildings included three Federal-style
Federal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
rowhouses
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
built in 1807 called York Row and the Italianate-style
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society , originally called the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, was a savings bank headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. PSFS was founded in December 1816, becoming the first savings bank to organize and do business in the United States...
, built in 1868–1869. After lying vacant and neglected for years, the only part of York Row preserved were the rowhouses' facades. Only a back portion of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building was demolished, the rest being incorporated as retail and office space.
Developer P&A Associates first attempted to develop the site in 1995, but was delayed because of a lack of investor confidence in the project. When the Philadelphia residential market improved in the late 1990s, St. James Associates Joint Venture, a joint venture of P&A Associates and others, began construction in November 2001. The high-rise building, completed in 2004, features 306 units, with each but the studio apartments having a private balcony. Its amenities include a 60 feet (18.3 m) swimming pool, a private courtyard, and a nine-story parking garage that makes up the base of the building.
PSFS headquarters and York Row
The site of The St. James was formerly occupied by a group of historic 19th-century buildings that lined Walnut StreetWalnut Street (Philadelphia)
Walnut Street is located in downtown Philadelphia and extends from the city's Delaware River waterfront through Center City and West Philadelphia. Walnut Street has been characterized as "the city's premier shopping district"...
in the Washington Square West neighborhood
Washington Square West, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Gayborhood is a neighborhood in downtown, or Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The neighborhood roughly corresponds to the area between 7th and Broad Streets and between Walnut and South Streets, bordering on the Independence Mall tourist area directly northeast, Market East to the...
in Center City
Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. The most notable of these was the former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society , originally called the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, was a savings bank headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. PSFS was founded in December 1816, becoming the first savings bank to organize and do business in the United States...
(PSFS). Designed in 1868 by Addison Hutton
Addison Hutton
Addison Hutton was a Philadelphia architect who designed prominent residences in Philadelphia and its suburbs, plus courthouses, hospitals, and libraries, including the Ridgway Library and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania...
, the granite-faced Italianate-style
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
building was the second headquarters building that PSFS had built. Construction began on the building on June 13, 1868 and it was opened for business on October 11, 1869. An addition designed by Hutton was added in 1885, and another designed by Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
in 1895. The building served as the PSFS headquarters until 1932 when the company moved to the PSFS Building
Loews Philadelphia Hotel
The Loews Philadelphia Hotel, also known as the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building, or PSFS Building, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. A National Historic Landmark, the Loews Philadelphia was the first International style skyscraper built in the...
on Market Street
Market Street (Philadelphia)
Market Street, originally known as High Street, is a major east–west street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the majority of its length, it serves as Pennsylvania Route 3....
.
The other buildings are a group of three brick three-story
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
rowhouses
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
called York Row. Built in 1807 in the Federal style
Federal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
, they are an early example of speculative
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
housing development. York Row was built at a time when Philadelphia's population was shifting westward, away from the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
.
Rappaport died in 1994, and in January 1995 developer P&A Associates announced its agreement to buy the properties from his estate. The developer also disclosed plans to build a luxury residential tower at the site. The plan called for dismantling part of Furness's additions to the PSFS headquarters, which would serve as the tower's lobby. The York Row houses would have been completely demolished. The plan was controversial as preservationist
Preservationist
Preservationist is generally understood to mean historic preservationist: one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects or sites from demolition or degradation...
s wanted the buildings to remain unchanged. P&A Associates met with representatives of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and in February 1995 advanced a new plan that would preserve most of the PSFS headquarters and the York Row facade. The new plan, which was approved by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, included renovating the PSFS headquarters and converting it into restaurant and office space. The York Row building interiors had been stripped of everything except for one fireplace mantle and could not be restored. P&A Associates would instead preserve the front facade of the houses, back to the roof ridge line.
Construction
After its announcement in 1995, the project stalled because P&A Associates was unable to find investors to finance the project. Investors were skeptical that luxury residential apartments outside the Rittenhouse SquareRittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park cuts off 19th Street at Walnut Street and also at a half block above Manning Street. Its boundaries are...
neighborhood in Center City could be successful. The delay allowed another developer to announce an agreement to acquire the property. In March 1999, Chicago-based developer the Barton Group announced its plan to build a 37-story, 322-unit luxury residential tower. The Barton Group's plan would also incorporate the PSFS headquarters building and York Row into the tower.
At the end of the 1990s, Philadelphia was experiencing a condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
boom, with more than 70 Center City office and manufacturing buildings being converted into rental and condominium apartments between 1998 and 2004. With the residential market in Center City growing, P&A Associates found financing by going into a partnership with real estate firm Boston Financial to fund its planned residential tower. Around the same time, the Barton Group ended its intentions with the site and sold its interest in the property to P&A Associates and Boston Financial. The tower announced by P&A Associates and Boston Financial would be a 300-unit luxury rental tower called St. James Court, named after an adjacent street. The high-rise would still incorporate the preservation efforts for the 19th-century buildings it agreed to in 1995.
P&A Associates received final approval from the city zoning board and the historical commission in August 1999, but continued to seek more financing, which it was able to secure from Corus Bank
Corus Bankshares
Corus Bankshares, Inc. operated as the holding company for Corus Bank, N.A., a United States company that offered consumer and corporate banking products and services. The bank's deposit products included checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in September 2001. To develop the tower, now called The St. James, P&A Associates formed the St. James Associates Joint Venture with Clark Realty Capital LLC and Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, which represented an undisclosed client. With financial backing from its partners and tax breaks for new residential construction passed in 2000, construction began on November 28, 2001. Philadelphia had not seen any residential high-rise development since the 1980s, and The St. James was one of the first to begin construction in the city, preceded only by the 16-story Residences at the Dockside, which broke ground in 2000.
By the beginning of March 2004, 20 percent of the 306 units in The St. James had been leased. Construction was completed later that month, with finishing touches added later in the year. In March 2005, a year after the building was completed, P&A Associates and Clark Realty Capital, under the name of 700 Walnut LP, announced The St. James was for sale. At the time, 45 percent of its units were being rented. P&A Associates sold off its interest in the building that same year.
Building
The St. James is a 45-story, high-rise luxury residential skyscraper in Center City. At 498 feet (151.8 m) tall, it is the 12th tallest building in Philadelphia. The US$80 million, Chicago-styleChicago school (architecture)
Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style. In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century...
high-rise was designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates Inc. with assistance by architectural firm Bower Lewis Thrower. Located between 8th Street, Walnut Street, St. James Street, and Washington Square
Washington Square (Philadelphia)
Washington Square, originally designated in 1682 as Southeast Square, is an open-space park in Center City Philadelphia's Southeast quadrant and one of the five original planned squares laid out on the city grid by William Penn's surveyor, Thomas Holme. It is part of both the Washington Square West...
, The St. James stands two blocks from Independence Hall. The glass and concrete skyscraper's east and west facade is split between a curved wall, a squared-off wing, and a strip of blue glass that separates them.
The St. James contains 415790 square feet (38,628.2 m²) of residential and commercial space. This includes 8290 square feet (770.2 m²) of office space, 14500 square feet (1,347.1 m²) of retail space, and 393000 square feet (36,510.9 m²) of residential space. The 306 residential units feature 9 feet (2.7 m) ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. The building features a four-pipe heating and air-conditioning system, and every unit, except for the studio apartments, has a private balcony. Building amenities include an 11th-floor health club and a 60 feet (18.3 m) swimming pool.
The first nine floors of The St. James house private parking for building residents. The street-level retail floor is occupied by a Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
and an Oceanaire seafood restaurant. Along Walnut Street, The St. James incorporated the front facades of the York Row houses, while the rest of the buildings were demolished. The main tower is set 15 feet (4.6 m) from the York Row facades to preserve the Row's original look. All but the rear wing of the PSFS headquarters building was incorporated into the tower. The demolished portion of the PSFS building was converted into a hidden courtyard for residents.
Preservationists were critical of how the York Row houses were preserved. Calling them "facadectomies", vice president of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia J. Randall Cotton felt that saving the facades did not preserve the essence of the buildings, but that it was better than nothing. Cotton said, "At the eyeball level, it will give something of the coherence of the Philadelphia cityscape, which is a human scale. The beauty of Philadelphia is that its lots were 20 to 25 feet, which allowed for a door and two windows. It's a falsehood to put a big building behind them. But it's preferable to demolition." The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
architecture critic Inga Saffron was critical of the parking garage on the lower floors, saying it "detracts from [The St. James's] crisp, vertical lines and bumps clumsily against the historic buildings. The garage also makes the tower feel distant from the life of the city." The St. James has won several awards, including the 2006 National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Home Builders
The National Association of Home Builders is one of the largest trade associations in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, DC, NAHB's mission is "to enhance the climate for housing and the building industry...
awards for Best Luxury Rental Apartment Primary Market and Best High-Rise Rental Apartment.
External links
- The St. James website
- The St. James at Emporis
- St. James Place Apartment House at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings