Philly Public Housing Transformation To Offer Neighborhood Ties, 'Permanent Affordability'

A trio of vacant Philadelphia Housing Authority towers looming over train tracks at 44th and Market streets will soon be the core of a new mixed-income community.

West Park, one of the agency's last existing high-rise public housing complexes, is set to get a major facelift as it is transformed from a “super block site” into an interconnected community that preserves affordable housing and promotes stronger ties to the surrounding neighborhood.

With construction on the roughly $200M first phase of the project set to start in the third quarter, architects and officials shared details about their plans during a Wednesday event hosted by the Design Advocacy Group.

“We are breaking up the super block site, reconnecting the street grid, creating new, quality public spaces on the way to the El station and tripling the number of homes on the site, 60% of which will be deed-restricted affordable housing,” said Council Member Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes the complex.

Phase 1, with 327 new apartments spread across three different buildings on the southwestern portion of the complex, is expected to deliver in 2027 or early 2028, MSquared Director Ian Lundy said. That will include the rehabilitation of the westernmost tower on the property.

Designers showed early renderings of a sleek blue and grey curtain wall that will replace the current graffiti-strewn exterior, with Erdy McHenry Architecture Senior Associate Drew Kmetz calling the project “essentially an entire gut and reclad.”

“Only the concrete superstructure is going to remain,” Kmetz said.

Connecting the complex to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority station on Market Street and the rest of West Philadelphia is another top priority, said Olin Studio partner Marni Burns, a landscape architect.

“The site is really kind of an island,” she said. “It’s very high … about 10 to 20 feet above everything around it.”

This first phase also includes dozens of townhomes earmarked for low-income renters and a mid-rise apartment building with a dual-level lobby. It will create a transition zone along the graded pedestrian route between the train station and the rest of the complex.

Because transit accessibility was a top priority, much of the first phase will be built on previously undeveloped land close to the train tracks. Noise from the El isn't a major concern.

“The reality is that it’s a city and the background noise is relatively loud to begin with, so it’s not quite the same as a train going by in suburbia,” Kmetz said.

Burns’ plans for the landscaping will provide a visual barrier between the train and residents.

Developers hope the second phase of construction will start between 12 and 16 months after the first phase commences.

Once it is complete, the full project will include 1,000 units. Of those, 40% will be deeply affordable units. Another 20% are earmarked for residents making between 40% and 60% of the area median income. The last 20% is unrestricted housing targeting people making between 80% and 120% of AMI.

“PHA is using a ground lease mechanism so they remain the ultimate landowner and decision-maker, a key step to ensuring the long-term affordability and vision here comes to fruition,” Gauthier said.

Greystar has been selected as the property manager.

PHA’s earliest West Park renters moved into the complex in 1964. It replaced what was previously the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane’s sprawling, pastoral campus.

“This is a quintessential tower-in-the-park plan, which by the 1960s was already starting to fall out of favor,” Kmetz said of the housing model pioneered by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier following World War II.

The model was widely adopted by major cities around the U.S. but quickly fell out of favor. While the large open spaces were envisioned as a venue for outdoor recreation and socialization, in practice they became intimidating dead spaces that snuffed out urban vitality.

As that became clear in the late 20th century, Philadelphia and many other U.S. cities began tearing down their public housing towers. West Park is one of the last remaining high-rise complexes in PHA’s portfolio.

Many similar projects have been critiqued for their lack of access to jobs and community resources, but that wasn't the case at West Park.

When the last residents moved out in 2022, they had access to an Aldi, several schools, including a Community College of Philadelphia campus, and healthcare providers like the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

But by that point, the towers were in a state of deep disrepair that was impacting residents’ quality of life, Gauthier told Bisnow.

PHA initially intended to sell the site to a private developer in 2020, but Gauthier won her seat shortly thereafter and made thwarting that plan an early focus. Her first speech in the council chamber panned the agency’s plan.

“Aside from offering housing to existing West Park residents, who suddenly found themselves forced to leave their homes, there would have been no affordable housing on the property,” the lawmaker said.

While there was some tension with PHA CEO Kelvin Jeremiah at the time, Gauthier said they are now on the same page.

“He understands the value of permanent affordability,” she said.