American Loft Building

717, North American Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

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American Loft Building

717, North American Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Type

Residential › Apartment
Transport + Infrastructure › Parking

YEAR

2008

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

BUDGET

$10M - 50M

Northern Liberties is an upcoming trendy neighborhood, with small-scale structures and a mix of interesting cultures and people. The developer, Gagan Lakhmna, of CREI, realized the fact that what we build now is not merely a building, but a creation, a creation that will be one of the most significant investments, for many people, of their lives. The building will also have a lasting impact on the neighborhood, this is even more true for an urban architecture. The American Loft building is one of its kind; it will feature a `green` sloping parking lot, which will slide or slope under the building to reveal the equally sloping bottom of the building. The parking lot will be a real green park, with trees and a grass covered parking lot.The building is conceived as something between an Urban Villa and a Tower. It was crucial for it to be kept to an intimate scale, to match the scale of the neighborhood, as well as to avoid the monotonous repetition usual of bigger buildings. Its intimate natural plaster and Alucobond exterior will integrate fluidly in the streetscape. The concept of interlocking L-shapes allows for the integration of generous balconies with curtainwall facades. Forty open-plan lofts have generous views through large windows and are finished with modern European appliances and finishes.As the building is completely built from natural materials, it will be low-maintenance and low energy use, a real `green building`