Construction on a new University City Science Center building, at 38th and Market streets, is slated to begin by the end of the year and be completed by May 2012, according to Science Center spokeswoman Jeanne Mell.
Plans for the 12-story building have been approved by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and construction is now contingent on approval by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
On Sept. 21, the City Planning Commission voted in favor of the plans, Gary Jastrzab, the commission’s deputy executive director, said. The building project was complicated by the fact that the site has specific zoning requirements and the proposal calls for specifications outside those parameters.
Jastrzab said the building, which will be used for office and research space in addition to housing ground floor retail space, requires a higher “floor area ratio” than is normally allowed. Floor area ratio refers to the floor area in relation to the size of the building site. In Philadelphia, the floor area ratio normally allows for “a building area up to five times the size of the site,” Jastrzab said.
However, the Science Center proposal calls for a building area 7.5 times the size of the site. Jastrzab said the Philadelphia CPC approved the project because it will serve to “bookend” the street — the new building and the building on the other end of the street are both taller than the buildings in between.
The project went before the Zoning Board on Sept. 22. After hearing the proposal, the board decided to wait two weeks to vote on the project to allow for additional community meetings with the University City Science Center, Jastrzab said.
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