The Official Newsletter of the
Building Industry Association of Philadelphia
Vol. 6 / No. 1 Spring 2009
SPECIAL BUILD GREEN ISSUE
In This Issue
3 GREEN NOTES
5 JKR PARTNERS GOES GREEN
WITH 777 SOUTH BROAD
6 ON A DOWNTOWN TRAIN
9 INCLUSIONARY ZONING THEN
AND NOW
11 OPENING OF NEW GREEN SENIORS
APARTMENT BUILDING
12 GREEN COLLAR JOBS
15 NEWS FROM THE OFFICE OF
THE DEPUTY MAYOR
16 ENERGY EFFICIENT INCENTIVES
19 MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
THE GREEN TOUR
MARCH 4th
The BIA will host its second ‘green’
event on Wednesday, March 4th. The
afternoon event will be a self-guided
walking tour of green projects in
Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties
neighborhood. In recent years,
Northern Liberties has become the
epicenter for green building in the
region and is one of the most interesting
green zones in the country.
Included on the tour is Thin Flats,
the first residential building in America
to qualify for a Platinum certificate
from the U.S. Council on Green
Building, its highest rating.
Writing about the community in
Thin Flats at 147-151 W. Laurel Street, Northern Liberties
2008, Inga Saffron said: “There are
solar hot-water panels and greenery on the roof, radiant heating under the
floors, and electric car plug-ins in the parking area. It’s rare to get such devout
environmentalism and good looks in the same package, and that makes Thin
Flats easily the most exciting rowhouse project to come out of Philadelphia’s
recent construction boom.”
Continued on page 7
Message from the President
1735 Market Street, Suite 432A
Philadelphia, PA 19103-7588
215.BIA.PHIL (215.242.7445)
215.233.9132 Fax
[email protected]
www.BIAofPhiladelphia.com
You can also view and download the
BIA Voice by visiting our website.
Now that 2008 is in
our rear view mirror,
it is time to look
ahead to 2009. Last
year’s
challenges
remain but there are
some reasons to be
cautiously optimistic
in 2009. President
Obama seems to be
dedicated to providing assistance to
urban centers, the credit markets are
beginning to thaw, mortgage rates are
at historic lows, there is pent up
demand for affordably priced housing
and the Nutter Administration has
been working to streamline government to make it easier for our industry
to implement development. However,
there are critical issues that still need to
be addressed. As you all know, if
Philadelphia’s housing market is to
thrive once the economy improves we
need to remove the impediments that
make our city non-competitive.
The Building Industry Association
of Philadelphia will be working hard
to reduce the cost of construction,
resist the implementation of legislation that raises costs or add time to
the approval process.
Continued on page 4