Comcast Spectator has laid out a speculative plan to convert the Fashion District mall on Market Street into labs for medical research. The plan calls for replacing the mall's opaque facade with large windows. The labs would be located on the upper floors, while the ground floor and concourse would continue to house retail and other public uses.At last, the Sixers and Comcast Spectacor have found something they can agree on: East Market Street needs a major intervention.
If the arena doesn’t solve Market Street’s problems and simultaneously destroys one of Philadelphia’s most unique and vibrant neighborhoods, what’s gained? It’s pretty unusual to create a master plan that you don’t plan to execute. In a carefully worded statement, Daniel Hilferty, Comcast Spectator’s CEO and chairman, said the company isn’t trying to compete with the Sixers for the rights to redevelop the mall. Rather, Comcast Spectacor produced the master plan because it was interested in putting forward an “alternative” in case the arena project falls through, he said.
Like National’s East Market development, this master plan is grounded in a strong urbanist sensibility. While the Sixers arena would expand the footprint of the mall’s westernmost building, the labs could fit within the existing structure. Comcast’s master plan outlines a strategy to strip off the mall’s unappealing facade and replace the blank walls with large windows, giving it the character of a traditional office building.
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