East Market revitalizes entire city block in Philadelphia

Philadelphia — The Harman Group (THG), a firm specializing in structural engineering and parking planning and design, announced the grand opening for the first phase of East Market, a 4.3-acre mixed-use development that will revitalize an entire city block in Center City, Philadelphia. The $260 million Phase One redevelopment includes The Ludlow, a 322-unit luxury mixed-use residential tower; two, two-story retail podiums totaling 130,000 square feet; renovation of a mixed-use office building; and construction of below-grade parking with a centralized loading dock to service the entire site.

The Harman Group provided structural engineering, adaptive reuse, and parking consulting services for the project, which was developed by National Real Estate Development, LLC and designed by BLT Architects. Tutor Perini Corporation served as the construction manager.

Throughout the design process for the steel framed development, The Harman Group was tasked with accommodating both the existing buildings on the site’s south side and the SEPTA subway tunnel on the north side. The need for parking, retail, and residential units within one structure required careful coordination with the architect to optimize a single structural column grid that would accommodate all three uses while minimizing costly column transfers, allowing for optimization of the programming.

“East Market is a very complex project, with a number of structural solutions needed to maximize each space,” said Chris Gottschall, Associate and Senior Project Engineer at The Harman Group. “The Harman Group’s extensive experience in designing structures suited for urban life allowed us to find creative solutions to stack residential, retail and parking layouts across both the podium system and tower system while still being cost effective.”

The first phase of the development also included the adaptive reuse of the mixed-use office building at 34 S 11th Street, which opened earlier this year and includes MOM’s Organic Market, Design Center, and architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

“As we officially open East Market, we’re happy to have partnered with The Harman Group on this transformative project for Center City Philadelphia,” said Daniel Killinger, Managing Director, National Development. “We have relied on them to be a key member of this project since its inception and from groundbreaking to ribbon-cutting, they have been. It’s been a terrific partnership.”

Construction on Phase II, which includes 1199 Ludlow Street, a 23-story, 240-unit steel and precast plank residential tower over the western retail podium, is well underway with occupancy anticipated in spring 2019.