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Yesterday, Brad Maule of Phillyskyline introduced us to New River City, an ambitious project along the Schuylkill planned by Daroff for World Acquisition Partners and Patriot Parking Corporation.
As you can see from the screenshot there, Daroff designed the project using SimCity, but it’s still a pretty neat project: a series of towers (for various uses) to be built along the Schuylkill River and JFK Boulevard. Of course, it’s also a ridiculously expansive project, and this is Philadelphia:
As is true, of course, for Philadelphia River City. Ten towers is a lot to expect of any city outside of New York and Chicago at once, much less within a single project. Factor in the costs and risks involved in building over TWO separate railroad tracks (Septa’s and CSX’s) and it gets that much trickier. Factor in over 15,000 users (residents and visitors) a day. Factor in parking (much of which could be robotic). Factor in the challenges of Philadelphia bureaucracy and the abominable NIMBY. It’s a big, big IF.
As of now, that bureaucracy is in motion. The developers and architects have already submitted the project, as one big master plan, as opposed to several little plans, to L&I for review. With so many assets — retail where there is currently nothing, public access to the Schuylkill River Park where there is currently controversy with CSX, a muffler over CSX’s noisy, stinky trains, two hotels in a city that is sorely underserved, an Olympic sized pool, a skating rink, a Jetsons-age people mover from River City across the river and to 30th Street Station, and a totally changed skyline — one would think it could clear those hurdles.
Indeed. Will this all actually happen? In a word, “Ohhellnaw!” But, hey, Daroff Design zoned a couple sections residential and commercial and got the SimCitizens to move in, so we can dream…
Phillyskyline.com
SimCity [Wikipedia]
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• The Inquirer, clearly, has laid off its entire design staff and is using the Designbot 5283 version 1.2 beta 1, since today’s front page layout (at left) is 
