The Factory - Phase 1

The Factory - Phase 1

Location: Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, PA

Client: Onion Flats

Completion Date: 2001

Project Type: Multi-Family

Project Overview: In 2000 the former meat-packing plant, Capital Meats, was transformed into 8 rental apartments and became Phase 1 of a 3-phase project called Capital Flats. Phases 2 and 3 (Thin Flats and The Battery) would be completed 18 years later and add another 34 units to this gentrifying block in Northern Liberties. Each phase addressed a different typology of urban dwelling, a different set of economic, environmental and political pressures evolving in the City during that extended period, and a different set of housing needs as the neighborhood grew. Phase 1 was an exercise in respectfully reading and responding to the “raw” beauty of this reinforced concrete / masonry structure with “refined” insertions of translucent glass, steel and floating closets, kitchens and balconies.