On Thursday, February 25th, Bart Blatstein will present his updated plans for a tower on the corner of Broad and Washington at the Hawthorne Cultural Center, and we're encouraging 5th Square supporters to attend.

Developing the large vacant lots at this intersection is critical to the success of both South Broad Street and Washington Avenue, but not just any large development will do.

The last version of Blatstein's proposal suffered from major flaws, and from Inga Saffron's description of the latest version, it sounds like it also misses the mark.

In the interest of making sure these lots are developed according to good urbanist design principles we're asking for the following changes:

• No parking podium. With the Broad Street Line so close by, this should be a transit-oriented development with limited parking. If all the parking can't fit underground, then reduce the number of spaces.
  
  
• Don't make it a superblock. Restore Juniper Street as a pedestrian-focused retail street through the middle of the site.
  
  
• No garage frontage on Washington Avenue. Washington traffic is already too chaotic as it is. Put the garage entrance back on Carpenter Street as in the original plan.

Leave any additional suggestions for how to make this project better in the comments, and make sure to come to the meeting on 2/25.