Brought to you by:Architect: Moto DesignshopLocation: PhiladelphiaCompletion Date: 2024In a dense city like Philadelphia, residential architecture maintains a precarious relationship with privacy, which is often difficult to achieve. On a site in Center City, local office Moto Designshop faced this challenge head on, designing a new row house across the street from a busy and unsightly gas station. To conceal the home and obscure the eyesore from the interior, the firm added a screen of angled brick pilasters to the buildings street-facing facade, a feature that led to the projects name: Cadence House. The row house is Moto Designshops latest experimentation with masonry, a material that defines much of its previous residential work. Earlier projects, such as the Filigree House and Urban Oasis, have similarly employed brick screens as a means of providing privacy and shading, while staying true to Philadelphias urban vernacular. However, as the firm notes in a project description, Cadence House avoids the flat brick facades and punched double-hung window openings of a conventional Philly row house, seeking to elaborate on the typology.The building is referential to both a historic bank building and the traditional row houses located to its east. (Todd Mason)The proportions of the facade were drawn from its western neighbor, a historic bank building located on the corner of Broad and Kater Street. Reaching roughly the same height as the bank, Cadence House is composed by five horizontal shelves that roughly correspond to the historic structures cornice and moulding lines. In addition to formal continuity, these shelves, which are actually painted steel plates, provide structural support for the brick screen system. Post-tensioned rods were threaded through each of the brick fins and connected to the plates. While the screen largely adheres to the compositional lines established by the bank, Cadence Houses window openings break the alignment, spanning between the horizontal plates. In this way, the building is referential to both the bank and the traditional row houses located to its east.Cadence House is clad in dark gray masonry. (Todd Mason)Our site became a mediator between two distinct uses and architectural languages, said Adam Montalbano, founding partner of Moto Designshop. The arrangement of the fins and the horizontal steel bands breaks down the punched window facade arrangements of typical Philadelphia buildings, blurring the understanding of window placement and floor line. This moveboth horizontally and verticallycreates a dynamic new facade which references both structures while replicating neither, he added.The buildings brick screen shifts views towards Broad Street, away from the gas station. (Courtesy Moto Designshop)The impact of the brick screen is twofold: It shifts interior sight lines away from the adjacent gas station while also blocking sunlight coming from the south. Light conditions and time of day also impact the appearance of the facade. The color of the brick darkens with the sunset and throughout the day the building is draped in complex shadows owing to the depth of the facade.In total, Cadence House rises 4 stories, including a basement and roof level. The dark color palette established by the brick screen is continued on the interior furnishings. Accordingly, Moto Designshop refers to the project as a moody residence.Project SpecificationsArchitect: Moto DesignshopStructural Engineer: Orndorf & AssociatesCivil Engineering: Maser ConsultingGeneral Contractor: Image General ContractorClient Representative: Jason CutaiarFacade Installation: Image General ContractorWindows: Pella WindowsBrick: WestBricksWaterproofing: BlueSkinInsulation: CertainteedFixtures: Kohler