Copper Boulevard.

Project brief

Copper Boulevard is a 54-unit apartment building at 1111 South Broad Street in South Philadelphia, on the corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue, an area variously described as Passyunk Square or Bella Vista. The six-story building holds about 50,000 square feet and combines apartments with townhomes. It was developed by Tier Capital and designed by Harman Deutsch Architecture.

The site, beside the Avenue of the Arts, held a copper foundry in the 1800s, and the building's name draws on that history as well as Benjamin Franklin's line about a penny saved. Early plans set floors of apartments above ground-floor commercial space, added rowhouse-style units entered from Alter Street, and used red brick, cast stone and black metal window frames and panels. Inside, a lobby styled after a speakeasy and copper details in the apartments carry the theme, along with rose-gold kitchen backsplashes. Residents have a rooftop deck, fitness center, bicycle storage, a pet washing station, garage parking and smart-home features. The building was completed in 2021 and was advertised as opening to residents in January 2022.

BOGZA produced exterior and interior renderings for the project in 2019. The exterior views show the dark brick mid-rise with glass balconies above a lit ground floor of shops, including a scene of the building on a snowy evening. An interior view shows a library lounge with copper-clad walls, floor-to-ceiling books and a tufted leather seat.