Two Futures, One City

Published: 2/18/2026

Author: William Ross

Today, we stand between two futures. One future is already in motion, a blind architectural machine that produces the cheapest possible buildings optimized for cash flow and profits, value-engineered, showy now, aging poorly. As cost, labor, and zoning compete on the field, we watch as architecture wanders off on the sidelines. As if sleep-walking, it stumbles first into gesture, finally over the cliff of irrelevance. But is there another future?

The dawn of a different future has not yet arrived, but there are whispers in the dusk. And Philadelphia, as the birthplace of the United States celebrating our nation’s 250th year this July, is at the center of it all.

1326 N. 27th Street in Brewerytown / Sharswood is not a particularly notable development. It is one of hundreds. But on another level, it foreshadows a turning point. In 2023, a small scale infill developer submitted a row home design to Sharswood Brewerytown Community Civic Association, a Registered Community Organization (RCO). The initial submission featured the scattered, irregular paneled geometry Philadelphians have seen time and again applied casually on these generic 2020s multi-family developer projects. Yet this time, the RCO pushed back. A single line ran through their entire critique, a question that engineered building products devoid of real design are not equipped to answer:

The original design for 1326 N. 27th Street originally presented to, and rejected by, the RCO in 2023.

How should a new building meet the street?

10 weeks of delay and thousands of dollars later, the developer returned with a new design to the RCO addressing many of their critiques. An evolution towards architecture had begun. This time, the building, albeit imperfectly, started to have a conversation with the street around it instead of being planted in it.

There is a pattern forming on the horizon in the twilight, faint but legible. But once it does arrive, it will become a new standard. As pressure from RCOs, labor scarcity, leasing, and maintenance mounts, a shift will suddenly click into place.

Right: 1326 N. 27th Street's appearance upon completion in 2024 after the RCO critique and design revisions.

In 2027, somewhere near Girard Avenue, a small developer will look hard at the economics and discover that design of brick and proportion is cheaper and less risky.

In that moment, a new prototype will be born. One that belongs to the street. This prototype forms a cascade, as developers learn that it leases faster, is welcomed by communities instead of resisted, and ages well. A few developers in Point Breeze, West Philly, and Kensington will follow suit. And by 2029, a recognizable Philadelphia neighborhood building type will exist, shaping a city’s, and a nation’s, future.

Sometimes, while watching the sky, it is hard to predict the sunrise. But inevitably, it will come.

About the Author

William Ross founded Thrive by Design after working across disciplines related to the built environment his whole life. He graduated suma-cum-laude from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, is an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Contributor with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), Member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and sits on the National Forbes Business Council. He is the founder of Thrive by Design and a founding member of the Flourish Foundation. He has taught sanctuary design, architectural drawing, and construction to students and apprentices across disciplines.