Trump Tower is actively advertising on Philly.com with the original design, including what looks like a four story parking podium that meets the street with little to no activity.

The Praxis plan calls for pedestrian oriented design, with parking that does not interfere with the landscape. Clearly, Trump's current design does not fit that description.

My question is, what is going to happen with a project like this, where the developer is actively selling based on a design that does not fit the plan- because he was given the go by council to do so- and you have an angry mob of 10,000 people who don't want the waterfront to be a series of endless parking podiums and have the force of the mayor behind them saying they are a bad idea?

It was exactly this kind of issue that was not really addressed at the Praxis action plan forum last week. Matt Ruben from Northern Liberties Neighborhood Assoc seemed to hint at the remaining problems with these kinds of developments, and asked what support the city would provide the neighborhoods in these battles, given all the words of good faith. The answer he seemed to get from Altman & Dicicco is that from now on, the planners are in charge, and the community should just relax.

While it may be true at some point in the future when the zoning overlay is complete, and other praxis recommendations are actually implemented as policy, that the planners will be in charge. But in the mean time, there is a lot of bad design left over from the Street years that is legally cleared, and seems to be in process.

Clearly there are projects already being developed that do not fit the plan and there really is nothing to be done at this point- I'm thinking primarily here of waterfront square- But I can't believe that there is not some control that the city can exercise to get better design on a 45 story tower that has not yet broken ground.

With casinos- Praxis and the mayor are taking a strong-armed approach against bad design- essentially saying that these things will not get built as is. What makes the trump tower any different??

Thoughts?