Residences at Dockside (formerly Dockside Apartments)

717 South Columbus Boulevard   (Pier 30)

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

                      What a piece of crud. Everyone has the same reaction when they first see this thing. "Is that a cruise ship? Oh, it's a building? Oh well, who cares." I don't know who must have thought this was a good idea. I can imagine a bunch of guys sitting around a board room saying, "Let's build an apartment building on a pier!!! Let's make it look like a boat!! People will be like 'Wow! I always wanted to live on a cruise ship that's docked at a barely accessible point of the waterfront!'"
                      Ads for this thing say "wonderful views" but I imagine that's only for the residents who face North and West. The South and East facing apartments look upon a world of shit. Unless you're some kind of stevedoring enthusiast who wants to watch cargo not get shipped at Camden's garbage waterfront, those views are useless.
                     Just take a good look at this fucked up Poseidon Adventure. It looks like a ship wrecked there and they used it as a frame to build an apartment building. It looks so dated that it's hard to believe that this pile of shit on thirty-foot pilings was built in the 21st century. Yay, another building on a parking garage pedestal.
                 The other problem with this building is it's location. I don't understand why real estate developers often forget the FIRST THREE FUCKING RULES OF REAL ESTATE. Not only does this building look like ass, but they couldn't have chosen a worse part of the waterfront to place it on.


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                    It's across the street from a surface parking lot and an on/off ramp for a interstate highway. To the south there is a noisy-ass heliport. This is not like a hospital heliport near your place whose noise gets muffled by the buildings between you. This is a heliport with way more traffic and much more unmuffled noise. Those south-facing apartments get fucked even more than I thought.
                This Carnival Fool's Ship is completely cut off from the city. Living there is like living in the city in your own isolated cage that's only accessible by car. Why live in the city if you can only travel by car? That's what the burbs are for. It would have been better at ANY other point of the waterfront. Even if you put it next to that crappy PECO plant on the river near Pier 70 it would be a better location.
                 This place was designed by Bower Louis Thrower Architects. They're so embarrassed about it that they don't even acknowledge it on their website. This is one situation where we can thank the housing bubble for stopping construction... there were actually plans for a second one!!! We would have had twin fucked-up shipwrecks on the waterfront. What a relief!