At a city planning committee meeting on infill housing, a Common Councillor well known for his dislike of nearly all things development described these houses at 128 West Falls Street as “an affront to the community” and “a monstrosity”. It seems rather misguided. This was a vacant lot, and the owners designed it with the possibility of future sale, either a small condo community, or in four separate lots if one includes the existing rentals between the new builds. As an argument over the issue of infill, this isn’t a good example anyway. The greater concern is adding new units to the rear yards of existing deep lot homes, not the development of vacant lots.
By and large, the built products are looking close to the original drawings, but not exact. The fully framed and sheathed out on the eastern end of the parcel was designed with its entry on the left side of the house, but the building under construction has its door on the right. Otherwise, the overall shape is true to plan, with dormers, gables, and porches, which are being framed after the primary structural frame has been built. The houses use Tyvek housewrap over plywood for the most part, except for the two-family structure with the breezeway; for fire safety, the walls facing each other in that pair have been sheathed with gypsum panels. The east hald of that building is still in the framin stages, with roof trusses yet to be fully assembled, but the other wind and other structures are framed, sheathed, and have most of their doors and windows fitted.The only worker on-site appeared to be working on utilities rough-ins in the unit with the bay window.
A summer occupancy seems fairly plausible. I haven’t seen any rentals for these yet, but Heritage Builders tends to go for the premium/upper-middle market bracket; the renovated two-bedroom house in the middle is going for $1800/month.
More info about the project can be found here.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
That Craigslist post for the existing 2-bedroom house is very interesting. Last year, before construction started on this project, I was looking for housing and tried to rent the house because it was advertised on Craigslist at $1500 per month. But when I called Heritage, the woman on the phone immediately asked if I was a Cornell student and then said the price for the house was $2000 a month when I admitted that I was. Naturally I couldn’t afford that, so I looked elsewhere. I wonder if $1800 is the real price, or if there’s still a secret hidden price for Cornell students. (Of course, now I’m glad that I didn’t rent it, because I would have had to live next to a construction site this year).
Woof. Well that’s unethical. Legal, but unethical.