Latest Gladwyne Village makeover would ‘keep the quirk.’ Plans will continue to evolve.

An aerial view of the latest proposed changes to Gladwyne Village.

Remember the Gladwyne Village overhaul we told you about in January? Well, that makeover has already received its own makeover. It’s no longer Gladwyne Square, no longer quite so polished, and no longer – as some had claimed – trying to be Nantucket.

After months of community feedback, the redevelopment team is floating a revised plan that keeps more of the village’s “quirk,” shifts tenants around, reduces retail square footage, rejiggers a new village green and parking lot. The new plan got its first public airing at the May 18 meeting of the Gladwyne Civic Association.

The team — Haldon House principals Andre Golsorkhi and his wife, designer Autumn Oser, who worked closely with Janine Yass (she has a background in city planning) — stressed that this latest plan is smaller, more village-y and less commercial than the first concept shown in January.

Haldon House’s Andre Golsorkhi and Autumn Oser floated their new concept plan to the public at Gladwyne Elementary May 18.

Janine and her husband, Jeff Yass, are funding the entire “community impact” project. The billionaire couple aren’t out to make money on the venture, Golsorkhi has said. They simply saw a village in need of TLC  – rundown historic buildings, vacancies, traffic and parking issues, ugly overhead wires – and stepped up to pay for a facelift. They’ve already paid at least $15M to acquire commercial buildings and one private home.

The biggest change in the new plan: New locations for Gladwyne Pharmacy, the future restaurant and a new parking lot.

Forget about a new restaurant at the old Gladwyne Market building.  Gladwyne Pharmacy would now be moving into the former food market at 357 Righters Mill Road. The new digs would give the longtime village anchor a folksy wraparound porch and plenty of room for its extensive gift, children’s items, home goods and, possibly, easier access to a new parking lot across the street.

Renovations are underway at the former Gladwyne Market which would house an expansive Gladwyne Pharmacy.

“We love the Pharmacy’s brand, their logo,” explained Autumn Oser, the design principal at Haldon House. “We’re excited … to create a second home for them in a space that still feels really charming and nostalgic … we want you to walk in and feel like that pharmacy has been in there forever.”

The still-unnamed restaurant, once envisioned for the Gladwyne Market building, would now go into the former OMG Salon building. Gladwyne’s only other dinner house is the members-only Guard House, operated by the Union League.

Rather than importing a trendy Philly restaurant concept, the team is “really leaning into this idea of a tribute to the building’s history and the people who have gathered here for generations,” Oser said. Current plans call for old photos on the walls and traditional flourishes. “Nothing flashy,” she said.

Haldon House is aiming for an “always been there look” for the new restaurant, once a general store, which the team envisions as a “community watering hole.”

Meanwhile, the Walter Durham-designed building that currently houses Gladwyne Pharmacy and Homeroom would still come down, replaced by what the team refers to as the “barn.” 

Instead of adding new retailers, the barn’s entire first floor would house an expanded Homeroom, the popular daytime café that could extend hours into late afternoon. The second floor might be office space  — a use the developers say would have less impact on parking than, say, a fitness studio or sweet shop.

The developer’s inspiration board for the new “barn” on the current pharmacy site.

The architecture will be a “celebration of old and new” inspired by the farms of Lower Merion and Lancaster County.

In its first iteration, the Homeroom building would have mimicked the historic buildings around it.

“What we didn’t want to do is what we did last time, which is design a barn that looks like it’s been here forever and try to create a false history,” Oser told the crowd. “We want to make it really clear and be able to celebrate which buildings are historic in Gladwyne. And make the village feel a bit more eclectic.” Golsorkhi suggested that Homeroom could temporarily relocate to the future restaurant building during construction.

Gone, too, is the name “Gladwyne Square,” which had rankled some residents. The team said the project will instead lean into Gladwyne Village.

A centerpiece of the new plan is an expansive village green between Gladwyne Library and Homeroom, with accessible paths, a water feature inspired by Gladwyne’s equestrian history, a gazebo, mature landscaping and flexible lawn space for reading circles, small gatherings and everyday hanging out.

But resounding applause for the new proposal was tempered by a familiar Gladwyne problem: where to put the cars. The village green replaces much of the existing parking.

To solve that problem, the developers propose a new parking lot on Youngs Ford Rd. on the opposite side of Homeroom.

The lot that would sit partly on residential property the developers quietly purchased on Youngs Ford Road. The house would be demolished and paved over — a move that would require a zoning change and Lower Merion Board of Commissioners’ approval.

Some have questioned whether a new village green is worth sacrificing current parking and relocating it near some villagers’ longtime homes.

Ron Weiner and Jane Stringer (below), who live in an adjoining Youngs Ford Place townhome, pleaded with the team to rethink the new tree-buffered parking lot, saying they would lose the views, privacy and residential feel they’ve enjoyed for decades.

Another Youngs Ford neighbor, Rosemarie Leddy, questioned whether the proposed lot could fit enough cars for Homeroom, the restaurant, the village green and pharmacy.

A few residents also pressed for traffic studies, warning that Gladwyne already chokes with cars at peak times and that any study done between Memorial Day and Labor Day — when the village is quieter — would be useless.

Golsorkhi said traffic studies are in the works and will be shared publicly. He also said the team has received cost estimates for burying the unsightly overhead utility wires, though that piece is currently “on the shelf” while other planning continues.

One commenter appreciate Haldon House’s responsiveness. “Very few people look in the center of Gladwyne now ansd say that development is commensurate with what this area should command ,,. A lot of people are going to resist; a lot of would like to see this change. We want to live in a vibrant community that respects its past, but we don’t want to live in a mausoleum.”

When the latest concept plan was informally presented to the Lower Merion Historic Architecture Review Board in early May, a leading critic of the first plan, retired architect and preservationist Edward Lewis, said the developers had come a long way and were “going in the right direction.” A 60-year resident who helped create zoning that protects Gladwyne’s historic district, Lewis has voiced concerns about the plan’s encroachment on private property and impact on the Village’s character. Lewis is out of the country and did not attend the May 18 meeting.

Ground wouldn’t be broken until next spring, Golsorkhi predicted.  The team has yet to formally submit plans to the township and continues to encourage public feedback via a survey on the project’s website.

Still, the design portion seems well underway with the hard part still ahead: deeper dives into traffic, parking, zoning and whether “keeping the quirk” can coexist with paving over a former neighbor’s yard.

Call this one a work in progress.