In 1988, plans were revealed for a 1,050-foot-tall, 65-story Philadelphia World Trade Center supertall at 456 North Christopher Columbus Boulevard on the Northern Liberties waterfront. The tower would have stood just to the north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, located close to the boundary between North Philadelphia and Center City. The plan, which later evolved to the World Trade Square project, consisted of three shorter high-rises alongside the main tower. The skyscraper was designed by Kling Lindquist, which was also bend the Bell Atlantic Tower and the unbuilt Center City Tower. Carl Marks Real Estate Team, along with Lance Silver and Stuart Harting, were the developers.
The tower was planned right as developer Willard G. Rouse had just finished constructing One Liberty Place just a few months prior, with foundation work in progress at the adjacent Two Liberty Place.
Philadelphia World Trade Center via The Philadelphia Inquirer
The tower would have a square footprint and feature a mixture of glass, stone, and metal. An open crown would have contained a globe that with communications equipment hidden beneath a beacon lighting display.
Philadelphia World Trade Center looking southwest. Model by Thomas Koloski
The skyscraper would have been visible from numerous vantage points, as it would have stood in a low-rise area. the tower would have come into dramatic view from Penn’s Landing and the Camden waterfront, as well as from the I-95, from Port Richmond, and more.
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This is a very interesting project. Looks like developers were spooked by that design and found a way to get the project sidetracked.
We have had numerous riverfront projects sidetracked. I remember City Council formed a RIO to represent riverfront development. Since nobody lived on the riverfront, they created a new RIO by combining all the existing RIOS into one RIO to represent the riverfront. Since many South Philly RIOS had development projects in their neighborhoods, how easy was for them to veto riverfront projects to protect their investments home.
Nobody lived there ? I know 4 of the nobody that lived with a single block. That project was stopped by several in city council and the now defunct OCCA. Most where hit with a slap lawsuit.
RCOS vice RIOS which was a computer generated error.
A typo or spell check?