The statue of William Penn has stood at the peak of City Hall in Center City for almost 127 years, rising to a height of 547 feet. The sculpture was created by Alexander Milne Calder,…
Today Philadelphia YIMBY looks at the Land Title Building, located at 1400 Chestnut Street in Center City. At the time of its completion in 1898, the building, together with its annex (completed in 1902), was one of the first largest structures along Broad Street other than City Hall. The taller tower rises 331 feet tall, and the buildings have a floor count of 22 and 15 stories. The building was designed by Daniel H. Burnham of Daniel H. Burnham and Company, in collaboration with Horace Trumbauer, in a Classical Revival style.
Over the course of the past few months, an upgrade of the decorative lighting system has been in progress at One Liberty Place at 1650 Market Street in Center City, where the light strips that highlight the angled top of the tower are being reworked. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn and developed by Rouse and Associates, the two massive skyscrapers of Liberty Place were the first in the Philadelphia skyline to boldly break past the informal 548-foot height limit established by the tower of City Hall nearly a century earlier.
In March, YIMBY shared exclusive renderings of the Philadelphia skyline featuring several unbuilt skyscrapers that would have made the city appear quite different from its current look. The conceptual massing shows the possibilities that never happened, though they remain archived by the original architects and now also by our publications. Numerous projects have been canceled in the city over the years, including the American Commerce Center, a tower once proposed in Center City that would have stood taller than the Comcast Technology Center. Today we present updated massing renderings of the Philadelphia skyline with many projects that remain unbuilt.
Soon after the completion of the 973-foot-tall Comcast Center in 2008, which stood as the tallest building in Philadelphia, local residents and outside watchers wondered what was next for the city skyline. Almost six years later, on January 15, 2014, the design for the Comcast Technology Center, then known as the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center, was revealed to the public. The tower would become the new tallest skyscraper in Philadelphia, planned to stand 1,121 feet tall at 1800 Arch Street in Center City, across the street from the previous record-holder. The design by Foster and Partners was an unfinished version of the current building, as many portions of the building had to be finalized. The developer of the Comcast Technology Center is Liberty Property Trust, which met its fate when it was purchased by Prologis Inc. In this YIMBY feature, we compare the 2014 design and the current version of the skyscraper using renderings, architectural models, and photographs.
