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One Liberty Place. Image by Nadia MacKenzie via ageofstock

Looking Back At One Liberty Place Shortly After Completion

7:30 am on January 16, 2022 By Thomas Koloski

Between 1984 and 1987, a new monolith was constructed in the city of Philadelphia. For a long time the skyline was dominated by beige and brown buildings along with City Hall, but the blue-glass One Liberty Place at 1650 Market Street in Center City has broken out of the blocky and old styles and also broke the unofficial 548-foot height limit. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn and developed by Willard Rouse of Rouse and Associates, the tower rises 945 feet and stands 61 stories tall. In this feature, Philadelphia YIMBY looks back at One Liberty Place shortly after its completion.

2222 Market Street in the skyline from Spring Garden Street Bridge. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Philadelphia On Track for Record Construction Activity in 2022

8:00 am on January 7, 2022 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

This year, Philadelphia is about to say “Yes In My Back Yard” to new development on an unprecedented scale. Over the course of last year, the Department of Licenses and Inspections issued a slew of permit approvals that may result in the construction of approximately 10,000 new rental units, roughly triple the number of the average total per typical year. Moreover, during the same period, a total of 90 proposed developments went before the Civic Design Review (CDR) board, which makes non-binding suggestions for projects that meet certain criteria depending on size and location. The number roughly doubles the average yearly volume and has set a record for CDR submission history.

Arthaus and Center City towers from the I-95. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Toward the Blue Yonder: Comparing Views from the Tallest Skyscrapers on the Philadelphia Skyline

8:00 am on January 6, 2022 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

High-rise development offer numerous advantages, including efficient use of valuable urban real estate, environmental benefits through resource use economies of scale and conservation of land, and dense, transit-friendly and pedestrian-favorable environments that create thriving cities. Then, of course, there are the lofty views that are available to dwellers of sky-high aeries. Using the formula of D = 1.22459 x Sqrt (H + 5.58), where D equals distance and H stands for the height of the building’s highest floor and 5.58 represents 5′-7″, the height of the average US adult in feet, we can calculate the longest unobstructed view distances on a clear day from any building level. Today YIMBY offers a comparison of views and view distances from the highest floors of some of the tallest buildings on the Philadelphia skyline.

One Liberty Place. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Looking at the Philadelphia Skyline from the Observatory Atop One Liberty Place

7:30 am on January 5, 2022 By Thomas Koloski

Philadelphia is home to several tall skyscrapers in Center City, with One Liberty Place among the most iconic in the group. The steel-framed tower rises at 1650 Market Street to a height of 945 feet and 61 stories above the ground. The skyscraper was designed by Helmut Jahn, who has unfortunately passed in May of last year, as part of the Liberty Place project developed by Rouse and Associates. At the moment, only two observatories operate in the city, as one has closed last year. Today we look at views from theh currently closed One Liberty Observation Deck, located on the 57th floor in the skyscraper’s gabled crown.

Two Cathedral Square at 227 North 18th Street. Credit: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Philly YIMBY Looks at Two Cathedral Square, 470-Foot-Tall Office and Residential Tower Planned at 227 North 18th Street in Logan Square, Center City

8:00 am on November 19, 2021 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Updated plans have recently been released for Two Cathedral Square, a 470-foot-tall, 34-story mixed-use commercial and residential tower planned at 227 North 18th Street in Logan Square. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and developed by EQT Exeter, with Studio Bryan Hanes handling landscape design, the 700,000-square-foot-plus building is the largest component of Cathedral Square, a redevelopment master plan for the block-sized archdiocesan campus centered on the iconic Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Today YIMBY takes a closer look at the most recent iteration of Center City’s latest trophy tower.

Center City towers from The Laurel Rittenhouse. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Philadelphia YIMBY Observes Views from the Top of The Laurel Rittenhouse in Rittenhouse Square, Center City

8:00 am on October 18, 2021 By Thomas Koloski

Nearly a month ago, The Laurel Rittenhouse at 1911 Walnut Street in Rittenhouse Square, Center City, celebrated its topping out with a commemorative event. Designed by Solomon Cornwell Buenz and developed by Southern Land Company, with the Harman Group as the structural engineer, the tower rises 48 stories tall and 599 feet, with additional two floors of mechanical space The parapet that will soon be constructed will reach 593 feet. The building will house 185 rental apartments and 60 luxury condominium units in the upper portion. Today, Philadelphia YIMBY shares skyline photos taken during our tour of the skyscraper as seen from the 48th and 49th floors, just under the final concrete slab.

Philadelphia 1905 and 2020 south elevation. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Looking Back At The Creation Of The Philadelphia Massing

7:30 am on September 26, 2021 By Thomas Koloski

For over a year, Philadelphia YIMBY has been providing extensive publications and visuals depicting new developments planned for the future as well as notable towers that have risen in the past. We have offered images from drawn schematics, custom-made renderings, and skyline massings to give the public a clear look at the structures featured. Any time new high-rise buildings have been revealed or design changes were made, YIMBY reports on the changes with three-dimensional skyline views from various directions. In this feature, we look back at the creation of the 3D skyline massings that we continue to provide to this day.

Northeast Northern Liberties. Credit: Post Brothers

Northeast Northern Liberties: an Emerging Waterfront Hub in Search of an Identity

8:00 am on September 18, 2021 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

The latest entry on Philadelphia YIMBY’s First Anniversary Countdown, which looks at the most frequently mentioned article categories over the course of the past year, found North Philadelphia‘s Northern Liberties neighborhood at the 18th place, out of the 1,800+ categories surveyed. Yesterday’s entry outlined at the neighborhood’s history and general composition. Today we look at Northeast Northern Liberties, a former industrial hotbed turned no-mans-land that is now rapidly transforming into a major urban hub, and some of the challenges that the emerging district still needs to address.

Unfinished Liberty Place design model. Photo from Helmut Jahn

Visualizing the Under-500-Foot-Tall Early Iterations of Liberty Place on the Skyline

8:00 am on September 16, 2021 By Thomas Koloski

The Liberty Place complex is emblematic of the Philadelphia skyline as they played a key role in Center City‘s skyscraper growth. The towers currently stand 61 and 58 stories tall, with angled sharp crowns pointing toward to the sky, one tower capped with a tall and another with a short spire. The project was commissioned by Willard G. Rouse III of Rouse and Associates, who had originally pictured a $150 million 38-story tower rising to a height that measured somewhere under 500 feet. Just days after New Year’s Day in 1984, the building was first discussed in a publication about how Rouse won the bid for the site how it may become the city’s premier office tower. The architect, Helmut Jahn, was selected in March, and had produced a rapid succession of concepts under 500 feet, which eventually evolving well above that height. Today we share exclusive massing concepts of how the skyline would have looked if the towers were built to their originally planned height.

The new Philadelphia skyline. Photo by Thomas Koloski

Philly YIMBY Launches Its First Anniversary Countdown by Looking at Rittenhouse Square and Brewerytown

8:00 am on August 19, 2021 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

A year ago, the start of August marked the launch of Philadelphia YIMBY. We were excited to extend New York YIMBY’s years-long legacy of covering architecture, construction, and development to the City of Brotherly Love. Since that time, our staff has shared over 1,000 articles, covering a wide variety of topics that were cataloged into more than 1,800 categories. In celebration of Philly YIMBY’s first anniversary, we look at our most frequently tagged categories in a month-long series of articles that will run as a countdown that starts with the 31th most-popular category and will run until it hits number one. Today we begin our countdown by looking at Rittenhouse Square and Brewerytown, the two categories tied for the 31st place.

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