The Drake

The new Philadelphia skyline. Photo by Thomas Koloski

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

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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The Drake. Photo via Murphy, Quigley Company

Taking a Look At The Drake at 1512 Spruce Street in Rittenhouse Square, Center City

While Philadelphia did not build massive art deco skyscrapers in the 1920s, there still were buildings that were constructed with fantastic designs in Center City such as The Drake at 1512 Spruce Street. The tower rises 33 floors above ground and stands at an impressive height of 375 feet. The tower was designed by Verus Shay and Howell Lewis Shay of the architectural firm Ritter and Shay, who have designed a building with such an incredible design with a wide profile when viewed from the east and west. The north and south profile is incredibly thin, with brickwork running up to the angled and curved tops of the Art Deco and Spanish Baroque design. The structure was constructed by Murphy, Quigley Company and was completed in 1929.

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