Five Centuries of Philadelphia Architecture

Old Swedes' Church (1698– 1700)

Independence Hall (1732–53)

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876)

Vanna Venturi House (1962)

Kimmel Center (2001)

Thearchitecture ofPhiladelphia is a mix of historic and modern styles that reflect the city's history. The first European settlements appeared within the present day borders of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 17th century with most structures being built fromlogs. By the 18th century, brick structures had become common.Georgian and laterFederal style buildings dominated much of thecityscape. In the first half of the 19th century,Greek revival appeared and flourished with architects such asWilliam Strickland,John Haviland, andThomas U. Walter. In the second half of the 19th century,Victorian architecture became popular with the city's most notable Victorian architect beingFrank Furness.

Steel and concreteskyscrapers appeared in the first decades of the 20th century and glass and granite skyscrapers towards the end of the century. Construction continued into the 21st century with the city tallest building, theComcast Center. Philadelphia made significant contributions in thearchitecture of the United States. Therow house was introduced to the United States via Philadelphia in the 17th century, the United States' firstInternational style skyscraper was built in Philadelphia, and one of the most important examples ofPostmodern architecture,Robert Venturi'sGuild House, is located in the city.

Center City Philadelphia looking southeast fromSpring Garden Street Bridge

Numerous steel and concreteskyscrapers were constructed in the first two decades of the 20th century. In the 1920s construction continued with skyscrapers such as the Aldine Trust Building, theLewis Tower, theDrake Hotel, theBen Franklin House and the Rittenhouse Plaza. In the early 1930s30th Street Station,Convention Hall, and theFranklin Institute were constructed. In 1932 the United States' firstInternational style skyscraper was built. The 631,006 sq.ft.^[1]PSFS Building, which was designed byGeorge Howe andWilliam Lescaze, was topped with the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society's initials in 27 ft redneon letters and is decorated with custom made interior detailing.^[2]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, large glass and granite skyscrapers were built in Center City. The largest skyscraper was Liberty Place. Consisting of the 945-ft (288 m)One Liberty Place, the 848-ft (258 m)Two Liberty Place and a smaller hotel, Liberty Place was the first building taller than Philadelphia's City Hall. Before construction began, thePhiladelphia City Council had given permission for buildings to be taller than City Hall to encourage skyscraper development alongMarket Street. Liberty Place was designed byHelmut Jahn, who combined historical architecture style with post-modern style. In the case of Liberty Place, Jahn was influenced by theart decoChrysler Building inNew York City.^[3] According to thecurse of Billy Penn, which appeared sometime after Liberty Place was constructed, no Philadelphia sports team would win a championship as long as there was a building taller than the statue ofWilliam Penn on top of City Hall.^[4] For a detailed description of Philadelphia's building height "wars," see Thom Nickels' 'Philadelphia Architecture,' published in 2005.

New office towers also appeared, including theComcast Center which was the tallest building between 2007 and 2017. TheComcast Technology Center then became the tallest skyscraper in Philadelphia and the tallest skyscraper in the United States outside ofManhattan andChicago. More skyscrapers, mostly condominiums, are under construction or in-planning such as Waterfront Square, and Mandeville Place.

Buildings soon became more elaborate and in 1724 the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia was formed to help instruct builders. As inLondon,Georgian architecture soon became the popular design in Philadelphia. In 1730 statesman and businessmanJames Logan was one of the first in Philadelphia to build a country home outside the city. The mansion, which he calledStenton, was the firstQueen Anne-style building in theDelaware Valley.^[7] One of the most ambitiousPalladian structures of the time was theChrist Church. Christ Church was completed in 1744 with a steeple added in 1754. Starting in the 1730s construction began on the Georgian-style Pennsylvania State House, now known asIndependence Hall. It was designed byAndrew Hamilton with construction supervised byEdmund Woolley.^[8]

A shift away from the Georgian style began with the construction ofLibrary Hall in 1790. The first building designed byWilliam Thornton, thePalladian Library Hall was inspired by the work ofRobert Adam, popular in England at the time, with two-storypilasters and an ornamentalbalustrade. The similarFederal style also became fashionable, with one of the city's best examples being David Evans Jr.'s Central Pavilion of thePennsylvania Hospital, completed in 1805. Around the same timeClassicism became popular with the creation of the Woodlands estate in 1788 and the First Presbyterian Church in 1793.^[9]

TheGreek Revival style began in the United States withBenjamin Henry Latrobe'sBank of Pennsylvania in 1801. It was constructed of white marble withGreek Ionic temple porticos on two sides, and topped with a low dome. Latrobe left Philadelphia to design theUnited States Capitol, but others continued with the style.

Robert Mills designed Octagon Unitarian Church in 1813, and a 6,000 seat auditorium called Washington Hall in 1816. He is best remembered as the designer of theWashington Monument inWashington, D.C., however, all of Mills's Philadelphia buildings have been demolished.

William Strickland's first major commission was theSecond Bank of the United States. One critic said the Second Bank "excels in elegance and equals in utility, the edifice, not only of the Bank of England, but of any banking house in the world."^[10] Among Strickland's other buildings were theNaval Asylum completed in 1824, the Arch Street Theater built in 1828, theMechanics National Bank and theMerchant's Exchange completed in 1834.

John Haviland's first major building was the Philadelphia Arcade, an ancestor of the shopping mall. Built in 1827, he based it on theBurlington Arcade in London. In 1829 Haviland'sEastern State Penitentiary was completed, and its innovative spoked-wheel design served as the model for hundreds of other prisons. Other buildings include the formerFranklin Institute (now theAtwater Kent Museum) and theWalnut Street Theater, along with St. George's Episcopal Church and thePennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, now theUniversity of the Art's Dorrance Hamilton Hall.

Another significant architect wasThomas U. Walter, whose most important Philadelphia building,Girard College, was completed in 1847. Along with numerous churches, Walter built the now demolishedGothic-style Philadelphia County Prison and the Egyptian-style debtor'sprison inMoyamensing. He also designed and built the iron dome of theUnited States Capitol.^[11]

In the 1840s and 50s many old buildings were replaced by larger business structures. Built from redsandstone, granite, and iron, the buildings varied in designs including Greek Revival, Gothic, andItalianate. One of the tallest buildings was the eight-story Jayne Building. Designed by William L. Johnston, the building had aVenetian Gothic façade and an observation tower designed by Thomas U. Walter. The Jayne Building was completed in 1850 and demolished in 1957. The city's first entirelycast-iron building was built in 1850. Built forPenn Mutual Life Insurance Company, the building was designed by G. P. Cummings.^[12] The 1869 originalPhiladelphia Savings Fund Society (PFSF) building, designed byAddison Hutton with an addition byFrank Furness in 1895 has been preserved as part ofThe St. James, a luxury high-rise apartment on Washington Square.^[13]

TheCentennial Exposition, the first AmericanWorld's Fair, took place in Philadelphia in 1876. The exposition included the construction of over 200 buildings, most temporary, including the Main Exhibition Building, designed byJoseph M. Wilson and Henry Petit, which was the largest building in the world at the time. The Exposition's two major permanent buildings were Horticultural Hall andMemorial Hall, both designed byHerman J. Schwarzmann. Horticultural Hall (demolished 1955) was aMoorish-style glass-and-iron structure built as a tribute to London'sCrystal Palace.^[14][15] TheBeaux-Arts-style Memorial Hall (now home to thePlease Touch Museum) was constructed of brick, glass, iron and granite.^[16]

Philadelphia's most prominent Victorian architect wasFrank Furness, who designed more than 600 buildings and influenced by the Chicago architectLouis Sullivan. Furness brought a bold muscularity to his works, shunned historical imitation, and was an innovator in the use of iron and glass. Among his major buildings are thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876) (designed withGeorge Hewitt),Knowlton Mansion (1882), theFirst Unitarian Church (1885), and theUniversity of Pennsylvania Library (1891). Others, such as theProvident Life & Trust Company (1879), theB. & O. Railroad's24th Street Station (1888), and thePennsylvania Railroad'sBroad Street Station (1893), were demolished in the mid-20th century.^[17]

Designed byJohn McArthur Jr. in theSecond Empire style, and influenced by theTuileries Palace and theLouvre,Philadelphia City Hall is one of the world's largest all-masonry, load-bearing structures without asteel frame. Construction began in 1871 and wasn't completed until 1901. City Hall is a square doughnut of a building that occupies a 4-block site at the center of the downtown. In the middle of each side is an arched portal leading into the central courtyard, and its north side includes a 548 ft clock tower. Until 1987, this tower was the tallest structure in the city.^[18]

In 1908,Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather ofthe lyricist) built theMetropolitan Opera House (originally known as the Philadelphia Opera House) to be the home of his then new opera company, thePhiladelphia Opera Company. Seating more than 4,000 people, it was the largest building of its kind in the world when it was built. TheMetropolitan Opera of New York City bought the Philadelphia opera house in 1910 which was used by the company for its touring productions to Philadelphia for roughly the next decade. In the 1920s, the theatre became a venue for thecinema and in the 1930s it became a ballroom. In the 1940s, a sports promoter bought the venue, covering the orchestra pit with flooring so basketball, wrestling, and boxing could take place. This venture closed after attendance waned following a decline in the quality of the opera house's neighborhood. The building was sold to Reverend Thea Jones for use as a church in 1954. The church's congregation eventually decreased and the church was unable to afford to maintain the rapidly deteriorating building. In 1994 the building was declared by the city to be dangerous and was to be demolished. Reverend Mark Hatcher and his church purchased the building in 1996 with the intention of repairing the building. In partnership with the North Philadelphia Community Development Corporation, the church plans to continue with further historic restoration in the future. In 2009 the opera house was the focal point of the Hidden City Festival, a festival dedicated to promoting lesser known historical sites in the Philadelphia area.^[19]

AfterWorld War II new development projects appeared all around Philadelphia. InCenter City modern office buildings were constructed includingPenn Center, and the Municipal Services Building. AroundIndependence National Historical Park a newU.S. Mint building, a new federal courthouse, and theRohm and Haas Building were built. Just east ofChinatown the circular Police Administration Building was built.

The earliest houses inPhiladelphia were built withlogs, with the newEnglish settlers being taught how to build log homes by theSwedish settlers already living in the area. Early inhabitants had also dug out caves on theDelaware riverbank which were reportedly places of "clandestine looseness". The Philadelphia settlers soon began constructing buildings with wood and brick with the first brick house being built in 1684. By 1690 four brickmakers and ten bricklayers were working in the city. In 1698 construction of theGloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church, the oldest surviving building in Philadelphia, began. Construction of the church was completed in 1700. Philadelphia was founded byQuakers and as a result many early buildings were plain and simple, the largest building being the Great Meeting House.^[20]

The earliest group of row houses in Philadelphia, called Budd's Long Row, date from 1691. Although no longer in existence, these houses were located on what is now Front Street between Walnut and Dock Streets. According to accounts at the time, these houses were modeled on the floor plans of seventeenth century London houses, being two rooms deep with a rear yard.^[21]

A significant, laterrow house grouping, called Carstairs Row, was built in Philadelphia in 1800-01. William Sansom had bought a block of land between Seventh and Eighth Streets betweenWalnut Street and Sansom Street. Along Walnut Street Sansom built Union Row and along Sansom Street Thomas Carstairs built Carstairs Row. The rows, now part ofJewelers' Row, were block long rows of houses similar to row houses in the United Kingdom. The row houses were new to the United States as well and when built elsewhere in the country were called "Philadelphia rows".^[22] In the 1820s and 30s old buildings along the Delaware River were turned into tenements and factories, while houses a few blocks west were turned into stores. Severalstory high, brick row house continued to be built, many byStephen Girard. At the same time granite fronts became popular in the city and marble mansions were constructed.^[23]

By the 1930s numerous houses, many of them row homes, were in poor condition in Philadelphia. In a 1934United States Department of Commerce survey of 433,796 houses found that eight in every thousand homes lacked water, about 3,000 homes lacked heating, and that 7,000 homes were unfit for habitation. By 1939 conditions had only improved slightly. One development was the low cost housing development named the Carl Mackley Apartments. Constructed between 1933 and 1934, the apartments were commissioned by theAmerican Federation of Hosiery Workers and designed by Oskar Stonorov. The way the apartments were laid out, with gardens, lawns, play areas, underground garages, and space for public art were new architectural designs at the time.^[24]

An earlyurban renewal project wasSociety Hill where many old buildings were rehabilitated andI. M. Pei'sSociety Hill Towers were built.^[25] Outside the revitalized neighborhoods vacant lots remained. In 1990 Philadelphia had around 40,000 vacant properties and by 2006 that number had dropped to around 20,000.^[26]

While Philadelphia neighborhoods changed, architecture continued to evolve. InChestnut Hill, architects likeGeorge Howe andWilson Eyre set the tone for residences in the region. Howe'sHigh Hollow and Eyre'sAnglecot demonstrate the European andBeaux Arts influence onChestnut Hill's architecture in the early part of the 20th century.

ArchitectLouis Kahn, grew up, studied and worked in Philadelphia and is considered one of the most important architects of the second half of the 20th century. In Philadelphia Kahn's designs includes the University of Philadelphia'sRichards Medical Center andEsherick House inChestnut Hill.^[27][28]

TheGuild House, one ofRobert Venturi's earliest works, built in 1964, is considered one of the most important examples ofpost-modernism.^[29]

Tax breaks created in 1997 and 2000 helped create acondominium boom in Center City. In the first years of the 21st century, old buildings rehabilitated into condominiums and new luxury condominium towers appeared all around Center City and the surrounding neighborhoods.^[30]

• List of houses in Fairmount Park

• Beers, Dorothy Gondos (1982). "The Centennial City, 1865–1876". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Burt, Nathaniel; Davies, Wallace E. (1982). "The Iron Age, 1876–1905". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Bronner, Edwin B. (1982). "Village into Town, 1701–1746". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Clark, Joseph S. Jr; Clark, Dennis J. (1982). "Rally and Relapse, 1946–1968". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Dunn, Mary Maples;Dunn, Richard S. (1982). "The Founding, 1681–1701". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Geffen, Elizabeth M. (1982). "Industrial Development and Social Crisis, 1841–1854". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Miller, Richard G. (1982). "The Federal City, 1783–1800". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Richardson, Edgar P. (1982). "The Athens of America, 1800–1825". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.
• Tinkcom, Margaret B. (1982). "Depression and War, 1929–1946". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.}
• Wainwright, Nicholas B. (1982). "The Age of Nicholas Biddle, 1825–1841". InWeigley, Russell F.; Wainwright, Nicholas B.;Wolf, Edwin II (eds.).Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W. W. Norton.ISBN 978-0-393-01610-9.

• PhillySkyline.com
• Philadelphia Center for Architecture
• Emporis.com page on Philadelphia
• Philadelphia Historic Photographs
• Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
• TheThomas H. Shoemaker Germantown and Philadelphia Portraits and Views Collection, 1863-1922, containing over 12,000 photographs, lithographs and drawings of historic buildings and homes in the Philadelphia area (including many of which no longer exist), is available for research use at theHistorical Society of Pennsylvania.

• Architecture in the United States by city
• Buildings and structures in Philadelphia

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