Architecture of Philadelphia

Center City Philadelphia looking southeast from Spring Garden Street Bridge

Numerous steel and concrete

Landmarks and monuments

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 in London, Georgian architecture soon became the popular design in Philadelphia. In 1730 statesman and businessman James Logan was one of the first in Philadelphia to build a country home outside the city. The mansion, which he called Stenton, was the first Queen Anne-style building in the Delaware Valley.^[7] One of the most ambitious Palladian structures of the time was the Christ 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 as Independence Hall. It was designed by Andrew Hamilton with construction supervised by Edmund Woolley.^[8]

A shift away from the Georgian style began with the construction of

The Greek Revival style began in the United States with Benjamin Henry Latrobe's Bank of Pennsylvania in 1801. It was constructed of white marble with Greek Ionic temple porticos on two sides, and topped with a low dome. Latrobe left Philadelphia to design the United 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 the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., however, all of Mills's Philadelphia buildings have been demolished.

In the 1840s and 50s many old buildings were replaced by larger business structures. Built from red sandstone, granite, and iron, the buildings varied in designs including Greek Revival, Gothic, and Italianate. One of the tallest buildings was the eight-story Jayne Building. Designed by William L. Johnston, the building had a Venetian 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 entirely cast-iron building was built in 1850. Built for Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, the building was designed by G. P. Cummings.^[12] The 1869 original Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PFSF) building, designed by Addison Hutton with an addition by Frank Furness in 1895 has been preserved as part of The St. James, a luxury high-rise apartment on Washington Square.^[13]

The

In 1908, Oscar Hammerstein I (grandfather of the lyricist) built the Metropolitan Opera House (originally known as the Philadelphia Opera House) to be the home of his then new opera company, the Philadelphia Opera Company. Seating more than 4,000 people, it was the largest building of its kind in the world when it was built. The Metropolitan 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 the cinema 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]

After

Residential architecture

The earliest houses in

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, later row 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 between Walnut Street and Sansom Street. Along Walnut Street Sansom built Union Row and along Sansom Street Thomas Carstairs built Carstairs Row. The rows, now part of Jewelers' 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. Several story high, brick row house continued to be built, many by Stephen 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 1934 United 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 the American 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 early urban renewal project was Society Hill where many old buildings were rehabilitated and I. M. Pei's Society 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. In Chestnut Hill, architects like George Howe and Wilson Eyre set the tone for residences in the region. Howe's High Hollow and Eyre's Anglecot demonstrate the European and Beaux Arts influence on Chestnut Hill's architecture in the early part of the 20th century.

Architect

The Guild House, one of Robert Venturi's earliest works, built in 1964, is considered one of the most important examples of post-modernism.^[29]

Tax breaks created in 1997 and 2000 helped create a

• List of houses in Fairmount Park

References