RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPiTER

American Commerce Center: screw Billy Penn

When I was just a wee child, City Hall was the tallest building in Philadelphia. Being a kid, I judged it to be about as tall as the Empire State Building. I was also under the flawed understanding that the Society Hill Towers were generally the same size as the World Trade Center. As I got older, I realized that my sense of space and proportion had been a little bit off.

But anyway, during the 20th century, while downtown centers bloomed and economies exploded in places like New York and Chicago, Philadelphia reacted a little differently. Instead of embracing urban growth, the city treated it like some kind of danger, stifling it before it could sink the dangerous teeth of success and prosperity into the hearts of ordinary Philadelphians.

And so for more than 8 decades developers agreed not to build anything taller than William Penn’s hat. With limited downtown real estate, the only place you can build is up. In Philadelphia you couldn’t do that. For decades, the city’s downtown sat around like a stagnant larvae infested puddle.

That’s why yesterday’s HUGE announcement of the American Commerce Center is so un-fucking-believable. While Philadelphia broke the City Hall gentleman’s agreement in the mid-80’s, we still shy away from thinking and acting really, really big.

But ACC is really, god damn big. Take the newly completed Comcast Center and put City Hall on top of it. Give or take a foot or 2… it’s that big. As a matter of perspective it’s taller than the Empire State Building, it’s taller than the WTC (RIP) it’s taller than the Sears Tower. If it appeared today, it would be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. By the time of its hypothetical completion, it will be the 3rd tallest.

What does this mean? Actually it means quite a bit. One 1500’ tower would do a lot to change how people view the city. Perception brings money. So do 1500’ towers. The building would become an icon. People would want to locate to it, work in it, spend money in it, live near it. It’s more an investment than a skyscraper.

And recession, depression or whatever, it actually might happen. As the Philadelphia Business Journal noted today:

Walnut Street Capital, a Philadelphia development company, and a pension fund from Washington state are allying to develop the project. The pension fund, which has $6.18 billion in assets, is financing the project, Miller said. This enables the project to skirt around the current credit crunch that is starting to put a damper on commercial projects.

Finally I can’t end this without mentioning that this story broke on phillyskyline.com. Brad Maule scooped absolutely everyone in getting word out on this yesterday. If and when this building does get built, you heard it from him first. Although a few blocks to the northwest of its proposed location here’s an approximate view of the new tower from Brad’s house:

Thanks to Drew Mathes at the skyscraper page forum for the rendering and Brad for the original photo.