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Mellon Bank Center

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1990, Kohn Pedersen Fox. 1735 Market St.
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

The sober granite facade and fussy detail contrast with the glitter across the street, but the flaring top and pyramidal cap allude to New York skyscrapers of the 1920s. At the top is the Pyramid Club, a modern-day businessman's club for those who need to tell everyone that they are at the top of the economic pyramid. Kohn Pedersen Fox designed several of the city's recent skyscrapers including the checkerboard surfaced and Baroque-detailed Two Logan Square (1984–1986; 100 N. 18th Street), and the more conventional Eight Penn Center (1979–1981; 100 S. Broad Street). To the north of Mellon Bank Center is Robert A. M. Stern's glittering spire for media conglomerate Comcast that is now the city's tallest building (2006–2008). Its LED-clad lobby that transforms from the illusion of wood panels to moving images demonstrates the new forces of the media age in the media mogul's office tower.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Bell Atlantic Tower
Liberty Place
Penn Center
Art Institute of Philadelphia (WCAU Studio)
Center Square

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Mellon Bank Center", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH113.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 109-109.

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