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Commerce Square

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1987–1992, Pei Cobb Freed and Partners. N. 21st and Market sts.

The spine of tall buildings continues west nearly reaching the Schuylkill with this pair of gray granite–clad towers with a shared lobby and winter garden. The firm's staid towers are crowned by signature granite squares standing on their corners on the narrow facades. Still farther west is Harbeson, Hough, Livingston and Larson's Miesian-minimalist black tower of 1970 for the Philadelphia Electric Company's offices at 2301 Market Street that borders the Schuylkill. Its nighttime image, a crowning electronic message board converted to a LED display, is the city's most visible reference to the media age.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

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Citation

George E. Thomas, "Commerce Square", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH114.

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, 110-110.

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