Philaphilia

Lost Building of the Week-- March 21st

2012-03-21T06:39:00.000-04:00

Fidelity Storage and Warehouse Company Fireproof Building

1811 Market Street

If you're gonna make a building thin, that's the facade you want!

Check that tall motherfucker out... the fun thing about it is that the building isn't really that tall! It was thin and surrounded by smaller structures, giving it a sense of being purely monolithic. Most people, however, would barely ever see it from the front. Almost everyone who has ever seen this building only knows it from the humongously wide brick wall on the Eastern side.

If you can't find it in this picture... get some better fucking glasses.

                    This is the kind of building that doesn't mind letting you know what its name is and takes it to the extreme. The huge wall was emblazoned with giant lettering that said "FIDELITY STORAGE" with and extra "STORAGE" thrown in vertically just in case. It was written on the other side as well, but not as big.
                     Back in the late 19th Century, Fidelity Storage was a nationwide company that would franchise storage locations like McDonald's restaurants. In the mid-1880's, they got some dude named A.C. Craig, Jr. to invest with some of his buddies into a Philadelphia Fidelity Storage location. The company was incorporated on April 12, 1887. They built a six story warehouse at 1817 Market and had another warehouse at 50 N. Delaware Avenue.
                   Business was very good... Fidelity Storage didn't just store your shit... they would pick it up, pack it, and deliver it to the building. When you wanted your shit back, they would deliver it and unpack it for you. It was more like a bank for furniture than a self-storage place. By the mid 1890's, they were ready to expand.. but the plot of land they owned only had thirty-four feet of Market Street frontage left on it. What's could they do? Go up!!
                  In 1895, plans were put together by architect Charles Balderston for a 12-story fire and burglar-proof fortress that would fit into the 34' x 180' foot space left on the Fidelity property. He would give it a kick-ass terra cotta facade filled with tiny details.

Like a disembodied dog head floats through the air with its toddler slaves in fruit-bearing shackles.

Once built, it became known as the Fidelity Storage Fireproof Building. It was billed as the tallest and only fireproof storage building in the city. Thirty years later, in 1922, a 17' x 180' addition was thrown on the Eastern side and the massive FIDELITY STORAGE lettering was completely redone on the new Eastern wall. The addition, though small, added 50% more storage space, or at least that's what they claimed. One year after the addition was completed, a fire took down the smaller Western portion of the building and the Fidelity Storage Fireproof Building lived on as the main Fidelity Storage building. It would carry the scars from the fire on its Western wall for the rest of its life.

1931. The addition is on the right side of the building, the empty lot from the fire on the left.

After that, the building languished on for decades, at this point dirtied up from the Chinese Wall behind it... but strangely found a way to survive. When the Chinese Wall was taken down, many of the buildings next to it were as well. Somehow, Fidelity Storage managed to stay standing. Even as Penn Center was later built and kept creeping westward, Fidelity Storage lived on.

Still visible in this primordial view of Penn Center. That vertical writing makes sense now!

In fact, the Fidelity Storage and Warehouse Company Fireproof Building made it all the way up to 1976. That's pretty fucking astounding when you consider that pretty much every block around it had changed up to that point. After demolition, the site was an empty lot for five whole years until the extremely boring-looking 10 Penn Center was built.

Demolition in progress. The big-ass lettering faded and was overtaken by another painted-on sign at this point. That little building to the right shows that some buildings deserve to be lost.

What a shame. Such a thin building could have been incorporated or built around the tall skyscrapers that replaced it. It would be a cool thing to have around today, a crazy terra cotta facade in between glass-walled skyscrapers. At least a similarly-sized building as this still stands at the 1300 block of Chestnut (the Cunningham Piano Building/Scientology Tower) and at least there's plenty of old storage buildings left around town that have gigantic lettering on their sides, but they're not nearly as impressive as this beast. Donkey nuts.

Empty Lot of the Week-- March 20th

2012-03-20T06:44:00.000-04:00

Abbott's Drexel Hole

Bounded by 30th, 31st, Chestnut, and Ludlow Streets

This lot is ridiculous. An immense asphalt desert that sinks under the IRS/old Post Office building. Even as new buildings and other developments have occurred all around, this Sunken Ocean of Assholes has managed to stay completely empty and decrepit for over a decade. Will this lot soon be dead? Good fuckin' luck.
Read more on the Philadelphia Citypaper's Naked City Blog!

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- March 19th

2012-03-19T06:40:00.003-04:00

Zane Building

1207 Chestnut Street

Out on Chestnut East, the forlorn retail and commercial row that was once one of the most premiere shopping destinations in the region still holds on to a number of treasures. Snuggled between two taller buildings on the 1201 block stands a nice little building that gets very little recognition. 1207-09 Chestnut Street has had many different lives and will one day reign again.
Read more at Hidden City Philadelphia!

Butt-Fugly Public Art of the Week-- March 15th

2012-03-15T06:39:00.000-04:00

Covenant by Alexander Liberman

Corner of 39th Street and Locust Walk

Get the fuck out of here. Pic from philart.net.

                     Oh look, its the Lipstick Arch. 25 tons of steel that have ruined the UPenn campus for 37 years. This pile of dogshit wouldn't bother me nearly as much if it was just called what it looked like: Ass. Instead, they had to give it all kinds of lofty/stupid meaning and call it Covenant.
                    A covenant is defined as "an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified." What the fuck agreement is this thing making? The agreement to look like shit? Mission accomplished. Like most trash, this fuckbag arch is from the 1970's, a terrible decade for art and design of all types.
                    In 1974, Penn needed to satisfy the good old Percent-for-Art requirement. Penn put together a group called the Committee for the Visual Environment that would determine what public art would be installed on campus to meet the need. The members of the committee included Architecture Professor Holmes Perkins, Art History Professor John McCoubrey, Dean of the Fine Arts School Peter Shepheard, former director of The Institute for Contemporary Art Samuel Adams Greene, chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Art H. Gates Lloyd, an unnamed Penn student, and the Grand Imp of Philadelphia Boxitecture, Vincent Kling.
                   Apparently, all these people were blind, drunk, or took their Pretentiousness Pills before every meeting, because this little group chose some pretty horrendous shit. Among them was this 40-foot-tall Steel Arch of Guttertrash. The same group was responsible for the stupendously awful We Lost as well. The garbage was assembled in 1974 and was installed on the Penn campus in the summer of 1975. Final cost: 100,000 smackers, 20,000 of which went just to the installation. Oh, and 40,000 of your tax dollars came to it through the NEA.
                  As usual, a bunch of bullshit "deep" meanings and lofty-ass nonsense was used to describe this ugly motherfucker. It was described as having "the impact of a temple or cathedral" and "one of several sculptures that reflect Liberman's fascination with industrial America." The artist himself said it creates a "feeling of bonding together for a higher purpose" and that it "convey[s] a sense of unity and spiritual participation". Unity? Bonding? Spiritual participation? Higher purpose? Get the fuck outta here.
                 Both Penn's students and professors immediately thought it was a pile of crap. Newspaper articles from the period quote many of each talking about what a horrible piece of art it was. By the November after it was installed, an event was organized by WXPN to attempt to knock it over with soundwaves. Sadly, it failed, and the sculpture was officially dedicated one year later.

In November of 1979, Joan Mondale, Vice-President Walter Mondale's wife, toured Philadelphia's public art. Her first stop? THIS. She pretended to like it, but we all know the truth... nobody likes it. This is yet another time where the Percent-for-Fart program brought us some terrible-ass work that will continue standing for at least another four decades. Thanks a lot, assholes.

Its COVE-enant!

Addendum: I've come to find out that this shitbird of a sculpture is commonly known as "Deuling Tampons" on the UPenn campus. It's also the name of a website and twitter feed, which uses COVE-enant as its logo. Wow! Its even more well-known for being horrible than I thought. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed, commented, and tweeted (ugh) to let me know.

-GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Parking Garage of the Week-- March 14th

2012-03-14T06:41:00.000-04:00

That's right, this is the disgusting new subject that will be gracing Philaphilia every other Wednesday. Parking Garages are a necessary evil in every large city. Though ideally underground, most can be found above, uglying-up even the finest of streets. This, then, will be the stories of these horrible parking behemoths... because fuck 'em!

-GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Philadelphia Parking Authority Eighth Street Parking Plaza

Straddling Eighth Street between Arch and Filbert

Oof.

For 48 years, this monstrous 1,000+ car parking dragoon has butt-fuglied two blocks of Arch Street. Even though almost everything around it managed to get demolished over the years, this ugly bastard has stuck around to ruin the hopes and dreams of everyone who sees it. The Eighth Street Parking Plaza represents pretty much everything that's wrong with parking garages.
In the 1950's, parking in the city was a pain in the ass. The suburban shopping mall hadn't really caught on quite yet so people from out in the boonies would come to the city to shop at its kick-ass department stores on Market East. Once the suburbanites arrived, there'd be nowhere for them to park. To add insult to injury, City Council was passing all kinds of wacky restrictions on street parking that would get passed and repealed every five minutes. This made the multitude of surface parking lots want to expand upward.
In early 1962, a proposal was announced whereby the city would appropriated and destroy a shitload of ancient residential and commercial buildings and replace them with a super-gigantic street-straddling parking garage that would be connected to Strawbridge & Clothier and Lit Brothers.

It looks so innocent in this drawing.

The garage would have retail facing both Arch and Eighth Street. The plan went gangbusters and a groundbreaking ceremony was held by the end of that year. People were actually celebrating the creation of this monster.

It was more of a Awesome Building Destruction Ceremony.

Two years later, the mega-garage was complete. The opening day was February 22nd, 1964. Was there another ceremony? Of course!!

Hey! That's not a PARK!

                    Ever since, this humongous pile of ass-shit (what other kind is there?) has been darkening North Eighth Street and disfiguring Arch Street with its crappy retail and tarnished facade. From what I can tell, this thing's Arch Street facade has never been cleaned, painted, or updated... at least not recently. Some of the Eighth Street death tunnel's crappy stores still have ancient signage that's getting so old that they've reached kitsch status.
                     One of the worst things about this place is that it is seen by many an out-of-towner that attend conventions at the Great Wall of Pennsylvania aka PA Convention Center. Guide books to the city tell suburbanites to park there when conventioneering. This instantly gives a horrible impression of Philly to anyone from outside the city. It's bad enough that one of the city's worst empty lots is across the street!
                     This thing is one of Philly' longest-lasting disgraces. The place probably makes a shitload of money from all the out-of-town parking action it gets, so don't expect it to go anywhere anytime soon. The only thing we can hope for is a new facade and maybe a building on top. Oh, did I not mention that this place is zoned C-5? This fucking thing is taking up some goddamn skyscraper-allowed real estate! Destroy it.

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- March 13th

2012-03-13T06:34:00.001-04:00

Cret's City Hall Alterations

Penn Square/Centre Square/City Hall Square

Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?! Image from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia

Its a pretty foregone conclusion that Paul Phillippe Cret was a bit off his rocker. That didn't stop him from designing some of the most badass stuff this city has ever seen. What a lot of people don't realize is that this nutty motherfucker had even more wacky plans to turn this city into Crazy Cretworld that never came to fruition (and rightly so).
Read more at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!!

-GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Mystery Lost Building of the Week-- March 12th

2012-03-12T06:41:00.000-04:00

Center City Cadillac Building (aka Scott Smith Cadillac, aka Neel Cadillac)

1385 Ridge Avenue

That's a long-ass building!

                          This is the worst kind of Mystery Building-- the kind that no longer exists. This Great Wall of Melon Street stood for seven decades but got no goddamn respect. Here's one of those times when a building got demolished without any thought of the future. If this thing still stood, it would be the hottest loft condo building EVER.
   This massive building was thrown up by General Motors and lived most of its life as a Cadillac dealership and storage area. However, part of the mystery of this building is that records can't seem to agree on when this humongous motherfucker was built. One source says it was built in 1924, but the proposal for it dates from 1927. How could a building that was already built be proposed?
                         Most people that are new to North Broad Street have no idea that it was once a car dealership mega-row that served the entire region. People would come far and wide to buy a vehicle from the North Broad Auto Showroom Super Row. The buildings they were in started pretty small but by the end of the 1920's were getting humongous, as they needed to store a shitload of cars.
                        There was a Cadillac dealership in one of the smaller buildings called Peerless Cadillac. One of the early birds to the row, it stood in a short and slender building on North Broad Street that still stands today, sitting between the S.V. Hamilton Building (also an old car building) and the Parkway Corp. Parking Garage Building (a piece of shit) today. A new larger building was sorely needed-- so Scott Smith, Cadillac dealer extraordinaire, took the entire block that was next to the Divine Lorraine, most of the 1300 block of Melon Street, and demolished the fuck out of it to create this Massive Castle of Cadillac Fucksticks.The architect was the badass behind the butt-ass awesome Lasher Building.
                        The dealership stayed open for the next five decades, famous throughout the region. Its presence on North Broad Street was only exceeded by the Divine Lorraine next door. The only problem is... no one seemed to want to take a fucking picture of it!! The only photos that seem to exist are aerial shots and pictures of other shit where you can see it in the background.

That guy is like "That building is huge!", in this pic from 1963. You can see the edge of the Center City Cadillac on the right.

                    Cadillac held the place until 1979 before they quit. After that, the building stood abandoned and unmaintained for the next 15 years without a thought. In March of 1993, the Philadelphia Parking Authority was slated to move their entire operation into the building, turning it into a gigantic office/impound lot/hate center. This would have been huge for the Authority and the neighborhood. This would have put people back at work in this area and made their impound lot accessible to public transit, which STILL ISN'T except by crappy bus.
                      They had a deal to lease the building from its owner, the Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation, who agreed to a $10 million renovation. Then came the catch. The PSDC was able to offer a super-cheap $966,660 a year rental rate if the renovation was done with non-union labor. Union labor would jack up the price of the renovation and therefore the jack up the price of rent. On top of that, the leadership of the PSDC were huge contributors to then-Mayor Rendell's campaign, so the public claimed shenanigans.
                      Needless to say, it never fucking happened. A few years later, the building was gone. The exact demolition date is a mystery to me but I bet somebody reading this remembers. Not only is the building gone, the entire street that was behind it is gone as well. All that's left is a massive empty lot connected to other massive empty lots creating a massive desert of dead development.

Aerial photos of the building and then... not.

What a missed opportunity. If this thing still stood, it would be part of the current (somewhat underwhelming) North Broad Street renaissance. Think of how many condos or apartments that thing could hold. They could've called it Cadillac House! Dumbasses. Nonetheless.. the questions remain... what exact year was it built, what exact year did it go down, and where are all the pictures of it!?!?!?

Butt-Fugly Building of the Week-- March 8th

2012-03-08T06:45:00.000-05:00

The Barnes Foundation Philadelphia Campus

2001 Ben Franklin Parkway

Those trees need to bloom right fucking now.

Man... I was really excited when I heard that the Barnes Foundation was moving to the Parkway. I'm not going to rehash all the drama that unfolded about the move, because fuck that, it's OVER! The motherfucker is almost done. Unfortunately, the building we ended up with looks... like... ASS!!!!!
THIS is what we were all waiting for all those years? THIS is what we get after winning World War Motherfucking TEN over moving the collection here? I remember the excitement I had waiting for renderings to come out for this thing. I kept thinking about how the old Barnes building was cool as fuck, so the new one would have to be cool as shit, right? Then the renderings were revealed in October of 2009.

Uh...

Wait a minute...

Yeah....

HORRIBLENESS. I started telling myself that it was good, just underwhelming in the rendering. I pretended that it wouldn't end up looking like a big white shipping container sitting on a suburban bank branch. Even as it started going up, I told myself that it'll look good. Well, now that its almost done, I can be assured it saying that it LOOKS WORSE THAN I EVER COULD HAVE FUCKING IMAGINED!!

Pictured: White shipping container on a suburban bank branch.

                Let me be fair... the building's not done yet. Maybe something will be different when its done... maybe that white box is covered with white craft paper on the inside that will be removed when its finished. Maybe the landscaping of the Zen Garden will be so badass that no one will notice the building... I'm fuckin' reaching here!!
                What's with that facade? All the time I've been writing this blog, I would rag on how buildings need to have stone facades again, like in the old days. Finally a new building comes along with a stone facade and all it ends up doing is proving me the fuck wrong. It looks like a kitchen counter. I thought it was bad when we were building stuff out of sidewalk, now we're building out of countertop!!
   You know what would have been a good design for the new Barnes Foundation? THIS:

Image from the Athenaeum of Philadelphia

That's right... they should have built a replica of the old Barnes building on the Parkway. It was designed by Paul Phillipe Cret, designer of plenty of other shit that's already on the Parkway, the old Barnes design would look perfect between his other masterpieces... which not only include buildings but also the lampposts and shit. Makes perfect sense right?? Instead, we all got dicked. Maybe some awesome piece of public art will distract away from the building... oh wait..


Those rendering people on the right are like "Let's get the fuck out of here!"

...nope. That's all I can say about this mess. What a missed opportunity for something cool. What fucking bummer.

Lost Building of the Week-- March 7th

2012-03-07T06:40:00.000-05:00

Western Saving Fund Society

1000 Walnut Street

Should have called it Second National Bank of Badassery.

Right here we have a cool-ass local bank building from the late 19th Century. When this thing was built, banks were a symbol of civilization and power in the city. Nowadays, bank branches and even some bank headquarters buildings look like any crappy suburban storefront. How the mighty have fallen.
In the 1840's, there was a shitload of banks in the city and MANY super-rich investors were profiting from them. Then, a new idea came along... a bank that would be considered "unselfish". On February 8th 1847, the state legislature chartered a new kind of bank, one without stockholders. This new bank was targeted to mechanics and tradesmen that lived in the western part of the city, which back then was anywhere west of 9th street. The name of the bank would describe this and the bank's main service:
saving money. It would be called the Western Saving Fund Society.
After 4 decades, the WSFS was doing so well that they commissioned Megatect to the Stars John Hamilton Windrim to design a Mega-Castle of Savings Kick-ass at the Southwest corner of 10th and Walnut Streets, at that time a residential neighborhood that was about to explode with progress. The granite ashlar fortress was completed in 1887. This banking mausoleum's location was one of the best in the city. The short-lived Central Business District was in transition from 8th and 9th Streets to the new one near the new City Hall.
The next two decades after the bank was built, the neighborhood it was in became a short-lived upperclass playground. Alterations of the facade took place in 1902 and 1909, spearhead by none other than the Furness and Evans Company firm. By 1910, the place was doing so well that an addition was built on the western side, designed by the original architect's son, John Torrey Windrim. He doubled the size of his Pop's masterpiece.

Building as depicted on a celluloid "dime bank", whatever the fuck that is.

Even as the neighborhood started to fall into decline in the 1920's and 30's, the bank prospered. Branch offices started popping up all over the city, and huge bank buildings were constructed in Kensington and Frankford bearing their name. They even had a branch at the motherfucking Hale Building! Ads from the era brag about how you could open a savings account with them with just one dollar.
After that, things started going to shit. The bank floundered and moved out to Haverford, PA in attempt to save its own ass, leaving the Tomb of King Moneybags behind. It was demolished in 1967 to make way for Jefferson University's semi-successful 1960's expansion. Moving to Haverford only delayed the inevitable... the bank was acquired by the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society in 1982. If the building was still standing today, it would be a really good-looking Citizen's Bank branch.
What a bummer. It would be great if this thing was still around. The crappy Jefferson dorm that replaced it can't hold a candle to the design of this Multi-Windrimed masterpiece. Thanks a lot, Jeff.

In its final days.

Empty Lot of the Week-- March 6th

2012-03-06T06:45:00.001-05:00

George W. Childs Lot

Southeast Corner of 22nd and Walnut

Goddammit!!

This lot is pitiful. This part of town has no damn excuse to have an empty hole like this at such a high traffic corner. For 42 years, this shitty lot has reigned supreme over what should be an awesome intersection. It becomes even worse when you find out what used to be there... a cool-ass historic mansion owned by one of the biggest-balled motherfuckers in Philadelphia history.
Read more on the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!!!

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- March 5th

2012-03-05T06:39:00.000-05:00

IRS 30th Street Campus (a.k.a Philadelphia General Post Office, a.k.a. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Processing and Distribution Center)

2970 Market Street

While the United States Postal Service is in decline (mainly because of this, the Internet), there was once a time when the Post Office was the most importance service in the country. This building represents that age in the city like no other...in the form of a giant Monolithic Art Deco Riverfront Fortress of Mail Distribution of Doom and Associated Apocalypses.
Read more at Hidden City Philadelphia!!

Butt-Fugly Public Art of the Week-- March 1st

2012-03-01T06:38:00.000-05:00

Total Environment by Barbara Neijna

6th Street in front of Independence Place

I'm already bored with it. Pic from philart.net.

                       Ya know, I'm sure that the Percent-for-Art requirement was created with all the best intentions, but the shit we've ended up with from it SUCKS. This massive piece of shit right here makes me question the whole idea. What the fuck is it? It seems to consist of a bunch of white arches, curves, stairways to nowhere, and a big blank square. What ass.
                       This comes from a sad year for Philadelphia public art, 1986. It was then that the Independence Square condo complex needed to satisfy their Percent-for-Shit requirement. The Redevelopment Authority was just expecting a single sculpture in the middle of the plaza sort of like the one that would be placed in front of the Rittenhouse Hotel two years later. Makes sense right?
                       Enter artist Barbara Neijna. She envisioned a mini sculpture garden that would encompass the whole 180' x 180' plaza with "sculpture, trees, flowers, ornamental paving, and lighting" that would be symbolic of the ancient residential architecture of Society Hill. Somehow, this lead to a bunch of white scrap aluminum being strewn all over the place. How the fuck is that supposed to relate to Society Hill?

Illogical.

This thing would work way better as a skate park. The first time I saw this piece of junk, that's what it was being used for. Back in my skateboard shop postal worker days (long story), I saw a video of skateboarder Mike Vallely skating on the halfpipe-looking part of this thing and fighting with the security guard. I tried my damnedest to find the video for this article, but I couldn't. If anyone out there has it or knows where I can find it, I'll add it. Maybe all this crap can be moved over to that skate park that's been planned (but never built) for the Schuylkill River Trail for the last 500 years.

The halfpipe on the right is what he was skating on. Pic from philart.net.

I don't understand why so many pieces of art have to be named so stupidly. This one is called Total Environment. Total Environment? Total Enasserment!!! How is a bunch of shitty aluminum a TOTAL environment? Its barely any kind of environment!! Should have called it White Aluminum From Your Ass. Motherfuckers.

Aerial photo of the Enasserment from Bing.

All that had to do was put a cool figural statue in the middle of that plaza and it would look just fine. The Rittenhouse Hotel one is pretty nice... it leaves room for plantings and doesn't beat you over the head with stupidity. The Percent-for-Fart requirement needs to establish some kind of standard so we don't end up scarring the streetscape with crap like this for decades. This shit is a Crapintosh Apple.

Lost Bridge of the Week-- February 29th

2012-02-29T06:36:00.000-05:00

Chestnut Street Bridge

Spanning the Schuylkill River at Chestnut Street

Could have called it Spiderman Bridge

                         And now... time to present a Wonder of the Motherfucking World, the Chestnut Street Bridge. This cast iron motherfucker was a point of pride for Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians, Americans... actually it was a point of pride for all humans. This Triumphant Truss of Terror was one of Phillly's greatest treasures that we'll NEVER get back.
                         This beast was so cool-looking that it gave reason for people to walk down the Schuylkill Banks before they ever had a trail or a highway running along them. The motherfucker took nine years of preparation and five years to build.
                         It all started in 1852. The only bridges across the Schuykill that were any damn good were at Market Street and Spring Garden Street. Every other one was either a shitbag pontoon bridge or some crappy covered bridge that would get washed away in any bad storm. The two real bridges were getting to be over-run with traffic. On March 27th of that year, and act passed stating that there should be bridges built at Callowhill and Chestnut Streets, the streets next to the current bridges, to alleviate some of that shitty traffic.
                        Enter all-around badass Strickland Kneass, the city's chief engineer. He came up with an idea for a bridge at Chestnut Street that would blow the fucking socks off any other in the WORLD. While people once loved the high-tech offerings of the Wire Bridge at Fairmount, its day was over. A new bridge would be needed to impress engineering ninjas everywhere. Once Kneass presented his plan in 1857 (after at least two more Acts demanding it were passed), people went apeshit over everything about it.. except for the cost. Half a million bones.
                         In the 1850's, half a million dollars was like saying a billion bajillion dollars today. After three years, some money was thrown in by local railroad interests so the thing could just get built already. Construction began in 1860.
                         Then, right as preparations for the construction began, the city's Master Warden, Charles S. Wayne, said "Fuck you, Kneass! This is my river!! You're not putting coffer dams in the middle of it, you dirty bastard!!", and sued the fuck out of the city. His case was dismissed the day it went to trial. Ends up that the Master Warden's jurisdiction ends at the shoreline. The dumbass Chief Warden almost stopped this project from ever happening. After five long years of construction, the bridge finally opened on June 23rd, 1866... and it wasn't even really done yet.

                    The huge arch-shaped ribs spanning halfway across the bridge came in sets of eight and were 185 feet long each. It was figured that the heaviest load that could ever cross the bridge would only have 1/28th the weight to break an individual rib. The cast iron flexed a whole 2 and 5/16th inches. You could roll a fucking tank over this thing! Also, this beautiful bridge (briefly) had a deck of square granite blocks that must have looked pretty fucking cool.
                    Once open, this became THE way across the Schuylkill. Philadelphia's newest bridge became the envy of the world and was referred to as a great specimen of design and engineering. As the decades passed, the bridge stayed in continuous use with very little maintenance. In 1911, the approaches to be bridge were widened to support the shitload of people that were all about crossing this bridge, despite the fact that newer alternate bridges had been built up and down the river by this point.
                    In 1956, ninety years after the bridge opened, a proposal to take it down and replace it with a FUCKING HIGHWAY OVERPASS-looking piece of dogshit was floated around. Ends up the western abutment was standing in the way of progress.


From this...

to THIS. What a travesty.

Kneass' beautiful Chestnut Street Bridge got its ass destroyed in 1958, replaced with the piece of shit that's still crumbling there today. The next time you cross the Chestnut Street Bridge and notice how boring it is and how shitty the condition its in, just remember that the same piers once held up a magnificent crossing that was hailed by the motherfucking world.

Look at that shit... and you can see this week's Mystery Building on the left!

Here's the bridge at age 89. Just a reminder of when shit looked good.

On another note, I must announce that this will be the last Lost Bridge article. Get set to see a new category coming to every other Wednesday here on Philaphilia!

-GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- February 28th

2012-02-28T06:29:00.003-05:00

Kimpton-Monaco Hotel & Boyd Restoration

1910 Chestnut Street

This could have been cool.

Its a shame this one never got built. This cool-looking hotel tower wasn't just going to be a fancy hotel in a neighborhood sorely in need of new some new shit... this was also going to be a restoration of Center City's last surviving old time theater palace, the Boyd. Despite the appearance of being a go, circumstances got in the way and this proposal is now as dead as a dead dog's dick.
Read more on the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!!!

-GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Mystery Building of the Week-- February 27th

2012-02-27T06:34:00.000-05:00

Marketplace Design Center (aka Guaranty Industrial Building, a.k.a the Loft Building)

2400 Market Street

Here it is.

Known to most people as the Long Building with the Whales, the Marketplace Design Center appears to have popped up mysteriously in the early 20th Century and kept on truckin' despite numerous plans to take it down. Though most of its history is known, how it got to be there is still a mystery.
In 1915, the space along the Schuylkill River between Market and Chestnut Streets was an empty lot that was itching for development. At one point in time, a plan was floated for a Convention Hall that would not only fill the space but cover the Baltimore and Ohio railroad tracks that ran through. The old Furness-designed B & O station was just across the street on Chestnut.

Empty Lot of the Year, 1915. The old B & O Station is in the background.

If this was built, the Schuylkill River Trail would be much different today.

                   Needless to say, it never happened. The Convention Hall was built over by the UPenn Museum and was demolished in 2005 to make way for some HUP Shit. This is where the mystery begins. Some time between 1915 and 1922, the Marketplace Design Center building was built. The owners were J. E. Gomery and J. C. Schwartz, founders of the Gomery-Schwartz car company. The building's architect, name, and purpose are unknown, but it must be assumed that the building was used for the car company, since it was built with two-way ramps that went up to each super-reinforced floor.
                 In 1922, Gomery-Schwartz's corporation became known as the Guaranty Corporation, and the building finally got a verifiable name: The Guaranty Industrial Building. The Hudson-Essex car company did truck service and repair on the first, fourth, and fifth floors. They also got their name emblazoned on the building where the whales are now. The second floor was used as a showroom rental space, much the same purpose it has now, and the remaining floors were used by Gomery-Schwartz.
                Strangely enough, when the structure became the Guaranty Industrial Building, the articles that announce it make a point of saying that the architect and construction cost was unknown. So it was even a mystery back then!!! That shit's fucked up, yo.

Here it is in 1930.

Only eight years later, the Guaranty Industrial Building was being eyed up by the then Pennsylvania Railroad-owned B & O Railroad to be demolished to make way for their new Philly station. One fucking hell of a station.

A lot of people think that this is an alternate design for 30th Street Station. They are WRONG. However, B & O was owned by Pennsylvania Railroad at this point, so it was probably a non-starter.

Geez, talk about a Dead-Ass Proposal. That's one hell of a building. Obviously, it never happened. The building languished on for decades as crappy industrial space (called the Loft Building) until becoming the Marketplace Design Center, a rather unique use for this kind of building. Check out their website to see all the shit they do... to write it all here would make this article reach Sirius C.
The mystery remains... what year was it built? Who was the architect? and What the fuck!?!?!?!

Butt-Fugly Building of the Week-- February 23rd

2012-02-23T06:39:00.001-05:00

1500 Locust

1500 Locust Street

This is the nicest angle of it, without the massive parking garage, and it still looks like fucktography. Image by legendary Philaphile Brad Maule.

                        Here's one of those buildings that reminds you how horrible the 1970's were to architecture. In almost any other decade (except the 50's or 60's), a luxury apartment highrise such as this one would have SOME measure of design to it... this motherfucker has none. It looks like a crappy factory building with smaller windows and less interesting details.
                       Not only that, but it probably has the most conspicuously shitty parking garage pedestal I've ever seen. An exposed concrete box that runs 13 stories up. That's farbage ba-garbage. The shittyness of this structure began in the early 70's. At the time, an attempt to bring more residents back to the city was in full effect.
                        The vast majority of the city's workforce lived in the burbs and feared the city. This shitbox was created to house that segment of the workforce who was sick of driving or taking the train to work everyday. The residential buildings that already existed at the time were outdated and obsolete. This place would be new and modern with amenities galore, serving the former burb-dwellers' every need.
                       An empty lot existed at the Southwest corner of 15th and Locust with one crappy small building on it. This would be the perfect spot for a new luxury apartment highrise, the tallest residential building ever constructed in the city at the time... 360 feet of fuck.

The lot and building 1500 Locust replaced as seen from 15th and Latimer in 1961.

The new building would be called 1500 Locust, after its address. Goddammit!! I hate buildings with huge parking garage pedestals and I REALLY hate when buildings are named their address. They couldn't figure out a fucking name for it? Is it really that hard? They could have called it the Boxitecture House or the Brick Bastard Apartments. How about Parking Garage Tower? The Locust Shitbird? Construction began in 1972 and was finished in 1973.

Under Confucktion. "Parking Garage is done, now let's start the building!" -Confucktion Worker.

The apartment was a huge success. Though shitty-looking, it enlivened a previously declining neighborhood and spawned a less butt-fugly little brother, Academy House. At least that one has a name. The two buildings together, along with the presence of the kick-ass Lewis Tower (now Aria), make 15th and Locust the most delightfully shady corner in the city. All those NIMBYs that whine about shadows all the time need to go to 15th and Locust on a hot summer day and feel how nice and cool it is. That'll learn 'em.

When it was nearly complete in 1972. So boring.

Lost Building of the Week-- February 22nd

2012-02-22T06:27:00.000-05:00

Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company

921 Chestnut Street

1899, when buildings were buildings. Pic from the PAB.

                         Now that's a cool office building. Its so fucking tough that it has a big-ass bell tower like its a cathedral. Its like they assumed that people would instantly start worshiping the structure, so it might as well have one. This is how you design a facade, modern motherfuckers.
                       It all began in June of 1888. At this point in time, Penn Mutual Life Insurance was kicking ass and taking names all over the place. They were smoking their many many competitors due to the fact that they provided equal life insurance coverage for women as men for the same price. A special committee was formed to plan a new headquarters building for the company.
                       Arguments went on for months over whether the new building should be exclusively for the company or be a larger building that could rent office space to other companies. Eventually, the latter plan was chosen and Supermegitect Theophilius P. Chandler was commissioned to design it. The building they were already occupying was in a great location for the time, so instead of buying a new plot of land, they would just demolished the fuck out of their old building and started constructing the new one. They moved out of the old building on February 22, 1889 and stayed in some temporary offices at 1008 Walnut Street.
                      A year and a half later, on Thanksgiving Day, 1890, the brand-new 10-story Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company building opened. It was such a kick-ass design that people barely noticed the awesome Willis G. Hale building next door. The 900 block of Chestnut became one of the most beautiful stretches of road in the whole city.
                     The building was considered high tech as fuck because it had a goddamn circuit breaker. It also claimed to have more electrical wiring than any other building in the city at the time. Penn Mutual rented out the offices that faced Chestnut Street and occupied a little five-story box in the back that faced Chant Street (now Ludlow).

The interior of the first floor. This Chandler guy didn't fuck around.

Other architects of the period didn't think this building was all that special. They thought the cool-ass tower was too thin and tall. They thought the upper floors of the facade didn't match the lower floors. They made a point of saying that the awesome marble facade did not look as good as the old building. What a bunch of jerks. Look at that fucking building! Its a booooomb!
Penn Mutual would only stay for 23 years until moving to a much larger building on Washington Square. From there on out, they wouldn't move again, just keep adding on to their 1913 structure until it was ultimately butt-fuglified in the 1970's. After Penn Mutual, Chandler's Kick-ass Cathedral of Roundhouse Taintpunches lived on with various tenants for another 19 years. Then, at only 42 years old, the building, along with the entire block of other kick-ass buildings, was unceremoniously demolished to make way for some nice-looking but unnecessary federal pork projects that still stand there today.

Kick-ass row of buildings, including the Penn Mutual, about to be demolished in 1932.

Demolishing this block was a fucking crime. Though the buildings that replaced it are neat, they pale in comparison to the shitfucktastic super-structures that once graced this stretch of Chestnut Street. We'll never get a bunch of nice buildings like these again. What a shame.

Empty Lot of the Week-- February 21st

2012-02-21T08:14:00.001-05:00

Penn's Landing Lot of Doom

On the Delaware Waterfront between Market and Chestnut Streets

Philadelphia's mighty waterfront surface lot.

This shitbird empty lot is even more useless than everyone thinks. This piece of land isn't even supposed to be here, and, as if the fake land knows this, has the unlimited power to stop any project that gets proposed for it. Its a disaster of the triple-P variety, Piss Poor Planning.
Read more later today at the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Blog!

Old-Ass Building of the Week-- February 20th

2012-02-20T07:42:00.003-05:00

The St. James Apartment House (aka St. James Hotel, aka St. James House, aka Walnut Square Apartments)

201 South 13th Street

                     They sure don't make 'em like this anymore. Look how beautiful this little building is, even after being mangled up by countless alterations and tarnished by neglect. This is the building that launched Horace Trumbauer into the highrise world. Once one of the most prominent buildings in the city, this masterpiece has fallen into obscurity.
                      Read more at Hidden City Philadelphia!!

GroJLart, King of Philadelphia and France

Butt-Fugly Public Art of the Week-- February 16th

2012-02-16T06:45:00.001-05:00

Big Ben at Franklintown by Alexander Generalis and Tom Miles

17th Street overpass over Interstate 676

The worst depiction of anyone... ever. Pic from philart.net

I'm sure I'm not the first person that ever told you that this sculpture is a flaming bag of orangutanshit. This one right here is hated far and wide. The worst part is, this is pretty much the most-viewed piece of Philadelphia's public art. If my math is right, 430.7 million cars have passed under this pile of shit on Interstate 676 since it was installed on June 1, 1992. That's a ridiculous number of people that have seen this monument to asstrash. Ridonkulous, in fact.
Oh, Franklin Town. That failed experiment of urban renewal from the 70's, complete with fucking moving sidewalks. I once wrote about one of its many empty lots.

Yeah, this all got built. Sike!!

                       Needless to say, it didn't quite work out as planned. In 1992, 21 years after it was proposed, Franklin Town looked even worse than it does now. In order to get the ball rolling on SOMETHING for this dystopian utopia, The Franklin Town Corporation wanted a big-ass piece of public art that could act as a gateway to the neighborhood. The piece would be placed at the edge of the hood, at 17th and Vine, where it straddles I-676. This is funny because the first thing you see in Franklin Town after this gateway are two super-massive empty lots.
Since it was being placed on an overpass, massively large amounts of killer bureaucracy was involved. The Federal Highway Administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and Philadelphia Streets Department all had to have a hand in this disgrace. Real Estate moguls/artists Tom Miles and Alex Generalis were forced to design a sculpture based on the only thing Franklin Town could ever be known for-- Ben Franklin.
                      Philadelphia loves itself some depictions of early Philaphile Ben Franklin. Literally over 100 depictions of him are viewable on any given day. Throwing another one on top of the pile shouldn't have been that big a deal-- but in this case, it was. The design called for 15,000 pounds of stainless steel sheets that have been cut and painted and arranged to be a silhouette of Franklin with lightning bolts and kites everywhere. Since the bust of Franklin is 30 feet in the air, it would be viewable from 676.
                     In May of 1992, the steel shitstorm was installed bit by bit, work finishing on June the 1st. The "sculpture" was dedicated on June 12, 1992. Almost immediately, the hatred began. Motorists noticed the thing from below, no doubt puking all over their windshields. By August, the Inquirer's architecture critic tore it a new asshole. This disfigurement of Franklin made people start questioning the intelligence of putting depictions of him all over the place.
Today, it stands faded and rusty-nailed, still making people question what the fuck they were thinking. Franklin Town is still a piece of shit, but getting a little better... the new Mormon Temple will be right near the sculpture. With the construction of the temple, maybe its time that a new Franklin Town gateway was created. Get Albert Paley on the phone. He could design an Archway of Kick-ass that matches the one nearby on 18th Street. That'll show 'em.

Its also a depiction of Colonial-era Cousin Itt.

Lost Bridge of the Week-- February 15th

2012-02-15T06:38:00.000-05:00

Second Street Bridge "into the country about the Society Hill"

Spanning Little Dock Creek at approximately 314 South Second Street

The only picture of it is a close-up of a conjectural engraving of a conjectural drawing.

                       This little flash-in-the-pan of a bridge used to span Little Dock Creek. Little Dock Creek was a small tributary of Dock Creek that ran south down to a pond at what is now 9th and South Streets. Why talk about this little shitbird of a bridge? It was famous in its own time for what you could see when standing on it.
                      In the late 1700's, mega-bankerfinancier Stephen Girard had a problem. He had purchased a site on what is now the 300 block of South Second Street and wanted to build a row of houses... this was considered prime real estate because the best water pump in town was right nearby. Also, fruit trees and vegetable plants grew mysterious high and bountiful here. When the foundations were dug, a shitload of water and mud exploded out of the ground and stopped the whole operation.
                     This caused curiosity about what was going on under 178 S. 2nd St (now 314). Old people in the neighborhood started to recount tales about a natural spring that ran out of a hill just west of the old Second Street bridge. Back in the early 1700's, a small bridge, only half the width of the street, spanned Little Dock Creek and a little pond just to the West. From the bridge, one could get a nice view of the pond, which was known as Bathsheba's Spring and Bower or Bathsheba's Baths.

Conjectural-ass illustration of the view of the spring from the Second Street Bridge

One would think that the spring was named after the biblical Bathsheba, whose story is bath-related, but NO. The spring was named after a Swedish settler named Bathsheba Bower, an old spinster who loved the spring so much that she built a small house right next to it and maintained a small lounge for visitors there.
                     The spring became a local landmark. People started arranging the hill nearby into a little amphitheater that surrounded it and local religious leaders started preaching from the balcony of a building across the street. Some time in the mid-1700's, Little Dock Creek was tunneled over and the Second Street Bridge was gone (another Second Street Bridge just south of Walnut still stood for a while longer).
                     Eventually, future Brigadier General John Cadwalader took down the hill and built a double-wide rowhome there. The pond of the spring got filled in and Bathsheba's Baths became forgotten. It wasn't until decades later when Girard needed to drive pilings for the houses he built (that are still standing, BTW) that memories of the spring sprang forth again. The water pump nearby still drew from the spring until the late 19th Century.
                    Whomever lives at 314 S. 2nd Street needs to do some digging and find out if that spring is still under there somewhere. Philadelphia has a goddamn natural spring.

Bathsheba's Spring and Bower is somewhere under here. Image from Google.

Dead-Ass Proposal of the Week-- February 14th

2012-02-14T06:40:00.002-05:00

Bridgeman's View Tower

900 North Delaware Avenue

Dead from every angle.

Here it is... another broken dream, and a good-looking one at that. This awesome tower was set to be the impetus for a second downtown along the Northern Liberties Delaware Riverfront. Instead, we got dicked.
Read more on the Philadelphia City Paper's Naked City Motherfucking Blog!!!

Mystery Butt-Fugly Building of the Week-- February 13th

2012-02-13T06:48:00.001-05:00

Holiday Inn Express Midtown Philadelphia

1305 Walnut Street

Parkingzilla.

What an embarrassing piece of shit. This building is so pitiful and ugly, no one wants to acknowledge it. The PAB has nothing on it, Emporis doesn't know who the architect is, and Google Earth won't put it into 3D. I almost feel sorry for this ugly motherfucker. Almost.

Google Earth said "Fuck it!"

This is one of those structures that can't decide if its a parking garage or a building. The way that the tower section is set back just makes it look like they forgot to build the front. The real reason its so far back is because there's a pool at the top of the parking garage.

This postcard from when it was first built shows off the pool, because seriously, there's nothing else to show off.

From its Samson Street side, this fuckbucket looks even worse. The tower is set so far back that it just looks like any other crappy parking garage from the street. Who the fuck thought this was a bright idea? Paul J. McNamara, that's who. This guy was Holiday Inn's most badass franchisee. Former manager of the Warwick, this guy envisioned that Holiday Inn locations could expand beyond shitbird highway exits and fuckbag resort locations, and be built in the downtowns of major cities.
McNamara built this 161-room motherfucker in 1963-1964, and it became the first Holiday Inn located in the heart of a major city. It was built on the site of some old 1830's row-mansions that were converted to retail uses, exactly like the ones that still stand across the street.

The site of the Holiday Inn in 1925. By the end of the 1930's half of this became surface parking.

                    The architect, of course, is a mystery... for good reason. Who the fuck would wanna own up to this mess? Even for the 1960's, this is a crappy building. The attempt to beautify the parking garage by placing a grille over it was a failure. They even named the restaurant inside when it first opened The Walnut Grille. Is that supposed to be some kind of sick joke about the parking garage? THAT'S a Walnut Grille.
                     When it opened, the hotel was full service... you could get room service and reserve banquet halls for events. In 1993, Holiday Inn created the Express brand, limiting services in order to get room rates down. The hotel was already doing pretty shitty at the time, competing with far better hotels that were built for the new Convention Center, so the boss, McNamara's son William, joined the change-in. Its been running under the Express brand to this day. Pitifully enough, this is one of the longest continuously-operating hotels in the city.
                      So who's the architect? Who's gonna acknowledge this mess of a building? Why does the parking garage have to be so humongous? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!?!?!??!?!

Butt-Fugly Building of the Week-- February 9th

2012-02-09T06:35:00.000-05:00

Sofitel Philadelphia (aka Philadelphia Stock Exchange)

1701 Sansom Street

Ugh.

You know a building is a piece of trash when the people it was built for give up on it in less than 20 years. That's what happened to this craptonious pile of puke at the NW Corner of 17th and Sansom Streets. This rectangular box of concrete condom wrappers is a goddamn embarrassment that never should have happened. When you see a concrete box, the most likely thing to pop into your head is "goddamn 1960's!!". This building exemplifies 1960's fuckitecture like no other.
The conception of this building started in the 1950's. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange was in such dire straits that it moved out of its building at 1411 Walnut Street because the rent in the building next door (the Manufacturer's Club) was cheaper. That's pretty fucked up. They moved next door to the building that still has their name on it. FUCKED UP. Business was so slow that the traders on the floor were literally making more money playing backgammon with each other than trading stocks.

Trading floor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Manufacturer's Club, 9th Floor, 1955.

In 1957, things started to look up. The Stock Exchange convinced the Pennsylvania State Legislature to remove the transfer taxes on stock trades from outside the Commonwealth. Business grew at leaps and bounds. Removals on similar taxes for international trades boosted it as well. By the beginning of the 1960's, the Stock Exchange was ready to move out of their 9th floor condo at the Manufacturer's Club and move into a fucking building with their name on it.
Instead of the cool-ass old building that already had its name sculpted on it in motherfucking stone, they chose to move into a new, modern building that would show off how high tech the Exchange would become. The recently-built jumble of glass-and-concrete rectangles known as Penn Center were a big hit, and the Central Business District of the city was successfully moving West.

Yes, so modern. This is from Broad and JFK, looking West, early 1960's. Pic from Cardcow.com

Oh, the boxes. Believe it or not, this view is from 18th and JFK, looking East. BTW, the Comcast Center is now to the left, the BNY Mellon Bank Center is to the right. Pic from Cardcow.com

Meanwhile, Provident Bank, no strangers to taking risks with buildings, started plans on a new and modern office building that would be built at 17th and Sansom, close to Penn Center. It was a knock-off Penn Centerish-looking building that was also designed by the same Grandmaster of Shitbag Boxitecture, Vincent Kling. The Stock Exchange liked the idea so much that they wanted in, along with naming rights. They even got the city to rename Ionic Street "Stock Exchange Place".

Rendering of the new Stock Exchange.

                          The ugly motherfucker got built in 1965 and the Stock Exchange was moved in on May 2nd, 1966. They signed a 15-year lease and decked it out with all kinds of high-tech shit, like copy machines! The lease was signed with the proviso that they could move out if that transfer tax shit started again. In 1969, they got that opportunity. The city this time, not the state, started their own transfer tax, and the Stock Exchange said, "Fuck this shit!!" and moved to an even uglier building in Bala Cynwyd. The tax was repealed a month later and the Exchange moved back in.
                           As their 15 year lease was coming to a close, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange had grown and merged and associated itself all over the place. It was ready to get out of that shitbird of a building and build a goddamn skyscraper at 18th and Market. The NIMBYs at the William Penn House next door squashed the idea down to a crappy 8-storey building that's cool on the inside but looks like assinthrope from the outside. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange moved out of 17th and Sansom in 1981.
                           The building stood as crappy ZZZZ-level offices for almost 2 decades. In 1998, the city tried to bolster some shit up in the neighborhood by naming the area "the French Quarter". The French theme attracted attention from the French company Accor, who announced that they purchased the old Stock Exchange building and would be turning a luxury hotel under their Sofitel brand. They would get New York architects Brennan Beer Gorman to un-Klingify the tower and make it a little less Butt-Fugly.

I believe this is the rendering.

They failed. After an $80 million renovation, the Sofitel opened in 2000. They put an addition on the back of the building that looks like my nutsack. It really does look as boring as ever. Only 12 years later, the concrete is getting all browned up and tarnished again. What a crappy building.

The 2000 addition on the building. Sacre Blarf!!

Lost Building of the Week-- February 8th

2012-02-08T06:41:00.000-05:00

Denckla Building

1101 Market Street

1911 at 11th and Market. Pic from the PAB.

Was this building named by a Klingon? This cool-ass building was built as part of the 1100 Super-block of Market Street in the early 20th Century. While cool as shit when it was built, the building fell into obscurity and stood as a ruin into the 1970's.
In the early 20th Century, the 1100 block of Market Street was the SHIT. The South side had the super-massive Snellenburg's Department Store and the North side had the Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia Inquirer Building, Market Street National Bank, and this, The Denckla Building.

The Superblock in its prime. The Denckla Building is on the right.

                      The weird-ass name Denckla Building most likely comes from the Denckla family, one of Philadelphia's old families that never got rich enough to be considered for the list of "Old Philadelphians". The family came to the primordial city/village of Philadelphia in the 1700's, kicking trustafarian asses until they pushed their way into being associates, but not really members, of Philadelphia High Society a century later. Descendents of the Dencklas live on to this day, probably having no clue that a building bearing their name stood at a prominent corner in Philadelphia for seven decades.
   This Masterpiece of Market Street Cornering was designed by the Postmaster General of Specialized Badasses, John Torrey Windrim, and was built in 1906... it was the final piece of the puzzle needed to complete the Superblock. The offices of such famous Philadelphians as bankergineerchitect Otto C. Wolf and famous theater architect John D. Allen were located there, along with the downtown offices of the Crane Company.
                      In the mid-20th Century, Market East went to absolute shit, sort of like it is now. The cool-ass buildings on the Superblock got altered beyond recognition and fell into dirtiness and disrepair.

The Superblock in the late 50's. Denckla is second to the right.

At this point, the Denckla Building was still in use but looking like shit.

In 1960 with mangled ground floor. The Inquirer and Market Street National Bank buildings were replaced with a 20th Century Butt-Fugly by this point. The Empty Lot next door was the remains of a cool building that was replaced by a super-massive parking garage that got replaced by the Gallery.

The Denckla Building lasted up into the 1970's, when it was unceremoniously ripped down when Market East Station and the CCCC Tunnel were being built. You can see the hole that was the result in this scene from the 1981 movie Blow Out:

Reading Terminal Pilings on the right. Hole that used to be the Denckla Building on the extreme left.

After Market East Station and the CCCC Tunnel were complete, the corner stood as an empty lot until the federally-funded pork project known as One Reading Center was built in its place in 1984. Nowadays, we call it the Aramark Tower-- not a bad-looking building considering the year.
One day, if and when Market East and the Girard Estate block gets its fucking act together, the Superblock may one day rise again. The North side is most of the way there but the South side is a horrendous pile of crap. They should have just left the buildings that were there the fuck alone. Fuckers.