In the early 1900s, skyscrapers of ever-increasing heights began to rise all over the world, including in Philadelphia. By the late 1920s, the Philadelphia Savings and Fund Society (PSFS) was in need of a new building for it's headquarters. PSFS selected architects George Howe and William Edmond Lescaze to design a skyscraper that would stand at 1200 Market Street.
The existing buildings on the site (including William Penn Charter School) were demolished in the spring of 1931. By the summer, the foundation was complete and the superstructure rose above ground by August, with three massive cranes for construction of the larger first seven floors. One crane was eventually removed for the construction of the typical floors that stand above the large base. The tower was put together incredibly fast and had topped out by December, with the cladding eventually reaching the top later in the same month. The PSFS Building was completed on August 1, 1932. The tower received the addition of an antenna in 1948, which brought its total height to 794 feet.
The PSFS Building was completed at the height of the Art Deco craze at a cost of $8,000,000. This modest skyscraper of only 36 floors had very little in common with either the Empire State Building(completed the same year), or, the Chrysler Building (1931), both sporting the Art Deco styling of the time. Instead, the PSFS Building resembled something from the future. Howe and Lescaze designed a modern skyscraper, still one of the finest examples of the "International Style". In 1976, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
From 1998 - 2000 the building was converted from a bank and office building into a hotel. A 40,000 sq. foot annex, built to blend in with the original building, was added on 12th St. The Loews Philadelphia Hotel opened in April 2000 with renovation costs totaling $115 million.
Wm. Penn Charter School, 1901, Final design drawing
previously at site of PSFS Building
1931 1932 brochure cover
1957
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