The Grandest Hall of the City

So. This week in architecture we talked a lot about city hall, and walked all around it as well. We couldn't go into the courtyard because it is once again blocked off for some sort of renovations. But this is what I learned about City Hall:

It was started in 1871, a few years after the end of the Civil War. As it turns out, Philadelphia made bucket loads of money during the Civil War because we served as a major supply source for the Union. So City Hall was a statement in the grand-ness of the city. It took thirty years to complete- and look at all the detail!

The building has many tiers and double columns, as well as a lot of detail on the pedements in between the layers.

Also, the tower upon which sits William Penn is apparently the largest masonry build tower standing- ever. That means there are no steel beams in the tower. Masonry is that the walls are meant to hold the support of the entire building. It's pretty cool actually.

We then looked at Reading Terminal and the PFSF building. I learned a lot about the Terminal. It turns out all the trains used to come in above ground there until about 1981! When it was closed down the main building in front of it (what is now the convention center) was abandoned for a while. My teacher was on the project to fix up the place.

The PSFS building was a bank- the Pennsylvania Savings Fund Society. It was the first high rise built in the International style anywhere in the world. It has this cool curve on the corner side and is built with both light and black materials, which makes the building look separated when actually it's not. My pictures of it aren't very good- but you can kind of get what i'm talking about.



We then meandered through a few blocks near my neighborhood- until we ended up on Broad Street talking about a lot of the buildings up near City Hall. My favorite of which is the Union League:
I just think is a very pretty building, and really stands out among the skyscrapers. The Union League was also build after the Civil War, for those who aided the Union effort. It's an exclusive club that even today you need to be a member of to go in or hold events there. I've never been in, but one of these days I will!!
Those are the highlights of class this week, more later on a wrap-up of my vacation....