Buildings, Interrupted?

More than a year ago, two pairs of leading developers and internationally renowned architects announced plans for high-rise office towers in Philadelphia. One was to be built at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard in Center City, while the other would stand opposite 30th Street Station. The buildings were scheduled to open in 2004 and 2005 respectively, but at this point, with the lingering economic slowdown, those plans look dubious.

The 17th and JFK site has been cleared for the Pennsylvania Plaza project, designed by Yale architecture school dean Robert A.M. Stern, but construction has yet to begin. One Pennsylvania Plaza was originally planned as a 52-story high-rise covered in the same beige stone that clothes the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Liberty Property Trust Senior Vice President John Gattuso acknowledges that "we are doing some redesign of the building," though he won't discuss what the changes entail. Presumably the redesign will constitute a scaling back of architectural ambition, if not the height. Gattuso says that his company is currently in talks with interested companies and will begin construction "as soon as we have in place our leases with lead tenants."

Still, the developer insists that the market can handle at least one new office tower. "I believe that there is a need for Philadelphia to upgrade its office infrastructure," Gattuso says, citing that the most recent major new high-rise in the city was built 15 years ago. "We think Philadelphia has held up well relative to the national economy through this recession, and we believe Philadelphia has a very strong pool of very good companies that will be growing as the economy recovers."

Though representatives of Liberty Property Trust would not comment by press time, the story looks similar at the other end of town. Plans for the building were announced in 2002. They called for a silver, irregular prism-shaped, 28-story tower. Those associated with the project have been trying to woo tenants from outside the region by touting the location's proximity to Amtrak's high-speed Northeast trains. But at 30th Street, all that exists of the Cira Centre, designed by Cesar Pelli, known for his geometrical prism-topped World Financial Center in New York, is a real estate office in the train station.

Apparently in big-city real estate development, seeing is believing.

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