A Political Parthenon: City Hall
Yanik Ruiz-Ramon
Courtesy of ivopenchevbg at flickr.com
The Red and the Blue has fresh blood: College junior Yanik Ruiz-Ramon will showcase a unique focus on Philly politics.
In Philadelphia politics, all roads lead to the stone behemoth straddling the intersection of Broad and Market streets. City Hall is the nexus of Philadelphia wheeling and dealing, housing the executive, judicial, and legislative branches for 1,450,000 cheese-steak wielding Philadelphians.
City Hall was constructed to represent Philadelphia’s industrial dominance in the 1870s. The ornate style is French Second Empire, another way of architecturally screaming that we have money. This political palace took 30 years to finish, beginning in 1871. A large reason for the delays were good ol’ fashion Philly politics. Political boss Boies Penrose tried to take control of the state-created Building Commission. There were also fights over everything from design to construction.
City Hall was supposed to be the tallest building in the world, reaching 549 feet, but it took so long to finish that by 1901 it was dwarfed by the Eiffel Tower and the Washington Monument. During construction, electricity and elevators were also invented, so builders had to start retrofitting the building before it was even finished.
However, City Hall has the distinction of remaining the tallest occupied masonry building in the world. This means that the entire structure is supported without steel or iron beams. It holds over 700 rooms and more floor space than the US Capitol.
Regardless, it wasn’t a very popular building as it was almost demolished in the 1920s and the 1950s because of its decadent style. Incidentally, the Fisher Fine Arts Library was also threatened with demolition in the 1950s. While Frank Lloyd Wright said that the library was “the work of an artist,” City Hall wasn’t spared for this high-minded reason. The only reason it survives is because there wasn’t enough money to demolish it and build something new.
For more information:
http://www.citymayors.com/cityhalls/philadelphia-cityhall.html
http://www.phila.gov/property/virtualcityhall/history.asp
Recent Comments