"If you don't take risks, then things don't move," Goode said. Together, they worked to win the backing of City Council. Councilman John Street, whose district included the proposed sites, offered his, too. Goode had vowed his support before Rouse made his proposal public. But he needed public support - and he found it in key places. Rouse needed no variance to build higher than City Hall. Legally, the gentlemen's agreement held no merit. Wilson Goode that hangs at City Hall, features One Liberty Place in the background. The official portrait of former Philadelphia Mayor W. But it did lead to a fair amount of resistance." "You can research that gentlemen's agreement and you can come to all kinds of conclusions on where it came from and who gave it the name. "The resistance we ran into was pretty immediate and pretty staunch when we proposed the taller buildings, because of the so-called gentlemen's agreement that nobody build taller than William Penn's hat," said Joe Denny, then the president of Rouse and Associates. So when Willard Rouse III and his development company, Rouse and Associates, rolled out plans in April 1984 to build the skycrapers that became One and Two Liberty Place, he was met with considerable opposition. Others cherished the minimalist cityscape as uniquely Philadelphian, a throwback to an earlier time. To many, the statute of Pennsylvania's founder remained sacrosanct. Luxury penthouse goes for $11 million at Two Liberty Place.Virtual reality company brings interactive experience to One Liberty deck.Travel 100 years into history and back with these then-and-now Philly photos.Then and now: a historic look at Philadelphia's ballparks.A number of mostly unremarkable office buildings arose in the vicinity of City Hall, but Penn's perch atop the city remained protected by a gentleman's agreement and, to some extent, sheer economics. While other American cities watched their skylines soar to new heights, Philadelphia maintained a more measured approach. The tower of One Liberty Place soars behind City Hall.Ĭity Hall had served as Philadelphia's visual focal point since its completion in 1901, when it ranked among the tallest buildings in the world.
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After all, an entire generation has known nothing but a cityscape defined by glistening glass towers.īut in 1984, the proposal of two skyscrapers that would tower above City Hall - the historical center of the city - sent Philadelphia into a tizzy. Now, a second high rise boom is again altering the skyline, with the Comcast Technology Center set to become the city's tallest building and a spate of shorter towers rising along the western edge of the Schuylkill River.īut the current changes are less dramatic and have resulted in far less civic angst than those witnessed in the 1980s.
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"Let's go and not be held back by any type of artificial barrier." Wilson Goode said of the momentous decision. "I think that breaking through that artificial ceiling was a way of people saying that the sky is the limit for this city," former Mayor W. But the building's approval precipitated a flurry of Center City high rises that quickly transformed a nondescript skyline into one that architecture critic Paul Goldberger called "one of the most appealing" in America. The ascension of One Liberty Place - the first skyscraper to rise above Billy Penn's hat - had sparked a contentious public debate about the city's skyline, and by extension, its identity. In the distance, the William Penn statue atop City Hall's 548-foot tower stood surrounded by scaffolding and pipes, essentially uninvited to the party. Naturally, some 1,500 people assembled there on a crisp December night three decades ago to celebrate the topping off of One Liberty Place, which glistened amidst blue laser beams that flashed across the sky.
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The steps leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art have long marked the most iconic location to gaze at the city's skyline.