Quote:
Originally Posted by MusicMan84
It is more than just the "look" of this building - although if you look closely there are some nice Art Deco features which landed it on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.
However...beyond the look of the building speaking to a certain era, some significant history surrounds the building. This Hidden City article does a great job of explaining - it was written when the former proposal was still around.
http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/05/p...1900-chestnut/
Basically - the building was built by an African American lawyer in 1935 after his current office space had been non-renewed and he was turned away from other Class A Office options on the basis of his skin color.
So...it isn't just the facade that is under consideration. |
Sorry, that just seems very weak to me. It's precedents like this that give the NIMBYs ammo. Like anyone can dig up any reason to save any building. Does this building have an interesting design or an interesting backstory? Sure, but the same can be said for a ton of other buildings in the city. Is it so significant that it cannot be razed? I personally don't think so.