Hello, Skyscraperpage forumers!!! I'm inquiring about the city's future, and also it's growing skyline. During the 1980's, the city of Philadelphia had City Hall as it's tallest building. At the same time, in NYC, the old World Trade Center in NYC was the tallest for that city, the Sears Tower was the tallest in Chicago, the John Hancock Tower was the tallest in Boston, the Transamerica Pyramid the tallest in San Francisco, and the USX Tower the tallest in Pittsburgh. When Wilson Goode was elected mayor in 1983, one of his first political moves was to allow Liberty Place to become the tallest tower in Philadelphia. Liberty Place was the development which allowed other skyscrapers in Philadelphia, such as the Mellon Bank Center, the IBX Tower, and Commerce Square to be built, all exceeding City Hall's height of 548 ft.
The second wave of development started last decade with the Cira Centre nearby 30th St Station, following the Comcast Center, which became Philly's new tallest, and other projects, such as the Murano, the Residences at the Ritz, and the currently developing FMC Tower. As many people in Philly already know, the Comcast Information and Technology Center is currently being constructed as we speak, but there was another tower that was originally proposed to be erected at the same site where the CITC is being built. That development is the American Commerce Center, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox and developed by Garrett Miller and HILL International. Comparing the two towers, the CITC is 1,121 ft (342 m) tall, has 1.5 M sq ft of space, and is being constructed at a value of $1.2 B. The ACC, however, had not only more height at 1,510 ft (460 m), but more office space at 2.2 M sq ft and was relatively cheaper at $0.8 B.
Liberty Property Trust, whose currently the owner of the Comcast Center, was also involved with the development of the ACC as well. In 2008, however, the housing bubble burst, leaving many investors, as well as homeowners under foreclosure, and many residential projects in the city, such as the Mandeville Place, portions of Waterfront Square, the Trump Tower, and Bridgeman's View bit the dust as a result. The ACC, however didn't die out during that time. There was one small, or shall I say a huge problem: the ACC needed a main tenant for a commitment to occupy the tower. The ACC had everything in place for the building to be completed: a change in zoning from the city council to allow for higher density towers such as this,an approval from the City Council to build the tower, a major architecture firm backing the project, and a reserve fund in place just in case of a recession thanks to the developer Garrett Miller.
However, despite all the major factors that were set in place for the ACC to become a reality, no company ever wanted to move to the ACC for a strange reason. There were several companies that were implicated to coming to Philadelphia such as BlackRock, Verizon, GlaxoSmithKline, and TD Bank, which might have had the best chance of relocating in Center City, but no takers in this offer despite having a major incentive such as the KOZ in place for this development. On August 19, 2011, the American Commerce Center, three years after being first proposed on June 19, 2008, was officially cancelled and the lot that was supposed to contain this beautiful tower was purchased by LPT and the rest is history!
So what does the story of the ACC have to do with Philadelphia getting another supernal other than the CITC??? A LOT!!! The ACC was Philly's best chance of having a landmark tower like the Sears Tower, John Hancock Center, Empire State Building, and WTC. It was also a chance for Philadelphia to claim, for a short time, the tallest building in America. And while the CITC is now Philly's tallest and only supertall, I'm very doubtful right now that Philly will ever get such a tower not only as tall as the ACC, but one very dynamic in design, and a tower which not only generated such fanfare when it first came out, but makes the average Philadelphian proud of their city like the Sears Tower and the WTC did for their respective cities. I feel that the CITC will be the tallest tower in the city for a long time!!! There won't be another tower in Philly with the same scope as the ACC, Sears Tower, the WTC in NYC (the old and the new), and many other supertalls around the world. If you think the gentleman's agreement of making City Hall was the big obstacle for Philadelphia's skyline, just wait until we don't even get a skyscraper that tops the CITC!!! I'm only wondering whether Philadelphia will be able to get a true supertall in the future.
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