Wow, I remember those days with fondness; Liberty One was so dynamic and stood out so much because it was so much taller than the other buildings but also every other building in downtown had flat roofs and Liberty One didn't.
Before Liberty One, the downtown skyline looked very flat, all the buildings had flat roofs; and most of them were grey or brown colour with the only exceptions that I remember being the Society Hill Towers and the One Reading Center which was changed to Aramark and now something else. Liberty One and the Blue Cross Tower were built about the same time and the fact that they were glass stood out but Liberty One with the chevrons of light and even in the day time was really dynamic.
The feeling that Liberty One gave as a young adult was that Philadelphia was changing, finally becoming a modern city; not a city that was mostly defined by an image that was crafted in the 1940s and 1950s and in the here and now. It was a feeling that good things could happen in Philadelphia and we as a city didn't have to be and shouldn't be overlooked; that is what Liberty One kind of reflected in some sense when it was built and the lighting at night which was very cutting edge emphasized that.
Before Liberty One it also should be remembered that the building was not only much taller than everything else and had its unique pattern but also that downtown Philadelphia had very litter external lighting on the buildings at night before 1986; New York City was dynamic but we were still in the dark ages so to speak up to that point. The only night lighting we had that stands out in my mind at the time was the blue lighting up the side of Reading One which was modern but on a much smaller scare and was on the side of the building so if you were on 11th street or to the south or east of downtown you may have not seen it; the PSFS Building which was dynamic but had been there since the 1930s and had no real equals. Wow, I'm trying to remember back now; you had the PNC Building, the YMCA Building which I remember due to the work my mother did and City Hall. City Hall was only Art Museum were the only buildings with any real noteworthy sense of light in downtown especially City Hall because the older generation treated it almost like it was a golden temple; its a beautiful building but it was held in such esteem that nothing in downtown had any real light as far as the skyline went and then all of a sudden Liberty One came and really was the start of a renaissance; ending the dark ages for downtown both literally and figurative.
Last edited by JohnIII; Aug 23, 2024 at 6:45 PM.
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