PHILADELPHIA | FMC Tower @ Cira Centre South | 736 FT | 49 FLOORS

[mmikeyphilly]

Sorry, I'm guilty of posting a rendering of FMC, but I have a hard time trying to explain "technical"(no pun intended) terms. I just wanted to make some who are not really familiar with the construction process, (including me!). My experience is my Kenner erector sets when I was a child.
Before this was even out of the ground, and just at street level, I kept looking at that one rendering, and I knew something would have to change with that core since it does get narrow above the office floors. I noticed the change thru the glass that some change in material was taking place. Now that I know, it makes sense.

But for posting the rendering just to rehash all the stuff we already know, I was actually amazed that someone responded with "Nice!". BUT that blogger is from Balikpapan, Indonesia
Posts: 522 ..........................Soooooooooo, he has an excuse! (you dig?)

[TechTalkGuy]

Most people don't have the time to browse through 118 pages to find all of the available renders, especially when some are old and some are new.

I appreciate seeing renders, especially when we have a fresh new page.
Looking at the construction progress, sometimes when you see exactly the same thing every single day of the week, they all look basically the same.

It's nice to get a break once in a while, it's on topic, it makes people smile and it's usually appreciated.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

Here's some renders to get a feel for what the height will look like.

In how many directions could the downtown skyline realistically expand? Towers going up in downtown and Uni City. But that about the other 3 directions?

Tough question, but how big do you think the Philly skyline could be "maxed out" in like 50 -100 yrs.

[boxbot]

Update from Building Philly; what an awesome shot.



More photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/BuildingPhilly

[jsbrook]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

In how many directions could the downtown skyline realistically expand? Towers going up in downtown and Uni City. But that about the other 3 directions?

Tough question, but how big do you think the Philly skyline could be "maxed out" in like 50 -100 yrs.

Philadelphia is 142.6 square miles (in comparison, Manhattan is 33.77 square miles). So, 'maxed out,' no. But skyscrapers could conceivably spread well into areas and neighborhoods that are presently fringe and lowrise. Sure.

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

In how many directions could the downtown skyline realistically expand? Towers going up in downtown and Uni City. But that about the other 3 directions?

Tough question, but how big do you think the Philly skyline could be "maxed out" in like 50 -100 yrs.

That's fun food-for-thougt. From east and west the skyline is still pretty much tucked between South and Vine with a few exceptions, like Temple. But if you look at it from the north and south it's already changed dramatically just since 2004. If you look at the skyline from Belmont Plateau, University City looks even more impressive that the city east of City Hall. I'd love to see University City and Market East go even taller and really stretch out the skyline. Same for Broad Street north and south. Then again, I'm a geek and that's why I'm on a skyscraper forum.

I'd still love to see a mockup of the city with all of its construction and proposals in place.

[Jawnadelphia]

In the CBD, there's still room for tremendous growth, even with everything in the works. There's still plenty of surface lots and small store fronts, such as that strip with Buffalo Exchange. And we all know Market West and East are ready to explode (so that's easy to west).
Broad St - north to south, we are already seeing, SLS international to North Broad and the restoration of the Divine Lorraine. Perhaps one day, from Broad and Washington north to Divine-- every lot will be taken, towers filling all under-utilized.
The Vine St Expressway capping would help spur growth north of City Hall on Broad and east to west on Vine.
Then of course, there's the Delaware River - there's no reason why someday that riverfront is not lined with mid-to-high risers from Waterfront Sq down to the Dock Side building.
We all know about the University City growth, and Schuylkill River developments. Once the Drexel-Brandywine-innovation neighborhood gets going north of Cira Centre and 30th St, kaboom-- more towers should emerge.
So what we are looking at is layered skyline, up and down each river, and east to west... 1) the Market st stretch and 2) the newly invigorated Vine St. And down the center of the city - Broad St.
(Crude rendering was an epic failure!)

[philatonian]

Originally Posted by TallCoolOne

In the CBD, there's still room for tremendous growth, even with everything in the works. There's still plenty of surface lots and small store fronts, such as that strip with Buffalo Exchange. And we all know Market West and East are ready to explode (so that's easy to west).
Broad St - north to south, we are already seeing, SLS international to North Broad and the restoration of the Divine Lorraine. Perhaps one day, from Broad and Washington north to Divine-- every lot will be taken, towers filling all under-utilized.
The Vine St Expressway capping would help spur growth north of City Hall on Broad and east to west on Vine.
Then of course, there's the Delaware River - there's no reason why someday that riverfront is not lined with mid-to-high risers from Waterfront Sq down to the Dock Side building.
We all know about the University City growth, and Schuylkill River developments. Once the Drexel-Brandywine-innovation neighborhood gets going north of Cira Centre and 30th St, kaboom-- more towers should emerge.
So what we are looking at is layered skyline, up and down each river, and east to west... 1) the Market st stretch and 2) the newly invigorated Vine St. And down the center of the city - Broad St.
(Crude rendering was an epic failure!)

I love this. I'm picturing Christopher Nolan's Gotham

[Boku]

Originally Posted by philatonian

I love this. I'm picturing Christopher Nolan's Gotham

You mean Pittsburgh?

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

In how many directions could the downtown skyline realistically expand? Towers going up in downtown and Uni City. But that about the other 3 directions?

Tough question, but how big do you think the Philly skyline could be "maxed out" in like 50 -100 yrs.

Theoretically the skyline could expand in every direction. To the north, there is definitely a ton of potential, especially north of Vine Street. However, there is even potential just South of Vine Street as well. To the south we're currently seeing the 16 floor Museum Towers II, the 32 floor 1601 Vine, and the 25 floor Chinatown Eastern Tower in Development.

To the east, there is a ton of potential for future development especially east of Broad even all of the way to the Delaware. Market, Chestnut, Walnut, Arch, Columbus Blvd along the Delaware could all see significant highrise development. To the East of Broad, current development and plans includes the 32 story 709 Chestnut, 21 floor East Market Phase I plus future phases, 26 floor 1213 Walnut, 18 floor Penn Medicine at Washington Square, 17 floor 205 Race and 16 floor One Water Street.

To the South, the skyline can likely expand the least because this is definitely the most built up already, and there are so many historic areas to the south of the current highrise cluster, but there is definitely potential especially along south Broad. Current development and plans includes the 23 floor CHOP @ 700 Schuylkill plus future phases, the two 33 floor Broad and Washington towers, and the 47 floor SLS International.

To the West, this is obviously where we are seeing the most growth. University City and the western half of Center City say past 20th street have exploded in the past 5 years as the two business districts connect. Current development includes the 34 floor 2116 Chestnut, 33 floor Evo, 49 floor FMC Tower, 42 floors and two 21 floor Riverwalk development, 22 floor One Riverside, 20 floor 2400 Market, 22 floor Edgewater II, 13 floor Drexel LeBow Hall, 19 floor Chestnut Square, 19 floor Penn Medicine South Tower, 14 floor Buerger Center, 21 floor Penn Tower redevelopment, 25 floor Lancaster Square, 17 floor 3201 Race, 25 floor 3737 Chestnut, 28 floor 3601 Market, 13 floor 3737 Chestnut, 12 floor 3675 Science Center and all future science center developments, and planning for redevelopment of the area around 30th St Station.

So much going on! It's nuts when you really think about it.

[summersm343]

Philadelphia Skyline from the Mann Center for Performing Arts by Tom Ipri, on Flickr

[BenKatzPhillytoParis]

Wow, 3601 Market really makes an impact there.

[Orion1]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Philadelphia Skyline from the Mann Center for Performing Arts by Tom Ipri, on Flickr

Cira looks deceptively miles away from Evo and FMC.

[thisisforreal]

Originally Posted by Boku

You mean Pittsburgh?

I'm guessing he would mean either Chicago (Batman Begins, the Dark Knight) or New York (The Dark Knight Rises). When I watched Batman Begins, all I could think when they went around town was "why is Batman in Chicago?" because that city's imprint was everywhere.



Contrast with Anton Furst's vision of Gotham from the Tim Burton movie:



Gotham of course being a slanderous nickname given to New York during the time of Washington Irving, it came to represent midtown Manhattan. And Furst got it right. (Metropolis, on the other hand, was always meant to be like the Financial district of Manhattan)

Yes, they filmed a few scenes in Pittsburgh, but the first two Nolan films are undeniably Chicago, and the last one unfortunately was too Big Apple.

Back on topic :-)

[joemustardo]

Originally Posted by summersm343

[img]xhttps://farm1.staticflickr.com/381/19848410459_53cdb1421f_b.jpg[/img]Philadelphia Skyline from the Mann Center for Performing Arts by Tom Ipri, on Flickr

Sorry, didn't want to put the image up again. Based of this picture, would you say the tip of the cranes would be the finishing height?

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by joemustardo

Sorry, didn't want to put the image up again. Based of this picture, would you say the tip of the cranes would be the finishing height?

Probably close.

Considering Evo is 407ft tall, and FMC will be 730.

[Eigenwelt]

Originally Posted by joemustardo

Sorry, didn't want to put the image up again. Based of this picture, would you say the tip of the cranes would be the finishing height?

Don't apologize. You're were correct in your formatting. It's the people who quote images in their replies who deserve to be dragged into a supply closet and whipped with the oldest heaviest computer mouse that can be found.


Also, in my opinion the tip of that crane is just short of the final height of FMC by approximately ~50ft or so.

[Eigenwelt]

Originally Posted by thisisforreal

(Metropolis, on the other hand, was always meant to be like the Financial district of Manhattan)

Not to nitpick, but Metropolis wasn't always meant to be an analog of New York (which it clearly is now). Superman originally was set in Cleveland which was changed to Metropolis for the comicbooks. The initial drawings of Metropolis were based on Toronto, where artist/creator Joel Shuster was from. It wasn't until issue 2 that Metropolis was revealed to be in the state of NY.

Also while your info is correct on where/when the NolanGotham was filmed, I think Philatonian was actually referring to this photo (and it's layered skyline) which is clearly not based on Pittsburgh or Chicago. (It's something more of a hybrid of the comicbook Gotham map and NYC.)




*edit* To bring this post back on topic, I agree Philly has tons of potential skyline development in the future. There will be a generally asterix shaped tangle of highrise corridors, east and west along Market, north and south along Broad, and up and down both riversides of both rivers.

[firecracker1995]

^^^What you gotta think about is what is going to happen when all those places are taken. It sounds like Philadelphia is going to get denser in the years or decades or century's to come and I really wish I could live in to the 2500`s to see what they do with the place and ones around the world. By then towers like FMC will be considered historic sites or something like that.

Philadelphia is going to end up just like New York in a couple thousands years, just one huge building around the whole city that possesses all it needs and reaches over 2000 meters. Anyway, does anyone know how much those panels weigh that boxbot posted?

[lsksl]

In 2000 years NYC is probably going to be flooded.
And I doubt they're going to build a city over the current NYC. There will probably be a gradual migration inland as the city begins to flood.