Society Hill Towers is a three-building
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
located in the
Society Hill
Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center City District dates the Free Soc ...
neighborhood of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. The complex contains three 31-story
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
s with 624 units on a site.
["History"]
on the Society Hill Towers website The towers were designed by
I.M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
and Associates and are constructed of poured-in-place concrete, with each apartment featuring floor-to-ceiling windows.
Completed in 1964, the apartments were originally rental units but were converted to condominiums in 1979.
History
In the late 1950s, Society Hill was considered a slum neighborhood,
[, p.119] which was targeted for redevelopment by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and the Redevelopment Authority.
From 1957 to 1959, the Greater Philadelphia Movement, the Redevelopment Authority, and the Old Philadelphia Development Corporation bought around Dock Street. They relocated and demolished the
Dock Street Market
The Dock Street Market was Philadelphia's central wholesale produce market from 1870 until its closure in 1959 and relocation to the Food Distribution Center in South Philadelphia. The Dock Street Market was located on Dock Street in Society Hill. ...
, setting aside of land that would become the Society Hill Towers. In 1957,
Edmund Bacon Edmund Bacon may refer to:
*Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Redgrave (c. 1570–1649), English MP for Eye and for Norfolk in 1593 and 1625
*Sir Edmund Bacon, 2nd Baronet, of Gillingham (c. 1660–1683), see Bacon baronets
*Sir Edmund Bacon, 4th B ...
, the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, awarded developer-architect firm
Webb and Knapp
Webb and Knapp was a real estate development firm.
The company is most famous for developing the Roosevelt Airfield, which was the launching site of the transatlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. It was also the firm at which ...
the competition for the redevelopment of Society Hill. Architect
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
and his team created a plan for three 31-story Society Hill Towers as well as the Society Hill Townhouses, a low-rise project. The Towers and Townhouses project was completed in 1964, while the entire plan was completed in 1977.
[Le Faivre-Rochester, p. 36.]
The buildings were listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on March 10, 1999.
See also
*
*
References
Notes
External links
Society Hill TowersListing and photographsat Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
{{Society Hill, state=expanded
Residential skyscrapers in Philadelphia
Residential condominiums in the United States
Residential buildings completed in 1963
Society Hill, Philadelphia
Multi-building developments in Philadelphia
I. M. Pei buildings