Glorified Buildings-
The first building I chose to look at is Citizens Bank
Park, known as the Home of the Philadelphia Phillies. It is currently located
in South Philadelphia One Citizens Bank Way. It was designed by architect Ewing
Cole from Stanley Cole and HOK Sport. Its architectural style to accommodate
only to the game of baseball. It is a diamond shaped building open and wide.
Inside it is designed to universally be accessible, visible, and comfortable
for fans of all sorts, including those with disabilities. Its Alley designed as
a typical ball park, which includes outfield entertainment such as Phillies All
Star Walk. It consists of statues of former players before entering the park,
within in it includes many food concessions including two who are in memory of
former Phillies player and Announcer. It is so open it has a huge plasma screen to see the game as well as see Philadelphia’s Skyline. It first started to be constructed in November 2001 and completed and open in April 2004. Its purpose was demolish the previous Veterans Stadium which held both football and baseball, and provide a clean open and enjoyable atmosphere for baseball fans exclusively. Its current purpose is to do just as it was intended give the people of Philadelphia a place to enjoy a loveable game for their hometown as well as see the beautiful parts of Philadelphia such as the skyline. At first there was controversy on the location of being in South Philadelphia rather than Center city. However, this ended when looking at the business stance it was located at a perfect transportation destination which happened to be close to highways and public transportation.
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The next building I looked at was The Comcast Center
currently known as the tallest building in Philadelphia. It was designed by
Robert A.M. Stern . It is currently located in center city at 1701 John F.
Kennedy Blvd. Its architectural style is designed to be a steel glass curtain
wall skyscraper. It is known as the tallest “green” building in the country.
Its structure has a dramatic exterior scheme, including very wide and high
surfaces within. Currently is open to the public even though it is a business corporate
building. It consists of many works of art within it. Its original purpose was
to attract corporate headquarters to the city. However, its current usage and
purpose is for commercial offices, accessible two way rail station, shops,
service branches, restaurants, and parking. It has currently defied and is a
well-known building throughout the United States . It began construction in 2005 and was completed 2008.
Before it was constructed there was a controversy about the Keystone
Opportunity improvement Zone and how they would cause an unfair advantage to
the city due to the way they wanted to build it however they still went through
with the project..jpg)
The third building I chose is the second highest
skyscraper in Philadelphia designed by Helmut Jahn. It is located at 1650
Market Street. It’s architectural designed is similar in some way to the
Comcast Center. It has a steel curtain wall glass. Its exterior is designed to
have an ice and snow melting system. It is very high and was offed the Chrysler
Building in New York. It is grey and used for commercial offices which are used
by people with companies. It has this sphere like squared shape at its top as
well as a point where at night continues to flash. Its original purpose is to
be a tall office complex building. It currently is used as a skyline of
Philadelphia, as well as residential commercial office surrounded by hotels and
retail for the people. There was a controversy about it because it broke the
gentleman’s agreement and was the first building to exceed the height of
William Penn Statue on Philadelphia City Hall.
When looking at all three of the buildings I see
buildings which feature something to the City of Philadelphia in a good way
where they are all used and not just random buildings and figures that are just
there to look at . They are buildings which are not only architecturally
designed to be noticeable but also be efficient to the city. I chose these
buildings because I find the all amazing and productive to my city. Citizens
Bank Park represents a symbol of change in Philadelphia and pride. It went from
an old multiservice building for two sports into one exceptional Park for one
sport which features Philadelphia’s beauty when overseeing it as well as a
pride where even the players of the game started to play much better causing us
to become Championships year after year whether it was National League or World
Series. It is currently one of the biggest parts of Philadelphia and its
society. Speaking for myself and society I feel like this building is a local
pride that is starting to spread because it represents us in a different way
rather than the dirty losing city. As for the Comcast Center and One Liberty
Place they represent to me and the people a change from old like buildings such
as city hall. They bring a purpose which symbolically brings a message that
Philadelphia is cleaning up and just like other city provides buildings that
people actually enjoy. The Comcast Center brings a relation to technology and
how our city is changing for the better it is developing one of the greatest
greenhouse buildings which is not found everywhere and overtops other cities it
is bringing a recognition to our city. As for the One Liberty Place it brought
more professional like place which actually has one of the largest insurance
company headquarters within it showing how Philadelphia can work with large
companies and can go global in this way.
These
buildings are a clear battle between Philadelphia leaving the ancient world and
entering the modern world. When looking at their modernity they suggest
post-modernism. Where they are bringing more to the plate and not suggesting a
city where it cannot have a capacity providing less such as in Gattaca but more
as seen in cities such as New York. Philadelphia is known as one of America’s
oldest cities. These buildings are defining a different type of Philadelphia
showing a developing city which does have some tribute to its original
buildings and symbols such as the Liberty Bell which is integrated in part of
the design of the Citizens Bank Park and start to light and move back and forth
when there is a home run. When looking at this modernity it is not completely
seen in total effect in films. There are movies such as Warrior and Shooter
which are movies based supposedly in Philadelphia and just a small picture to
link the place to the movie is showing the Philadelphia skyline. This skyline
does not go into just city hall but is an overview which captures two of the
buildings mentioned above who are certainly symbols that tell people this is
Philadelphia. The architecture used in
films such as Rocky or Law Abiding Citizen are pretty much over views of what
the city looks like from beyond. Compared to movies such as The Break-Up in
Chicago which uses the city as part of the characters job to show or the
stadium to be part of their everyday lives, Philadelphia is not architecturally
seen in this sense.
Works Cited:
HyperLinks:
Citizens Bank Park : Article about cities Stadium Must See:
One Liberty Place one of the most appealing buildings Philadelphia:
Comcast Center on the fun of the center review: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/philadelphia/A45939.html
