Architecture
Consisting of two concrete high-rise towers connected by an atrium, the 1,800,000-square-foot (170,000 m2) Centre Square is located on Market Street between 15th and 16th Streets in Center City. Located just across 15th Street west of Philadelphia City Hall, Centre Square was designed by Vincent Kling & Associates. The complex was one of several buildings designed by Kling that surround City Hall. These buildings, including the Municipal Services Building and One Meridian Plaza, are collectively nicknamed the "The Klingdom."
The smaller of the two towers, the thirty-two-story east tower or Centre Square I is 417 feet (127 m) tall. The forty-story west tower, Centre Square II, located at the corner of Market and 16th Streets, stands 490 feet (150 m) tall. the two are the twenty-fourth and fifteenth tallest buildings in Philadelphia, respectively. The four-story atrium connecting the two high rises is topped by a domed skylight and the floors are connected by a triangular elevator. During renovations in 2008, a tower of changing light pipes replaced the elevator tower's marble encasement. The plaza in front of Centre Square at the corner of Market and 15th Streets has access to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's (SEPTA) 15th Street Station.
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Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
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