Philadelphia City Hall
| Philadelphia City Hall | |
|---|---|
Philadelphia City Hall
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| Record height | |
| Tallest in the world from 1894 to 1908 | |
| Preceded by | Ulm Minster |
| Surpassed by | Singer Building |
| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Location | 1 Penn Square Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA |
| Completed | 1901 |
| Height | |
| Antenna spire | 548 ft (167 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 9 |
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Philadelphia City Hall
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Philadelphia City Hall c1899
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| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 39°57′8.09″N 75°9′50.02″W / 39.9522472°N 75.1638944°WCoordinates: 39°57′8.09″N 75°9′50.02″W / 39.9522472°N 75.1638944°W |
| Area | 630,000 ft² (58,222 m²) |
| Built | 1871–1901 |
| Architect |
John McArthur, Jr. Thomas U. Walter |
| Architectural style | Second Empire, other |
| NRHP Reference # | 76001666 |
| Added to NRHP | December 8, 1976 |
Philadelphia City Hall, located at 1 Penn Square, is the seat of government for the city of Philadelphia, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
At 548 ft (167 m), including the statue of city founder William Penn atop it, it was the tallest habitable building in the world from 1894 to 1908. It remained the tallest in Pennsylvania until it was surpassed in 1932 by the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh; it was the tallest in Philadelphia until the construction of One Liberty Place (1984–87) ended the informal gentlemen's agreement that limited the height of buildings in the city. Today, it is the state's 16th-tallest building.
City Hall has been the world's tallest masonry building since at least the 1953 collapse of the pinnacle of the Mole Antonelliana in Turin. Its weight is borne by granite and brick walls up to 22 feet (6.7 m) thick. The principal exterior materials are limestone, granite, and marble.
In 2007, the building was voted #21 on the American Institute of Architects' list of Americans' 150 favorite U.S. structures.
The building was designed by Scottish-born architect John McArthur, Jr., in the Second Empire style, and was constructed from 1871 until 1901 at a cost of $24 million. City Hall was topped off in 1894, although the interior wasn't finished until 1901. Designed to be the world's tallest building, it was surpassed during construction by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower, though it was at completion the world's tallest habitable building. It was the first modern building (excluding the Eiffel Tower) to be the world's tallest and also was the first secular habitable building to have this record: all previous world's tallest buildings were religious structures, including European cathedrals and, for the previous 3,800 years, the Great Pyramid of Giza.
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