This building, RATR, dominates the view as you enter the downtown from the 676 Freeway via 15th st. On the other hand at 518' it isn't tall enough to make much of an impact on the skyline.

Asome design....

I am so very happy this one is getting built! Love the Design!

...although what a disgrace about 1414 Chestnut Street.

Almost all of the concrete deck is gone now. There are also two mobile cranes on the site.

Fianlly, a thread about the RATR!!! I'm still hoping for 1441 to go through!!!

Not that I'm glad firefighters died but this building, like Centre Square, sucked and I'm glad its gone. And since it sucked that's probably why there aren't that many pictures of it. It's only saving grace is that it had real stone on it.

When I first moved to philly and looked around, with carefull consideration, I decided this was my favorite building in CC. I also like center square but the meridian tower was more sophisticated, with a fairly elaborate facade, yet elegant and in good taste. It was beautifully proportioned and of course the granite skin gave it that extra touch of class. I would nominate it as the most beautiful brutalist building ever built. So now we will have yet another blue glass box. yea it's better then a parking lot but it will never replace what was there.

Has anyone been around these parts recently? Any update pics?? Please!

I was by this morning. Nothing exciting, I think they are just doing demo in the garage.

What I really want to confirm is this: are they going to reuse the existing foundations for the old Meridian building? If so, this will save ALOT of upfront time and will mean that we will start seeing above-ground work much faster than normal.

Please, someone in the know, let us know what is going on?

It appears they've finished removing the garage roof directly below where the building will sit. They've conspiculously left the roof where the buildings driveway and garden will be (close to the existing Ritz Carlton). Also, they've removed the original ramp leading down to the garage. Not surprising, since, based on pictures of the model I've seen, the ramp would have to be moved to accomodate the new garden. As of last night, it didn't appear that they were removing any more of the existing garage. If this is indeed the case, they will sure save some $$$ by reusing the existing Meridian foundation.

If I get home from work early enough (before sunset...sigh), I'll take an updated picture and post.

RATR site, 7:30pm, 6/16/06.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...h/b56c8c1a.jpg

Beautiful evening, too.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...h/52502edf.jpg

this is going to be such a beauty, with such a great location...cannot wait to see it standing fully built next to city hall...

I hope people dont keep parking in the lot next to the building when they start raising it..

As far as brutalism goes, Meridian was actually pretty well-done, well thought-out and urbane. Considering so little of Brutalism was well-done, it was definitely a loss, especially since the prewar Morris building behind it had to come down too. But, I wouldn't call this just another glass box. The new 7 World Trade is a boring glass box. The angles break up the facade on this one, the cantelevered penthouse roof is straight off of PSFS (which predates the Pirelli building in Milan by decades, even though the latter is probably superior) and the arcaded entrance opens up the sidewalk while still respecting the street. It doesn't have a lot of ugly projecting balconies, and the few it does have are tastefulle set within the plane of the facade. It's got great slim proportions, and the height is just right for the site. This is really as good as it gets for a modernist building.

of course, it all comes down to the finishing materials that they use, but being that this is the Ritz I don't think they'll go cheap. I have a lot of confidence in this project.

PS- speaking of materials, any idea if they'll cover the west facade of the older Ritz tower with marble? The renderings seem to show the bricked-over windows being reopened. I'd be happy if they just pained it white too.

Though I was barely eight years old at the time of the fire, I remember Meridian Plaza pretty well (and Meridian Bank's commercials - "Just say hello!"). It was the first building you'd see from the bottom up coming up from The El at The Clothespin, right next to City Hall. I remember going into a B. Dalton bookstore in another older building on the Chestnut Street sde of the block.

There are few photos of the building I've seen but I remember it well enough not to need them. It was certainly much more appealing than Centre Square - buildings I thought were ugly even back then.

It'll actually seem kinda funny having a building there again - a viable one.

It seems they have to remove all of the concrete from the underground parking garage. I am surprised that none of that garage is being reused for this project. I though they would sort of start building on the existing foundation from the Meridian building. At least they dont have to excavate a foundation so that should speed things up. The pace of demolition seems pretty slow.

i don't think the demolition is going beyond removing the 'roof'. It's probably just degraded from long exposure to the elements.

Anyone have an update on construction? I was there on Tuesday, July 11 and the site was very active, but unfortunately you cannot see very much from the sidewalk. Someone here must have a view from one of the surrounding highrises.

if someone wanted to go up to the city hall observation deck, I'm sure you could get pics. only open during the week on business hours though- so annoying.

Hopefully, the building will begin to rise before New Year's.

Then we'll celebrate the New Year's with Comcast and Ritz-Carlton rising to the skies.

I recall every New Year's eve watching both the New York towers being built, followed the next day at the Mummer's day watching the Philadelphia go nowhere.

Last New Year's was the first where Comcast started to rise.

My New Year's resolution for 2006 was for more construction in NY and Philly.

I hope to set my next year's resolution for even more exciting projects for both cities.

Especially Ground Zero - so much going on for construction! :D