PHILADELPHIA | American Commerce Center | 1,510' Pinnacle / 1,210' Roof | 63 FLOORS

[Don098]

You know, from that angle, it doesn't look out of scale, either.

[BANKofMANHATTAN]

Yowsa! Way to go Philadelphia!

[KevinFromTexas]

It's really kind of appropriate when you think about it that this building resembles the original design of the Freedom Tower - the Statue of Liberty inspired one.

[williamphilapa]

I repointed the spire to the southeast instead of southwest.

[bryson662001]

Same view as PBJ but in daylight instead of twilight. This one is from the Metro Newspaper.

[kraggman]

Slap this guy in a frame and ..... voila !! Instant Philly art !!

Originally Posted by Swinefeld

From the Friday print edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal

[TheMeltyMan]

Oh shit, I just heard about this on Digg. Fucking hell this is a nice addition to the city. Maybe Philly can somehow assert itself as a green, ecologically friendly city and lead the US in LEED design. I doubt it, but it could make for some good city marketing.

[russbaseball]

threw this together today. photo kudos goes to phillyskyline.com

[russbaseball]

now that im lookin at it.. look s like i made the spier too short. ill mess around w it more later.

[Late1]

That's an excellent start, though - nice work.

I think that vantage point on the Belmont and the South St Bridge angle will be hands down the 2 best skyline views if ACC is built.

[ItsConanOBrien]

I think this is very awesome.

[STR]

Design is extremely clunky, looks like something I'd come up with after 5 miuntes of playing with 3D Studio Max. The top needs to be played around with quite a bit, however I'm not sure how you can make the spire work while standing on the apex of the slanted roof. It's at the apex to add as much height as possible (obviously), but it makes the building look unbalanced.

Still, this is the early stages. Both Chicago Spire and 1WTC went through several reworks before reaching final configuration, and both had versions vastly worse than this. At least this building works as a concept. Definitely wasn't expecting this one though.

[Swinefeld]

New building would leave Comcast Center behind
by solomon d. leach / metro philadelphia
MAR 18, 2008

CENTER CITY. New York, eat your heart out.

Development firm Walnut Street Capital is proposing a new skyscraper that would surpass the Big Apple’s Empire State Building and be the tallest building in the country at 1,500 feet.

The $800 million 63-story project, named American Commerce Center, would include a hotel, office space and retail space with underground
parking right next to the Comcast Center, which is currently the city’s tallest building.

Metro spoke to Garrett Miller, the firm’s president, about the proposed tower.

How do you expect to fill the office space with low current vacancy rates?
The market will continue to tighten and, at some point, when you get under 8 percent vacancy rates, you typically see rents start to spike up. We think that over the next year or so, barring any disasters in the economy, we’ll continue to see rents push up in Philadelphia. We’re starting to see them in pushing up to the point where new development is possible.

What’s the reason for a building this big?

We wanted to squeeze in as much retail that would basically engage Philadelphia at street-level. It’s designed to be an iconic building…it’s designed to be sort of a symbol of what Philadelphia is becoming. It’s a symbol of our hopes and aspirations.

What are the chances of this building being approved at its current height?

We’ve engaged the neighborhood and community in a dialogue. I think thus far response has been positive. There’ve been some concerns and we expected that…We’re confident, but there’s still a process that needs to be gone through.

[williamphilapa]

"New York, eat your heart out."


silly reporter's

[TechTalkGuy]

I hope this tower gets built so bad !!

Chicago gets attention for their Sears Tower.

New York gets attention for the Empire State Building.

Imagine if Philadelphia got attention for a tall tower.

Any critics who suggests that this sort of idea is "silly" being that my city is taller than yours - well, that's city pride !!

I'd say, build as tall as you can go.

[Don098]

Originally Posted by STR

Design is extremely clunky, looks like something I'd come up with after 5 miuntes of playing with 3D Studio Max.

...So what international architectural firm do you belong to?

[williamphilapa]

2up

When I said "silly reporter's"...I should have explained, I just think it's bad way to start the article off "New York, eat your heart out" since the FT is currently under construction and based on the surrounding circumstances on why it is being built...well, you get the picture.

Besides, this tower has nothing to do with NYC, except to possibly lure New York business to it

I think it would've been better to start it off as..."New Philly tower proposal, if built will be among the worlds tallest."

To each his own though.

[aeathin2]

Development firm Walnut Street Capital is proposing a new skyscraper that would surpass the Big Apple’s Empire State Building and be the tallest building in the country at 1,500 feet.

Sears tower roof height - 1451 ft, Antenna height - 1730 ft.
ACC roof height - 1200 ft, spire height - 1500 ft.

hmm

This is great for Philly, but I guess it is hard for some people out east to realize there are another 3 timezones in this country.

[Muji]

I wouldn't worry too much about the current renderings of ACC's tower. If you'll remember, the Comcast Center went through a multitude of designs before the final product, which IMO is by far the best of them all.

[ltsmotorsport]

Guess I haven't been paying enough attention but this really came outta nowhere anyway. Sounds solid enough to be built too. Good luck Philly!