Quote:
Originally Posted by bryson662001
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.
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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.