Project Profile
The former 1925 Insurance Company of North America headquarters, a Georgian-revival 20-story vacant office tower high-rise designed by Stewardson & Page, has been transformed into a modern residential/mixed-use complex with 267 luxury apartments and 60,000 s.f. of office and ground-level retail and restaurant space. The 581,000 s.f. building offers 2 levels of underground parking with 140 valet parking spaces, 3 levels of commercial use and 15 levels of residences ranging from 700 to 3,500 s.f. The building’s classical proportions and detailing are ideally suited for a diverse mix of uses. The dumbbell shape of the upper floors allowed for a unique mixture of apartment types. The typical apartment arrangement used on the fifth through fifteenth floors contains 21 units mixing studio, one bedroom, one bedroom plus den, and two bedroom plans with historic elevator lobbies at both east and west ends. A number of units offering historic paneled rooms and terraces have spectacular views of both City Hall and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Two larger showcase apartments occupy the sixteenth floor incorporating original wood paneling, intricate plaster ceiling molding, refinished wood flooring and original stained wood paneled doors, as well as working fireplaces with marble mantels. Two marquee apartments at the east end of the floor also feature traditional steel multi-lite French doors opening onto tiled terraces. The use of larger, more luxurious apartments continues on floors seventeen through nineteen. The twentieth floor presented a unique design challenge with a large 20’ high auditorium occupying most of the floor. This allowed for eight two-story “town-house” units with double-height living areas and loft bedrooms. The existing setback at the east end of the twentieth floor was exploited to create the additional amenity for the residents of a paved roof terrace with expansive views of the city to the east, north and northwest. The rectangle footprint of the bottom four floors contains a mix of amenities and commercial space including Tir na Nog (a 300-seat Irish pub theme restaurant), a Federal Credit Union, a sky lit gym, The Phoenix Club, a secluded conference and office suite, and Starbucks with design for a salon and spa underway .
Because the building is a National Historic Landmark, participation with the National Park Service and State Historic Preservation Organization was required to obtain proposal certification, design concept approval and to qualify for Rehabilitation Federal Tax Credits. Coordination with multiple city, state and federal entities was necessary before the project could advance as well as working closely with the Philadelphia Historic Commission for approval on design issues to avoid compromising the integrity of original architectural detail. Extensive environmental abatement was also performed to comply with state and federal requirements.
As the gateway to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway which spans from City Hall to the Art Museum in Center City Philadelphia, the building is located near famous tourist attractions such as the Love Statue and Swann Fountain in picturesque Logan Circle. The Phoenix is marketed to empty nesters and single young professionals, the demographic groups that have driven Center City's population up 5 percent, to 79,000, over the last decade. The site was improved with new curbs and decorative sidewalk paving, landscape planters, and dramatic site lighting that enhanced the view of the overall building.
Project Merits
Revitalization: The Phoenix promotes living in Center City Philadelphia and helps revitalize the city as a thriving downtown residential population, the third biggest in the nation after New York and Chicago. As a result of the 1997 10-year tax abatement for the conversion of vacant buildings into residential apartments, 48 buildings have been developed into 3,189 new rental units and another 25 buildings have been converted to 749 condominiums. The number of apartments and condominiums in Center City increased by 4,235 between 1998 and 2003, signifying an increase of approximately 6,000 new residents or a 9% increase over the population counted in the 2000 Census. There are now over 83,000 people living in Center City between the rivers and from Poplar Street to Washington Avenue. An estimated 70% of those occupying new apartments and condominiums are moving downtown from outside the city.
Encourage Development Near Existing Infrastructure: The Phoenix introduced multi-family housing to an area that previously only had scattered developments, encouraging the addition of adjacent properties for commercial and residential uses. Demonstrating this future development are seven apartments and nine condominium conversion projects underway that will add 538 units to the market. Nine additional apartment and two condominium conversion projects are proposed to add 636 units.
Protect Historic Resources: The adaptive re-use of the Phoenix has protected many of its historic features and restored them to their original condition. The four-story base originally boasted a 50' high central "banking room" and two story high side aisles for day-to-day service of INA customers. These features were lost in the 1950's when INA inserted three of these floors into the central area for additional office space. The remaining original West Lobby, which connects entrances on Arch and Cuthbert Streets to the west elevator core, is now a secure private entrance for residential tenants. At the other end of the first floor, the two story high historic East Lobby and its grand entrance from 16th Street with massive bronze rolling doors have been preserved as the main public entrance to the building's commercial component.
Connecting the east and west lobbies, BLT has created a two-story atrium as the central feature for the commercial tenant spaces by removing a portion of the floor above inserted in the 1950's. With multicolored marble flooring, bronze-clad glass storefronts, two-story cast gypsum pilasters, and a free-standing steel and bronze monumental stair with marble treads, the space draws on material and color motifs from the historic lobbies and returns a modest reference to the center of the ground floor of the original grand banking room.
Original materials have been preserved throughout the facility including Kasota marble walls, Tennessee marble wainscots, marble floors, coffered plaster ceilings with intricate decorative molding and bronze doors and frames, including bronze elevator doors with cast bronze decorative panels. Additionally, the two-story apartments on the twentieth floor had their window sills lowered from the former height of 54" to 34", a more comfortable height for residential use. Great care was taken in this process to preserve the historic glass pane sizes and exterior stone coursing, as well as modifying and restoring the original wood paneling and window sill. Exterior architectural details, such as granite Corinthian columns with 9-foot high carved granite eagles perched on globes (INA's corporate symbol), have also been fully restored and preserved.