{"id":5062,"date":"2013-06-11T17:08:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=5062"},"modified":"2014-05-13T10:17:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T14:17:25","slug":"designing-your-friendly-neighborhood-almost-modern-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2013\/06\/designing-your-friendly-neighborhood-almost-modern-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing Your Friendly, Neighborhood (Almost Modern) Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, Broad and Ruscomb Streets. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So your client the bank president has done his due diligence, his \u201csober deliberation<\/a>,\u201d and insists on opening two branch offices. This bank has always been a headquarters-only operation, but the depositors have spread out across the city. As architect, you\u2019re not sure what new bank buildings should look like in the far-flung neighborhoods of North and South Philly, but one thing you do<\/em> know are your marching orders: these banks must \u201cinvoke\u2026a degree of awe mixed with reassurance,\u201d similar to \u201cthe venerable main office<\/a> at Seventh and Walnut.\u201d<\/p>\n

You’ve had banker-clients before and they like what you\u2019ve done for them. But high-end country houses<\/a>, faux-farms with fore courts, paneled libraries and goose ponds aren’t anything<\/em> like this new project. What is<\/em> called for here? Something stone and urban; something with gravitas<\/em>. You search for inspiration and find it, along with the desirable dose of the “venerable,” in the palaces of the rich and powerful Medici. Yes, if this look spoke to the citizens of Renaissance Florence, it certainly<\/em> could also be a convincing choice for burgeoning Philadelphia. So you design a pair of palazzo banks<\/a>, one at 11th and Lehigh and another at Broad and McKean. Your boss is pleased and business is good.<\/p>\n

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Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, Broad and Ruscomb Streets, 1963. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then comes the commission for two more<\/em> branches, and you begin to get a little queasy about your descision. The idea of putting up one, maybe<\/em> two 15th<\/sup>-century palaces on city streets seemed OK, but littering the city with cookie-cutter Renaissance replicas is beginning to feel a bit silly. And now, your boss is demanding you wire them up with blazing lights\u2014so<\/em> uncharacteristic of the Medici. \u201cHow inappropriate,\u201d you respond.<\/p>\n

Then you consider: it\u2019s the 1920s, and electricity isn\u2019t anachronistic\u2014but maybe you<\/em> are. So you make your \u201cfirst concession to the machine age,\u201d turn your back on historical ornamentation, simplify your lines and mount rows of lights on your new facades. And much to your surprise, your two new neighborhood branches in West Philadelphia and Logan don\u2019t look so bad. In each case, a \u201cgreat block of stone, flooded in strong white light, dominates\u201d the shopping strip (.pdf<\/a>) and business is \u201cphenomenal.\u201d Later, an architectural historian suggests<\/a> this second pair of branches might have been a breakthrough, one that predicts your \u201cimminent conversion to modern architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you are not<\/em> a modernist\u2014not quite yet. In one more year, (1928) you will remove your name, the last in the firm of Mellor, Meigs & Howe,<\/a> and sigh with great relief: \u201cI delivered my last Jumbo, Anti-economy Romantic Country House Package.\u201d Then<\/em> you will really begin to explore the possibilities of how design might be used to \u201cacknowledge contemporary conditions of modern life.\u201d And for that<\/em> adventure your boss has in store for you the challenge of a lifetime: the commission for a new Philadelphia Saving Funds Society building in Center City, at 12th<\/sup> and Market Streets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So your client the bank president has done his due diligence, his \u201csober deliberation,\u201d and insists on opening two branch offices. This bank has always been a headquarters-only operation, but the depositors have spread out across the city. As architect, you\u2019re not sure what new bank buildings should look like in the far-flung neighborhoods of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}