Philly Scenes

View from the City Hall tower facing Southwest City Hall, Broad and Market Sts. Nikon FM2 12/30/99  1:00pm   < More like this > < Related Images > < Same pic- only BIGGER > (opens in a new browser window and takes about a minute at 56k) < Satellite Image of City Hall > (opens in a new browser window)   This view shows South Broad Street extending out along the left edge of the image. One Liberty Place extends out of the image at the top right corner. The empty space, bottom - center, is the former site of One Meridian Plaza, which burned down in 1991 killing three firefighters.   Historical Tidbits:

City Hall · Broad Street · Liberty Place · Article from the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting the fire at One Meridian Plaza ·         City Hall, 1871-1901 Broad and Market Sts. John McArthur, Jr., with Thomas U. Walter; Alexander Milne Calder, sculptor Penn set aside Center Square as a site for public buildings, but it was not used as such until the city expanded westward, Justifying the relocation of the city hall from Independence Square. City Hall is the largest municipal building in the country and the finest example of the Second Empire style. It contains 141/2 acres of floor space, occupied by city and county offices, courtrooms and several ornately detailed public spaces. The building is organized around a central public courtyard, which is reached through monumental arched portals on all four sides. Second Empire motifs are combined with an abundance of sculpture to give the exterior a rich yet intimately scaled appearance. Among the most prominent features are the projecting corner pavilions; the towered pavilions over the entrance portals; the mansard roof with dormers, connected to one another by curved frames; and the large-scale paired columns, which help to make the building's eight stories look like three. Solid granite, 22 feet thick in some portions, forms the first floor and supports a brick structure faced with white marble. Calder created all the sculpture on the building. There are groups of figures representing the seasons, continents, arts and science, as well as allegorical figures, heads and masks. Calder also designed the 27-ton cast-iron statue of Penn atop the tower, which is the largest single piece of sculpture on any building in the world. The 548-foot tower is the world's tallest masonry structure without a steel frame. It is granite up to the clock, then cast iron painted to look like stone. Public spaces within the building are among the most lavish in the city. The City Council chamber is larger than the House of Lords in London; it is ornately detailed and uses such expensive materials as alabaster on the walls. The Mayor's Reception Room is extremely handsome; it has a blue and gold ceiling, beautiful woodwork and red Egyptian marble columns. Conversation Hall, restored to its original elegance by Day and Zimmermann Associates in 1982, is dominated by a magnificent chandelier. John Ord, chief architect from 1890-94, is thought to have been responsible for much of the interior detailing. Other notable features are the octagonal cut-stone staircases in each of the four corners and the Supreme Court Room, which was designed by George Herzog. The tower is open to the public and affords a wonderful view of the city.* Back to the top     Broad Street: The "wide (or broad) Avenue midway between the rivers" was one of the major arteries of Philadelphia as determined by William Penn. Penn's initial interest in Philadelphia streets was limited to the city, so Broad Street existed in the early days as a road from Cedar (now South Street) to Vine. After the Revolution, Broad Street grew. First to the north: The road jury confirmed the extension of the street to Ridge Road in 1811, and six years later, from Ridge to Callowhill. Then to the south: In 1819, the road was confirmed from South Street to Dickinson. By the middle of the Nineteenth century, Broad extended along it's present track from Government Avenue to Butler Street. It's northernmost extentions were created between 1903 and 1923. For the most part, Philadelphians will state without reservation that Broad Street's twelve-mile length makes it "the longest strait street in the world." Unfortunetly, even if the street didn't jog around City Hall, the longest strait street in the world would still be Chicago's Western Avenue-a 231/2-mile straitaway.** Back to the top     Liberty Place 1987-90 When new office buildings were developed west of City Hall in the 1950s, an informal "gentleman's agreement" limited new buildings to a height no greater than the 491 foot City Hall tower, thereby enabling the statue of William Penn atop the tower to preside symbolically over the city. Willard G. Rouse's propossal to build a higher office building sparked controversy and extensive public debate before receiving City Council approval. Initially intending only to build a single building, Rouse commissioned Wallace, Roberts and Todd to develope an approach to the entire block. Their master plan envisioned two tall buildings, retail shops, a hotel and underground parking all of which were completed by 1990.* One Liberty Place has 61 floors at a height of 960 feet to the top of it's spire. Back to the top     Article from the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting the fire at One Meridian Plaza: Monday, February 25, 1991

3 TRAPPED FIREFIGHTERS KILLED AS BLAZE SWEEPS OFFICE TOWER 8 UPPER FLOORS GUTTED By Richard Burke, Mark Fazlollah and Robert J. Terry, Inquirer Staff Writers Inquirer staff writer Terence Samuel contributed to this article.

The most savage skyscraper fire in Philadelphia's history burned out of control for nearly 19 hours, killing three firefighters and gutting at least eight floors of a 38-story high-rise just a stone's throw from City Hall. Smoke from One Meridian Plaza could be seen from miles away as hundreds of firefighters from throughout the city battled the 12-alarm blaze in the heart of Center City before it finally was declared under control at 3:01 p.m. Investigators were combing through the blackened rubble in the building before even all of the flames had been extinguished late yesterday, but the cause of the fire remained undetermined. At the height of the fire, the three firefighters trapped above the blaze made an urgent plea for help. "We're in bad trouble," one of them radioed. ". . . The captain is down." The three men - identified as Capt. David P. Holcombe, 52, a 28-year veteran, and firefighters Phyllis McAllister, 43, a 10-year veteran, and James A. Chappell, 29, a four-year veteran - were found in the building between 2 and 2:30 a.m. yesterday. The Medical Examiner's Office said they had died of smoke inhalation. They were the first firefighters to die in a fire in Philadelphia since 1984. By early yesterday morning, the burning floors were so heavily damaged that engineers warned that the top 20 floors of the building could collapse. A fire official said a structural engineer had advised that the blaze had so damaged the upper floors that the vertical and horizontal beams could give way. Battalion Chief Richard Bailey said late last night that the structural damage would be assessed further this morning. The cleanup operation is certain to disrupt traffic around City Hall for days. As the probe continues, officials are expected to focus on the absence of working firefighting equipment in some of the upper floors of the One Meridian Plaza building and what they described as the complete failure of its electrical power system, backup generators and internal water supply once the fire began. Top-ranking fire officials who led the fight to save the skyscraper said their efforts were severely hampered by the lack of sprinkler systems on the 22d floor, where the fire began, through the 29th floor. City Fire Commissioner Roger M. Ulshafer said city ordinances did not require the building to have sprinkler systems when it was built almost 20 years ago. The first alarm sounded at 8:27 p.m. Saturday. By 2:28 a.m. yesterday, when the fire grew to 12 alarms, more than 300 firefighters with 110 pieces of equipment had responded. The heat inside reached temperatures up to 1,500 degrees, fire officials said. Fire officials and police sources described in heart-wrenching detail how rescue efforts failed to save the three firefighters, who became disoriented in the choking black smoke that filled the upper floors and hallways. Sometime earlier, the three had become trapped on the 28th floor, which at that point was above the fire. Sheets of flame and thick, acrid smoke billowed from the skyscraper's windows as debris fell to the street. At a command post outside the building came an urgent call. One of the firefighters radioed that "the captain is down" and said, "We can't get to the (stairway)." The trapped firefighter, disoriented from the smoke and fumes, mistakenly radioed that he and his colleagues were near a window on the southeast corner of the 30th floor. He said they were going to break a window to let in some oxygen. Rescuers first tried to get to the firefighters with a helicopter, but the smoke was too thick, Ulshafer said. RESCUE EFFORT Firefighters outside the building told the trapped fireman on the radio to stay put until a rescue team could get to them. One rescue team scrambled up through the building to the 30th floor within five minutes but could not find the three, Ulshafer said in an interview. The rescue team then worked its way up, floor by floor, to the 38th, and top, floor. Then, frantic, the team raced back down to search the floors below the 30th. An hour after receiving the call for help, the team found the three firefighters together, underneath the broken window on the 28th floor. Their air tanks were empty. Paramedics tried to revive them at the scene but failed. Autopsies showed the three died from smoke inhalation and soot. All were with Engine Company 11. The Meridian Plaza tower is built as solidly as any modern building in the city, said experts familiar with it. The building, which opened in 1972, has a steel frame, concrete walls and an exterior made of large slabs of granite. It is on the southeast corner of 15th Street and Penn Square just across from City Hall. It houses the Philadelphia regional headquarters of Reading- based Meridian Bancorp Inc., the Comcast Corp. and several other offices and law firms. The building's security guards discovered the fire just after 8 p.m. Saturday, and it raged out of control through the night and well into yesterday before it was contained. Eight floors were gutted, and many more were damaged by smoke, water and heat, fire officials said. DISRUPTIONS Several streets and main arteries around the fire scene, including Market Street, were closed off and will remain that way for the rest of the week, one police official said. In addition to the people who work in the Meridian building, hundreds more in the adjacent Two Mellon building, which also suffered some damage, will not be able to work at their offices, a police spokesman said. According to police sources, four workers from a maintenance crew were ''touching up paneling" with "some kind of paint thinner" on the 22d floor - where the fire began - Saturday afternoon. The Balis Reinsurance Co. occupied the offices on that floor. The sources said the four workers, who have not been identified, completed their work and left the building between 3:30 and 3:45 p.m. At 8:10 p.m., the sources said, a smoke alarm activated on the 22d floor. A security guard notified the Fire Department at 8:23 p.m. The first alarm sounded at 8:27 p.m. When the first teams arrived, the building's electrical system was out, Ulshafer said. The backup power generator also failed. Fire pumps in the building were not working, and pressure in the standpipes was low. There was no elevator service, which forced firefighters to carry 5-inch hoses up 22 flights of stairs before they could begin fighting the blaze. "By the time we got up there, instead of one floor of fire we had four floors of fire," Ulshafer said. Firefighters evacuated the building and hoped sprinkler systems on the 30th and 32d floors would contain the fire, he said. Meanwhile, hoses were carried up to adjacent office towers and water was pumped into windows of the Meridian building. During the night, flames leaped from the upper windows and debris, including shards of glass, rained down on the streets. At times, flames would shoot out one window, climb the side of the building and curl into the windows above, thereby laddering their way up the structure. Police sources said homicide detectives, who are investigating the blaze with fire marshals, interviewed one of the four maintenance workers who were on the 22d floor Saturday. That worker, who has not been identified, said cleaning equipment, including solvents for retouching the paneling, had been left on the 22d floor. The sources could not say whether there was a connection between the fire and the cleaning solvents left at the site. The sources said they were investigating that connection and the possibility of an electrical fire. In addition to the three firefighters killed in the blaze, 14 were injured. All but one have been treated and released. Lt. Kenneth Kniffen, 47, who is assigned to the Fire Academy, remains in Hahnemann University Hospital with a fractured left arm. He was in stable condition.*** Back to the top   Related Images: Liberty Place & the Drake Masonic Temple and City Hall Medical Tower (shown above: center-towards the back)     * from Philadelphia Architecture: A guide to the city ©1994 by the Foundation for Architecture   ** from Mermaids, Monasteries, Cherokees and Custer: the stories behind Philadelphia street names by Robert I. Alotta Bonus Books, Inc. ©Robert I. Alotta, 1990   *** ©1991 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

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