Spring Break
"The worst kind of slimeball": On the road with Ed Rendell
Robert Zaller
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: Ed-Op
"The worst kind of slimeball": On the Road with Ed Rendell. No, I didn't make up that phrase. It comes from Tom Ferrick, who used it in a recent Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer column to describe the machinations of Gov. Ed Rendell over the planned expansion of the Convention Center, which involves the demolition of two historic buildings on Broad Street protected by an agreement reached in 2004 between the Convention Center Authority and the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission.
The buildings in question are the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company, with its splendid neoclassical façade, and the 1963 annex designed by Aldo Giurgola, which subtly echoes its themes in a modernist context. They are a small but prime example of how evolving architectural styles can enhance one another, and provide a unity of statement across generations. They also stand in the way of the Convention Center, a cow palace that has already usurped an entire square block of space and, like the dreadful Kimmel Center, compromised one of the city's most interesting architectural corridors.
A deal is a deal, right? Not where Philadelphia commercial interests are concerned. The Convention Center Authority backed out of its agreement last summer, only to be told on Dec. 20 by the Museum Commission that it had to be kept. The Commission's ruling was not advisory; it had legal force.
Hey, what's a law or two among business friends? The next day, the State Department of General Services, no party to the original agreement and no direct supervising agency, gave the go-ahead for demolition. The day after, the façade of one building had already been ripped off. Merry Christmas.
"Deal was broken, history defiled," roared The Inquirer. The Preservation Alliance of Greater Alliance stepped into the fray, and got the courts to stop further demolition. Stay tuned for developments (a full-scale trial on the issue will commence Jan. 24).
How come the Department of General Services, out in Harrisburg, decided that it was okay to demolish two buildings in Philadelphia protected by another government agency, without notice to the city itself? In my dictionary, that's called vandalism. And how come the Convention Center was already poised to act the next day on a 'ruling' announced at 4:30 p.m.?
The buildings in question are the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company, with its splendid neoclassical façade, and the 1963 annex designed by Aldo Giurgola, which subtly echoes its themes in a modernist context. They are a small but prime example of how evolving architectural styles can enhance one another, and provide a unity of statement across generations. They also stand in the way of the Convention Center, a cow palace that has already usurped an entire square block of space and, like the dreadful Kimmel Center, compromised one of the city's most interesting architectural corridors.
A deal is a deal, right? Not where Philadelphia commercial interests are concerned. The Convention Center Authority backed out of its agreement last summer, only to be told on Dec. 20 by the Museum Commission that it had to be kept. The Commission's ruling was not advisory; it had legal force.
Hey, what's a law or two among business friends? The next day, the State Department of General Services, no party to the original agreement and no direct supervising agency, gave the go-ahead for demolition. The day after, the façade of one building had already been ripped off. Merry Christmas.
"Deal was broken, history defiled," roared The Inquirer. The Preservation Alliance of Greater Alliance stepped into the fray, and got the courts to stop further demolition. Stay tuned for developments (a full-scale trial on the issue will commence Jan. 24).
How come the Department of General Services, out in Harrisburg, decided that it was okay to demolish two buildings in Philadelphia protected by another government agency, without notice to the city itself? In my dictionary, that's called vandalism. And how come the Convention Center was already poised to act the next day on a 'ruling' announced at 4:30 p.m.?
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