Reading Terminal

The Philadelphia Auto Show, also known as the Philadelphia International Auto Show is an annual auto show held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The show debuted in 1902. It is currently organized by the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia. It was held in the old Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center on 34th Street in University City. The Philadelphia Auto Show is produced by the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia, and held annually at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City, Philadelphia. The Auto Show has grown dramatically over the past seven years, welcoming more than 250,000 visitors each year. The Auto Show exit survey shows 48% of the area's new car sales are directly influenced by the show. The show, which fills all 700,000 square feet (65,000 m2) of the Convention Center, features over 700 vehicles with a laundry list of new vehicle debuts, concepts, exotics, tuners and antique automobiles.

Reading Terminal Market is an enclosed public market located at 12th and Arch Streets in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It opened originally in 1893 under the elevated train shed of the Reading Railroad Company after the city of Philadelphia advocated to move public markets from the streets into indoor facilities for both safety and sanitary reasons. When the Center City Commuter Connection was completed in 1984, the Reading Terminal ceased operating as a train station, impacting foot traffic at the Market. The Reading Company then proposed using the Reading Terminal complex as the site for a new convention center. The site was chosen for the convention center, and in 1990 the Company transferred title to the complex to the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. Presently, the Market still occupies the ground floor and basement levels of the Reading Terminal's former train shed which is now part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Vendor stalls occupy the ground floor with entrances on Filbert Street to the South, Twelfth Street to the West, and Arch Street to the North. The stalls are arranged in a grid pattern with an open area in the center with tables and seating. Over one hundred merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, artisan cheese, groceries, ice cream, flowers, grilled cheese, baked goods, smoothies, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. Two of the vendors are descendants of original merchants from the initial opening in the late 1800s. The basement floor of the market holds the refrigerated storage area for vendor use. The storage area was considered state-of-the-art when it was built, in 1893. Currently, the market is open every day of the week, although the Pennsylvania Dutch merchants (a small but significant minority) generally do not operate Sunday through Tuesday.

The Philadelphia Water Department is the public water utility for the City of Philadelphia. PWD provides integrated potable water, wastewater, and stormwater services for Philadelphia and some communities in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties. PWD is a municipal agency of the City of Philadelphia, and is seated in rented space at the Jefferson Tower in the Market East area of Center City, Philadelphia.The primary mission of the department is the planning, operation and maintenance of both the physical infrastructure and the organized personnel needed to provide high quality drinking water, and to provide an adequate and reliable water supply for all domestic, commercial, and industrial requirements, and to manage wastewater and stormwater to protect and improve the quality of the region's watersheds, especially the Delaware River and the Schuylkill River.The department is responsible for delivering safe drinking water to more than 1.7 million people in Philadelphia and Lower Bucks County. It is also committed to protecting and bolstering the health and vitality of the region's waterways. It faces many challenges in meeting the goal of providing safe drinking water, including agricultural, mining, and drilling runoff, chemicals and fuel spilled on streets, radionuclides, and the treated wastewater from the region's inhabitants.

Jefferson Center, formerly known as the Aramark Tower and One Reading Center, is a high-rise office building located at 1101 Market Street in the Center City section of Philadelphia. The building stands 412 feet (126 meters) tall with 32 floors and is currently the 26th-tallest building in the city. The building was originally conceived by the Reading Company while in a state of bankruptcy as a way to capitalize on its real estate holdings in Center City. Reading was granted development rights for the building along with a large parking complex in exchange for granting the city easements for developing the Jefferson Station (then Market East Station) entrance in the ground floor of the adjacent Reading Terminal. Construction soon began and the building was completed in 1984. The building was designed by Bower Lewis Thrower (BLT) Architects of Philadelphia. In 2018, Aramark vacated the building when the company relocated its headquarters to 2400 Market Street. In its place, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health became the primary tenant. Thomas Jefferson University occupies 14 floors of the 32 story building, which was renamed Jefferson Center.

The East Center City Commercial Historic District is a national historic district located in the Washington Square neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It encompasses 287 contributing structures, including large and small commercial buildings, banks, hotels, newspapers, clubs, and restaurants. This district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and underwent boundary adjustments in 2018.

Jefferson Station (formerly named Market East Station) is an underground SEPTA Regional Rail station located on Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the easternmost of the three Center City stations of the SEPTA Regional Rail system, and is part of the Center City Commuter Connection, which connects the former Penn Central commuter lines with the former Reading Company commuter lines. While the station's official SEPTA address is 12th and Filbert streets, it actually spans two city blocks, from 12th to 10th streets just north of Market Street. In 2014, the station saw approximately 26,000 passengers every weekday.

Center City East is part of the downtown district known as Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The area is generally bounded by Arch Street to the north, Chestnut Street to the south, Juniper Street to the west, and 6th Street (Independence Mall West) to the east. The area serves as one of the major retail centers in the city as well as the home of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally recognized artists. Founded in 1977, the Fabric Workshop and Museum has an Artist-in-Residence Program, an extensive permanent collection of new work created by artists in collaboration with the Workshop, in-house and touring exhibitions, and comprehensive educational programming including lectures, tours, in-school presentations, and student apprenticeships.

The A.J. Holman and Company at 1222-26 Arch Street between N. 12th and N. 13th Street in the Center City area of Philadelphia was built in 1881 and was designed by the Wilson Brothers, who also designed the nearby Reading Terminal. Andrew J. Holman founded the Bible-publishing business in 1872 and had this building constructed when their original space became too small for the growing company.The front facade of the five-story, red brick building features cast iron piers on the first floor and a triangular pediment with Gothic arch at the roofline. It is one of the few commercial loft buildings from the period in Philadelphia which have not been extensively changed.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The Center for Architecture and Design is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Center produces educational programs related to the topics of architecture, urban planning, and design, including talks, workshops, festivals, design competitions, and exhibitions. Their venue at 1218 Arch Street serves as a public forum as well as a home for the offices of the Center, for AIA Philadelphia, and for the Community Design Collaborative. The organization was founded in 2002 by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The Philadelphia Flower Show is an annual event produced by The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and traditionally held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in early March. It is the oldest and largest indoor flower show in the world, attracting more than 250,000 people annually. It has also been described as "the country's oldest, largest, and most prestigious celebration of flowers." The show features large scale gardens, which range from elaborate landscaped displays to individual and club entries of a prize horticultural specimen. Each year, the PHS declares an official theme. The exhibits are submitted for judging in many categories, and are highly competitive. A popular part of the show floor is the Garden marketplace where visitors can buy plants and seeds, cut flowers, craft items, and other flower, landscaping and horticulture-related items.The Show boasts fabulous floral and garden design, live entertainment, culinary events and extraordinary gardening how-to workshops and lectures by experts. The June 2022 event will feature 40 major exhibitors, featuring the theme "In Full Bloom."

The PSFS Building, now known as the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A National Historic Landmark, the building was the first International style skyscraper constructed in the United States. It was built for the Philadelphia Saving (later Savings) Fund Society in 1932 and was designed by architects William Lescaze and George Howe. The skyscraper's design was a departure from traditional bank and Philadelphia architecture, lacking features such as domes and ornamentation. Combining Lescaze's experience with European modernism, Howe's Beaux-Arts background and the desire of Society President James M. Wilcox for a forward-thinking, tall building the skyscraper incorporated the main characteristics of an International style architecture. Called the United States' first modern skyscraper, and one of the most important skyscrapers built in the country in the first half of the 20th century, the building featured an innovative and effective design of a T-shaped tower that allowed the maximum amount of natural light and rentable space. The tower sat on a base with a polished marble facade. The first floor of the base contained space for retail, while the second floor featured the banking hall, bank offices and associated facilities. The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society's offices and banking hall featured custom-designed furniture, including custom Cartier clocks on every floor. The top of the skyscraper featured the bank's boardroom and other facilities for the board of directors. Office tenants were attracted to the tower by modern facilities such as radio receivers, and the building was also the second high-rise in the U.S. to be equipped with air conditioning. The skyscraper is topped by a red neon sign with the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society's initials (PSFS) on it. Visible for 20 miles (32 km), the sign has become a Philadelphia icon. Next to the sign is a television tower erected in 1948. In the 1980s, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society began expanding into other financial services, but lost millions in its new business ventures. In 1992, the bank and its building were seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). That same year, the skyscraper was 85 percent vacant, with most business attracted to the larger, more modern office space built in the city in the 1980s. The FDIC auctioned the building off, and it was bought by developers to turn into a Loews Hotel. The Pennsylvania Convention Center opened in 1993 a block away from the skyscraper, and the city was promoting the creation of enough hotel space to host a political convention in 2000. Conversion into a hotel began in 1998, and the Loews Philadelphia Hotel opened in April 2000, in time for the 2000 Republican National Convention.