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G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building

Center City, PhiladelphiaInsurance company headquarters in the United StatesOffice buildings completed in 1990Philadelphia stubsPostmodern architecture in Pennsylvania
Skyscraper office buildings in PhiladelphiaWZMH Architects buildings
G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building cropped
G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building cropped

The G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building, formerly known as the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Tower or IBX Tower, is a skyscraper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania housing the headquarters of Independence Blue Cross (the Blue Cross-Blue Shield affiliated organization in the five-county Philadelphia area). The tower, built between 1988 and 1990, was designed by WZMH Architects, who also designed the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was renamed in 2005 after the company's president and CEO, who died of a brain tumor. Construction of the building consists of a steel skeleton surrounding a reinforced concrete core, similar to the construction of the new Comcast Center. The exterior is all blue glass except for granite accents at the base on the eastern and western facades and granite columns at the main entrance. It is currently the eighth-tallest building in Philadelphia. The building was originally intended to have a twin tower just to its west but the office-space requirements of the company ultimately ended plans for it. That lot remained vacant until an apartment building was built on it around 2015–2016. Alain Robert, the famous "French Spider-Man", scaled the building to the 44th floor in 1997, two years after the back-lit Blue Cross logo was added to the building's pediment.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building
Market Street, Philadelphia Center City

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N 39.9538 ° E -75.1719 °
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G. Fred DiBona Jr. Building

Market Street 1901
19103 Philadelphia, Center City
Pennsylvania, United States
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1818 Market Street
1818 Market Street

1818 Market Street (also known as 1818 WSFS Bank Place) is a 40-story skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The building was designed by the firm Ewing Cole Cherry Brott (now EwingCole). Construction began on the property in 1972. The developer, Walters Associates, which also developed the Holiday Inn at 1800 Market (now the Sonesta Philadelphia), planned a construction budget of $50 million for the property. It was the tallest building erected in Philadelphia between the completion of City Hall in 1901 and the completion of One Liberty Place in 1987, during the period of the "gentlemen's agreement", the observation of an unofficial height restriction of the top of the hat of the statue of William Penn atop City Hall that stood for 86 years. The building is the eleventh-tallest in Philadelphia.The building contains over 981,000 square feet (91,100 m2) of office space over 37 floors with six levels of parking. Its major tenants include ABN Amro, the American College of Radiology, WSFS Bank, Booz Allen Hamilton, eResearch Technology, Five Below, Merrill Lynch, Mitchell & Titus, Metrocorp, Northwestern Mutual, Swiss Re, and STV Incorporated. The building, currently the tallest reinforced-concrete structure in the city, underwent major renovations in 2003, more than a decade after its facade was treated resulting in its signature white color. In May 2015, the building was purchased by Shorenstein Properties for $184.8 million. In August 2019, WSFS Bank added their logo to the top of the building after completion of their acquisition and rebranding of Beneficial Bank, which had previously been headquartered in the building.

American Commerce Center

The American Commerce Center was a proposed supertall skyscraper approved for construction in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but cancelled due to the 2008 recession. The Comcast Innovation and Technology Center now stands on the site. At 1,510 feet (460 m) tall with 63 floors, the building would have dominated the Philadelphia skyline, standing almost 400 ft (120 m) taller than Philadelphia's tallest building, the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center. The office tower would have stood on the 19th Street side of Arch Street, and been connected to a 473 ft (144 m), 26-story hotel tower and public plaza along the 18th Street side of the block. The connection would have consisted of a multi-story skybridge with a garden on top.Of several supertall skyscrapers proposed for Philadelphia (including the Center City Tower and an early version of Comcast Center), this would have been the first to be constructed.The building would have been the tallest building in the United States by official height, or the second tallest by pinnacle height (including antennas) behind the Willis Tower at 1,729.8 feet (527 m) until the completion of 1,776-foot (541 m) One World Trade Center in New York City in 2014. On June 19, 2008, Philadelphia City Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced changes for the zoning legislation around 18th and Arch Streets which was the first step towards building the tower. On November 18, 2008, the City Planning Commission signed off on legislation needed for the zoning changes. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, "the developers will have to come back for approval of their building plan if Council passes the zoning bills." On December 11, 2008, the zoning changes in question were unanimously approved by City Council.On August 19, 2011, Liberty Property Trust acquired the development site from Hill International Real Estate Partners for a reported $40 million, which equates to $612 per square-foot ($2,008 per square-meter). The same company constructed the nearby Comcast Center and Liberty Place complex. However, the project was cancelled.