Loews Center City Philadelphia Hotel (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

USA / New Jersey / Camden / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / Market Street, 1200
 hotel, skyscraper, Streamline Moderne (architecture), interesting place, historical building, Modern (architecture)

The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building, or PSFS Building, now the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was designed by Willim Lescaze and George Howe and constructed from 1930 to 1932 at a cost of $8,000,000. The building's form consists of a tower with a T-shaped footprint and its base. The international style skyscraper incorporates some streamline moderne elements at its base. The facade is made of limestone, brick, and granite. It is topped by a distinctive sign with the letters "PSFS" that is lit red at night. To the south is a 258 ft (79 m) television tower added in 1948. The 36-storey building has a height of 491 ft (150 m) and a floor area of 557,000 sq ft (52,000 sq m).

The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society originally occupied less than a third of the building's office space, with the remainder available for rent by other tenants. The building was equipped with air conditioning. The sign was turned off for a short period in 1990. The building was mostly vacant by 1992 with the dissolution of PSFS.

From June 1998 until April 2000, the PSFS Building was renovated and converted into the Loews Philadelphia Hotel for the 2000 Republican National Convention. The building has 581 rooms, including 37 suites. The former banking hall on the 2nd floor is now used as a ballroom. The ground floor contains a restaurant and the lobby. A four-storey addition, with an area of 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m), contains meeting space and hotel service facilities.

The PSFS Building was listed as a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 1976.

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Coordinates:   39°57'5"N   75°9'37"W
This article was last modified 4 years ago