Our Philadelphia . done most for itin its new phase is that from which least would be expectedby those who believe in appropriateness or utility as in-dispensable to architectural beauty. A town that hasplenty of space to spread out indefinitely has no reasonwhatever to spread up in sky-scrapers, and this is pre-cisely what Philadelphia has done and, moreover, looks allthe better for having done. Its sky-scrapers composethemselves with marvellous effectiveness as a centre tothe town, though they threaten by degrees to become tooscattered to preserve the present composition; they pro-vide an as
Our Philadelphia . done most for itin its new phase is that from which least would be expectedby those who believe in appropriateness or utility as in-dispensable to architectural beauty. A town that hasplenty of space to spread out indefinitely has no reasonwhatever to spread up in sky-scrapers, and this is pre-cisely what Philadelphia has done and, moreover, looks allthe better for having done. Its sky-scrapers composethemselves with marvellous effectiveness as a centre tothe town, though they threaten by degrees to become tooscattered to preserve the present composition; they pro-vide an astounding and ever-varying arrangement oftowers and spires from neighbouring corners and cross-ings; they give new interest as a background to somesimple bit of old Philadelphia, as where Wanamakersrises sheer and high above the little red brick meeting-house in Twelfth Street; they add to the charm of someambitious bit of new Philadelphia as where the littleGirard Trust Building—itself a happy return to standards. THE UNION LEAGUE BETWEEN THE SKY-SCRAPERS AFTER A QUARTER OF A CENTURY 538 that gave us Girard College and the Mint and Fair-mount Water-Works—stands low among the clusteredtowers, just as many a town in the Alps or Apennineslies low in the cup of the hills, and is the lovelier forit; they redeem from ugliness buildings of later periods,as where they give the scale in the most surprising fashionto the Union League; from far up or down the long-straight line of Broad Street they complete the perspectiveas impressively as the Arc de Triomphe completes thatother impressive perspective from the Garden of theTuileries in Paris. They are as beautiful when you seethem from the bridges or from the Park, a great groupof towers high above the houses, high above the lessertowers and spires, high above the curls and wisps of smokethat now hang over Philadelphia; and from the nearcountry they give to the low-lying town a sky-line thatfor loveliness and grandeur is not to be su
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlithographyamerican
