Liberty Place

Skyscraper complex in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A planning commission meeting was held on May 3 to decide if they would approve skyscrapers that break the height limit. Executive director of the commissioners, Barbara J. Kaplan, said the project had "substantial merit" and "that there is an opportunity here we should not pass up." She cited that the project would create 12,000 jobs and US$15 million in tax revenue. Opponent Lee Copeland, dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Arts, said the height limit was "a kind of Philadelphia golden rule which is part of the spirit and tradition of our past." The meeting ended with the commission deciding to prevent buildings taller than City Hall while it studies the issue for one year. In May, the Philadelphia City Council announced its support for the project because of the jobs it would create. On June 13, Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode came out in favor of the project. He proposed the creation of a special ordinance that would allow buildings taller than City Hall between 16th and 20th Streets and the north side of Chestnut Street and the south side of John F. Kennedy Boulevard. Upset at the mayor's support for the project, Edmund Bacon resigned from a commission about Philadelphia's future. Bacon called the complex "a total disaster," adding that, "It absolutely decimates the scale of Center City, and once it's been done, there's no stopping it."

Phase 1 of the complex, called One Liberty Place, broke ground on May 13, 1985. One Liberty Place would be the tallest structure of the complex. The skyscraper became the tallest structure in Philadelphia on September 10, 1986, when the first 25 feet (8 m) steel columns of the skyscraper's 44th floor were installed. One Liberty Place was topped off on December 12 with a ceremony that included a laser light show and Mayor Goode, who said the tower "breaks the status quo of the city and says we arrived". On March 27, 1987, Robert Heenan, Jr., a 22 year old glazier, fell 42 stories to his death after his safety line snapped when it got caught in a hoist mechanism. A month later, on May 27, the tower's spire was placed at the top of the building. Placing the spire was delayed when it was discovered sections of the spire didn't align with each other and had to be re welded. Conrail became the first major tenant to lease space when it signed its lease in December 1985, but by April 1987 only twenty percent of the building was leased. Conrail became the first tenant to move in when the building officially opened on August 17. One Liberty Place was only about one third full by the end of 1987 when plans for Two Liberty Place were given the green light after Cigna agreed to relocate its 4,400 employees from 15 different Philadelphia buildings to the skyscraper. Cigna agreed to lease the entire of Two Liberty Place on December 14. Phase 2 of the complex broke ground on February 16, 1988 with a ceremony that included thousands of purple, blue, and white balloons being released. Phase two of the project consisted of the remainder of the Liberty Place complex, the Two Liberty Tower, a Ritz Carlton Hotel, a two story shopping mall, and a parking garage. The Ritz Carlton Hotel opened on November 5, 1990, and the shopping mall, called Shops at Liberty Place, opened a week later on November 13. The mall opened during an economic downturn and a quarter of the mall space was vacant. Fifty stores and fourteen restaurants leased space when the mall opened. Two Liberty Place finished construction by the end of the year.

In 1990, Rouse sold his interest in One Liberty Place to Japanese insurance company Chyoda. Also, in 1995, the owners of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, which included Rouse, defaulted on its US$64 million loan. After a sheriff's auction on December 4 of that year, the creditor, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, took ownership of the property. The hotel again changed ownership in 1996 when Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association agreed to sell all its hotel properties to Starwood. In 1999 One Liberty Place, Two Liberty Place, and the Shops of Liberty Place were put up for sale. At the time, One Liberty Place was owned by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and Chyoda. Two Liberty Place was owned by a partnership led by Willard Rouse called 1650 Market Associates, and the Shops of Liberty Place was owned jointly by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and 1650 Market Associates. In January 1999, the Ritz Carlton announced it would not be renewing its lease at its Liberty Place location and would be relocating to Two Mellon Center. The St. Regis Hotels & Resorts hotel took its place later that year. The St. Regis wasn't able to maintain the same room rates as Philadelphia's other luxury hotels and was re branded as the Westin in February 2000, now focusing on business travelers. In June 2002, Two Liberty Place was sold to Shorenstein Properties of San Francisco. The sale was reported to be for $US200 million and included Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association continuing as first mortgage lender. On April 26, 2004, Cigna announced it would remain in Two Liberty Place after getting millions of dollars in incentives from the city and state, though would be leasing less space. With vacant, Shorenstein Properties and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association sold their interests in Two Liberty Place to private equity firm America's Capital Partners and its partner residential developer Falcone Group for US$151 million. Shortly after buying Two Liberty Place, America's Capital Partners announced it would be converting the top floors of the skyscraper into luxury condominiums. The Residences at Two Liberty officially opened March 7 with the sample units finished. Conversion of the upper floors on the remaining 122 condominiums began that same month. In 2008, newly moved in condominium owners were outraged at the plan of putting two Unisys signs with illuminated 9.8 feet (3 m) red letters more than halfway up two sides of Two Liberty Place. Information technology company Unisys was planning to make four floors of the skyscraper its corporate headquarters and the signs were part of its plan to re brand the company. The Philadelphia Zoning Board eventually rejected the sign idea, and Unisys ended up not moving its headquarters out of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, noting the economy – and not rejection of the sign – was the basis for the decision. The Westin Philadelphia was sold by Starwood in November 2005 to HEI Hotels & Resorts. In 2006, HEI Hospitality spent US$10 million on renovating the hotel which included updating the decor and adding wireless internet access. On June 18, 2007, a new skyscraper, the Comcast Center was topped off and officially became the tallest building in the city. The Comcast Center ended One Liberty Place's 19 year place as Philadelphia's tallest building. In October 2016, Coretrust Capital Partners LLC of Los Angeles acquired the office portion of Two Liberty Place by purchasing controlling interests in multiple ownership entities for $219 million. The seller was a partnership advised and led by Parkway Properties, Inc. of Orlando, Florida (NYSE: PKY).

Liberty Place is a building complex consisting of two skyscrapers, a hotel, parking garage, and a shopping mall that connects the structures. Located in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Liberty Place was designed by Chicago based architectural firm Murphy/Jahn. Architect Helmut Jahn designed One Liberty Place and was a consulting architect for the rest of the complex. The Bank of the Southwest Tower (Houston, Texas; never built) was also originally designed by Helmut Jahn and served as the primary inspiration for the design of both Liberty Place towers, as well as for such iconic towers as Frankfurt's MesseTurm.

Located on the corner of Market and 17th Streets, One Liberty Place, built between 1985 and 1987, is 61 stories tall. At 945 feet (288 m), it is the third tallest building in Philadelphia. The building's lobby features white and gray marble imported from Italy. The 122 luxury condominiums, called The Residences at Two Liberty, are the highest in the city, with condominiums located between above ground level. Every condominium unit features a cappuccino machine, Italian made Snaidero kitchen cabinetry, Miele appliances, and concierge service. The 37th floor contains a full spa and sauna, pool, and a gourmet restaurant called R2L which opened on January 21, 2010. The restaurant occupies and can seat almost 300. The condominiums range in price from US$800,000 for a 40th floor single bedroom to more than US$15 million for a penthouse. Because of low sales of the condos, the top portion of the building was to be converted into a boutique hotel in 2013. Due to low interest in the hotel, the top 10 floors of The Residences (floors 48–57) were to be converted into 60 condo units in 2015. Two Liberty Place's lobby was originally specifically designed for Cigna which used to lease the entire building. After Cigna reduced its presence in the tower, three separate lobbies were created, each with its own elevator bank, one for Cigna, one for the other corporate tenants, and the third for the residents. The glass dome is based on the main conservatory at the New York Botanical Garden. On April 5, 1984, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: "By 'gentlemen's agreement' (the statue of William Penn atop City Hall) remains highest. It is a supremacy that must be maintained, for philosophical and aesthetic and, indeed, economic reasons density caused by towering skyscrapers is one of the surest ways to render a downtown ruinously overbuilt while its fringes wither." In 1990, the Inquirer took it all back, noting that Rouse transformed Philadelphia's skyline to near universal acclaim.

One Liberty Place's first two tenants were railroad company Conrail and the law firm Hoyle, Morris & Kerr. Occupying the building between August 1987 and 1992, Conrail leased about Hoyle, Morris & Kerr leased and moved into the tower in November 1987. Law firm Reed Smith Shaw & McClay also moved into the skyscraper in 1987. The law firm leases on floors 24 through 27. Another law firm, White and Williams, leased space in 1990. The firm occupies on floors 15 through 20. Other tenants include American International Group, which leases , global management consulting firm ZS Associates, and pharmaceutical consulting firm Campbell Alliance. Brokerage firm Smith Barney leases at One Liberty Place on the 42nd and 43rd floors, high profile plaintiff law firm Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett and Bendesky leases space on the 52nd floor, and JPMorgan Chase began leasing space on the 47th floor in 1998. New tenants in the 2000s include Pelino & Lentz, which leased in 2005 and Clark Capital, which moved into on the 53rd floor in January 2006. Kleinbard Bell & Brecker leased on the 46th floor in 2007 and Baker Tilly has leased on the 44th and 45th floors since 2008. Past tenants include Pennrose Properties LLC, intellectual property law firm Woodcock Washburn, Logan Capital Management, Chubb Corp., law firm Duane Morris, and Cigna, which leased until it consolidated space in Two Liberty Place in 2006. One Liberty Place is leased and managed by Cushman & Wakefield. The management office is located on the 6th floor. Cushman & Wakefield's Philadelphia office is also housed in One Liberty Place on the 33rd floor. Paris based Montparnasse 56 Group (M56) announced in 2014 that it would open an observation deck on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place. The One Liberty Observation Deck, also called Philly from the Top, opened to the public on November 28, 2015, but has been permanently closed as of September 2021. The observation deck is fully enclosed and offers 360 degree panoramic views of the city from 883 feet above street level, which was prior to its closing the highest public access level in Philadelphia as of 2016.

Cigna leased the entirety of Two Liberty Place from its opening to 1999, when it sold its property and casualty unit to ACE Limited By 2007, Ace Ltd. had left for 436 Walnut St. and Cigna had shrunk its presence in the tower to What was not converted into condominium space in 2007 was the first office space in Two Liberty open for leasing in the skyscraper's history. Unisys Corp. originally intended to make Two Liberty Place its headquarters but never moved in. The nearly of space Unisys leases is being subleased to others. Tenants subleasing from Unisys include real estate brokerage firm Studley, Inc., which previously had leased space in One Liberty Place. Studley Inc. occupies on the 34th floor and moved into the skyscraper in 2010. Law firm Duffy and Keenan leased space in 2008, Grosvenor Capital Management leased also in 2008, law firm Kutak Rock leased space on the 28th floor in July 2009, and in 2009 law firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney moved into Two Liberty Place, occupying of the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd floors of the tower. Other tenants include law firm Elliott Greenleaf and Republic First Bancorp. Notable residents of The Residences at Two Liberty include Tom Knox, who paid US$7.68 million for a condominium, and Chase Lenfest, son of media entrepreneur H. F. Lenfest, who paid US$7.68 million for a penthouse. Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora spent US$3.58 million for a luxury condominium of the 52nd floor. Other residents have included former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, former Philadelphia 76ers player Andre Iguodala, and executives from Comcast, GlaxoSmithKline, and Cigna. As a result of slow sales, the top floors (48–57) of the Residences at Two Liberty Place were going to be converted into a boutique hotel. Due to low interest in using the space as a hotel, plans for the hotel were scrapped, and instead, the raw floors were being converted into 60 condo units in 2015.