Loews Philadelphia Hotel

Philadelphia, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

You can stay here: Hotel
Phone: +1 215-627-1200

From OpenStreetMap — confirm before travelling

Find out more

The PSFS Building, now the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, is a landmark skyscraper in Center City that holds the distinction of being the first International Style skyscraper constructed in the United States. Designed by William Lescaze and George Howe and completed for the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the building represents a bold departure from traditional Philadelphia architecture, eschewing ornamental features like domes in favor of clean modernist lines. Its innovative T-shaped tower design maximized natural light and rentable space, while its interiors featured custom-designed furnishings and Cartier clocks on every floor. The skyscraper was also among the earliest in America to feature air conditioning. Crowned by a distinctive red neon PSFS sign visible for twenty miles, the building became a Philadelphia icon. Following the bank's financial collapse in the early 1990s, the vacant tower was converted into a hotel, opening as the Loews Philadelphia Hotel in 2000. Recognized as a National Historic Landmark and among the most important skyscrapers of the twentieth century's first half, it exemplifies the synthesis of Lescaze's European modernism with Howe's Beaux-Arts training.

Architect

George Howe William Lescaze

Movement

International Style

Type: skyscraper, tower block
Heritage: Pennsylvania state historical marker, National Register of Historic Places listed place
Place: Philadelphia, United States

This building on

Architecturally similar

Location

39.95167, -75.16056