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WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106
“The design fits well within a secondary planning overlay that Bacon conceived of in the evolving form of the City, when he proposed a spine of tall buildings on the East West Axis, more or less at Locust Street, beginning with the Society Hill Towers and continuing through to Center City.”
— Historian George E. Thomas
Dilworth House is a thoughtful execution of continuity and opposition that fits the tradition of Washington Square.
What Venturi achieves in this building is a wonderful transition between the so-called brick city to the East and the city of towers to the West.
The building, built to the scale and presence of the Square, aligns the property to its present streetscape and completes the composite of the Square’s East side. Flanked by Lippincott to the South and the Athenaeum to the North, the building employs materials that complement the buildings of the Square — brownstone and limestone — and colonial revival brick and marble. Wonderfully terraced on its side and rear, the building allows for light and air to enhance the Athenaeum-Philadelphia’s historic architectural archives.