West Market Street - a district lined with most of the city's contributions to sky scraping architecture - was once home to a number of theaters, shops, apartments, and hotels facing Broad Street Station's "Chinese Wall". A long forgotten gem of this gritty, eclectic strip was the Harrison Building - demolished in 1969 along with the Arcade Building (the domed building in the rear).
Centre Square, or rather the Clothes Pin itself, now occupies the site of the Harrison Building. Although many are coming to once again appreciate Brutalist architecture - and Comcast did a good job renovating the entrance to Centre Square, as well as the transportation plaza holding the Clothes Pin - I would love to have seen this brutal presence side by side with the elegant Harrison Building, not to mention the massive Frank Furness Arcade Building across 15th Street framing City Hall with its sister to the East, the Wanamaker Building.Centre Square was designed by Vincent Kling & Associates in 1973.
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