I hope everyone can take a moment today to help save a pair of historically significant buildings that are under the threat of needless demolition.

Early in the morning on the Saturday before Christmas, the state's Department of General Services (DGS), sent a team of workers to demolish the Philadelphia Life Insurance Co. Building and Annex at 111-115 North Broad Street to make way for the expansion of the Philadelphia Convention Center. This was done despite the fact that in 2004, the head of the Convention Center Authority had signed an agreement with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to spare these two National Historic Registered buildings.

This agreement preserves these historic buildings and incorporates them into the street-scape of the future Convention Center. Other historical buildings in the construction zone have been sacrificed so that these two architecturally significant buildings could be spared. These structures are an important part of our city's history. The more modern of the two was designed by Romaldo Giurgola; a central figure among a group of University of Pennsylvania architects that rose to prominence in the 1960s and were later dubbed the Philadelphia School. Now the façade of this architectural treasure has been needlessly damaged.

Recent columns by Inga Saffron and Tom Ferrick in the Philadelphia Inquirer have made it clear that this act was both unnecessary and possibly criminal. A judge has issued an injunction to prevent further damage, but the Convention Center Authority and the DGS must not be allowed to continue to operate in open defiance of the agreement to spare these two buildings.

The Design Advocacy Group is leading the charge to restore these buildings, and I urge you to take a moment to use their website here to send a letter demanding that the people who were responsible for this act change course and take the necessary steps to properly save these historically significant buildings.

Anne Dicker
www.AnneDicker.com
Democrat for Pennsylvania State Senate, 1st District