Massive Mormon Meetinghouse Complex Continues Climb

Things are hopping around Logan Circle these days. We've got the former Four Seasons Hotel (soon to be housed at Comcast's new gigundo tower) almost completely gutted, bridges coming down along the Vine Street Expressway, and the Mormon-backed apartment tower, temple, and meetinghouse complex on Vine Street steadily working its way up to the heavens.

The large-scale project will eventually fill in two full blocks between Wood and Vine. The meetinghouse will be 24,000 square feet and 117 feet high to the steeple. It will house a chapel, a cultural center with what looks to be a gymnasium, classrooms, and also feature the "Sunday Garden" located on the corner of Franklin Town Boulevard and Wood Street.

The 359 foot high apartment tower will feature 264 apartments and 13 rental townhomes. The complex will feature six green roofs, three on the Wood Street side and three on the Vine Street side, encompassing 7,500 square feet of space and also house a large, south-facing observation deck and a separate "amenities terrace," where one can only hope a swimming pool might be located.

And as the massive grey temple over the Vine Street Expressway continues to rise, we remember Inga Saffron's warning of the civic-mindedness of this project clashing with its somewhat incongruous architectural choices. "The collection of architectural pastiches promises to be one of the weirder ensembles produced in 21st-century America outside of Las Vegas," she said. Was she right? We'll just have to wait and see.

· Changing Skyline: Mormon development combines civic-mindedness, awful architecture [The Inky]
· Philly's Difficult Relationship with its Arterials Continue [Curbed Philly]
· Mormon Meetinghouse coverage [Curbed Philly]
· Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple [LDS]