Philadelphia skyline from the Walt Whitman Bridge by Philly SkyGuy, on Flickr
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Philadelphia skyline Fourth of July 2022 by Philly SkyGuy, on Flickr
07/04/2021
07/04/2022
I had to photoshop One Liberty Place and the W/Element Hotel to “finish” the shot. Due to the long exposure, the lights on the W that was sparkling red white and blue had turned a bright purple. And One Liberty was surprisingly lit white though Two Liberty Place was lit in red white and blue. So the lights you see on the W in this shot is from a shorter exposure taken earlier and the lights on One Liberty are directly rotoscoped from the image from last year’s Fourth of July to honor the first shot.
Here’s the W lighting
The My Liberty Lights program, which only a selected group of people can control the lights once per night for 5 minutes if available, also seems to be down as I cannot access the site. I hope it comes back!!
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Great pics 
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Hi,there. Thanks for the great pics. Interesting that you say “most of the general public thinks it’s poor and run down”. Really? Who’s “most of the general public”? I’m a realtor - a native Philadelphian who left a billion years ago when it really was run down. Lived in NYC for a lifetime. Came home 8 years ago to a sparkling city. I was also up in NYC about 3 weeks ago on biz to network with many of my colleagues there. They were excited to know I was from Philly. I have lots of NY clients which I have - and am - helping move here. I don’t think they would agree. That was a pretty general blanket statement and I’m going to assume those people you know who feel that way don’t come into Center City. I hope your beautiful shots reach them and change their minds. Thank you for doing that.
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From the Shazam 2 trailer, shows lots real and cg shots of the skyline including this one. The characters even interact on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and Citizens Bank Park
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You have really posted some very interesting postcards, only I raise a question about it:
Which buildings are still under construction in these pictures?
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Are there any Philadelphia postcards circa 1910 and 1950 to be seen here?
The first shot you see One Liberty Place recently completed on the left, and on the right is the Independence Blue Cross Tower under construction around September 1988. In the second shot you can see the Bell Atlantic Tower under construction just to the left of the Independence Blue Cross Tower, Mellon Bank Center under construction to the left of One Liberty Place, and Two Liberty Place under construction to the right of One Liberty. That image is taken around December 1989. Those images show the major transformation of the Philadelphia skyline during the 80’s construction boom that One Liberty Place started
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Thanks Thomas, for the very detailed and informative answer.
Why did One Liberty Place start the skyscraper boom?
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Because of the unwritten Gentleman’s Agreement for buildings to pass City Hall. The Gentleman’s Agreement was dissolved in April 1984 when Liberty Place was proposed, allowing buildings to rise above William Penn. In the same year, IM Pei’s Commerce Center was proposed along with the Independence Blue Cross towers (they were proposed as a twin tower complex). In 1986, Mellon Bank revealed they would build a skyscraper originally at the height of 880 feet and in 1987 the Bell Atlantic Tower was proposed. One Liberty Place broke ground on May 13, 1985 and passed the Statue of William Penn at the beginning of September 1986, Eventually topping the spire on May 27, 1987 at a height of 945 feet
This is the timeline of the completion of the towers:
One Commerce Square: 1987
One Liberty Place: 1987
Independence Blue Cross Tower: 1989
Bell Atlantic Tower: 1990
Mellon Bank Center:1990
2 Liberty Place: 1990
Two Commerce Square: 1992
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This animation I made shows the skyline rising between 1985 and 1990
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Amazing that before One Liberty Place was built, the whole city was almost unrecognizable
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Which of course also started Penn’s curse
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Bingo
Oh yea, big time. But you can pick out some buildings you can still see in the skyline today
1981
1984
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The city back then based on these photos reminds me of Denver, AZ for some reason lol
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New postcards I received today
I already have these two, but they were included in the set along with other sites in Philly. Its always good to have copies though! I have two more post cards along with a vintage photo book coming
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