Rittenhouse Vibrant Despite Loss Of Chain Store HQ

Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, the limerent object of many of Philadelphia blogger, has a piece in this month’s Metropolis about the shiny new-ish Urban Outfitters headquarters down at the Navy Yard.

It’s, as usual, a fine article about the buildings; in a contrast to what Robert A. M. Stern Architects did for a city planning commission, the Urban headquarters kept in remnants from the building’s past. (And, for example, wood was reclaimed from a convent’s school’s basketball court, and added into the project. Neat!) Judging from the photos, the whole look is so much more better than any one-liner t-shirt.

And while the loss of any Center City business besides Dollar-O-Rama or whatever is a disappointment, I don’t think we were ever in this much danger:

When I first heard that Philadelphia’s Urban Outfitters (UO) was relocating its headquarters from its cozy Rittenhouse Square offices to the city’s decommissioned navy yard, it sounded like bad news for every­­one concerned. The idea of yanking more than 600 of Philadelphia’s most creative—not to mention best-dressed —workers out of downtown was the equivalent of exiling Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue fashion houses to an industrial park near JFK. Losing so many trendsetters would surely diminish the Center City District’s hard-won cool quotient.

She’s right a bit, though. Now that Urban is positioned like 20 blocks south of the Wachovia Center, my personal cool quotient has dipped a bit.

A Stitch in Time [Metropolis]
Philly’s Best New Company HQ? Forget Comcast. Try Urban Outfitters [Skyline Online]