Preserving Historic Corridors in Open Office Plans

One of the last 1920's skyscrapers built in Philadephia, the FidelityPhiladelphia Trust Building, with its fine Beaux-Arts design and ornamentation, is individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by the local architectural firm of Simon and Simon, the Fidelity Building, as it is called today, synthesizes classical architectural features and standard practices of skyscraper Jesign. The steel frame, limestoneclad structure rises 29 stores in an H-shaped plan, with offices on the upper stories and a grand 3-story bank room on the ground floor. The double-loaded corridor on each of the office floors, which forms the cross-bar of the H-shaped plan, is a significant feature of the interior, and these corridors are important surviving elements of the historic office plan (see figure 1). While various offices have been altered over time, the corridors retain a high degree of architectural integrity; their historic appearance and materials, including original light fixtures, marble floors and marble wainscoting, paneled doors, and wooden trim, have all survived largely intact. To meet the expansion needs of PRESERVATION