Many More Details About the Skyscraping FMC Tower, Plus Morning Headlines


Here are some things we didn’t tell you yesterday but are nonetheless important regarding FMC’s new corporate headquarters, a skyscraper to be built as part of the Cira Centre South complex (here’s yesterday’s news, though not in a proverbial sense):

• The location will be the northeast corner of 30th and Walnut.
• The company will occupy the building by June 2016
• The architect of record on the building will be BLT Architects.
• The tower will cost $341 million.
• There will be a 2,000-space parking garage that will also be used by IRS workers at the former post office
• The 260 luxury apartment suites will be market-rate rentals that will include concierge services.

• Four floors — approximately 100,000 square feet — will be leased to University of Pennsylvania.
• The FMC Tower at Cira Centre South completes the final phase of the Cira South development (the renovation of the 30th Street Post Office and Cira Garage, and the housing project evo at Cira Centre South)
• It will attain LEED Silver design
• Ceilings will be 10-foot floor-to-ceiling glass
• Amenities will include: “aquatic center” with pool and deck, fitness center and spa, and business conference center.

Perhaps most tellingly in terms of current trends in office development, there will be a one-acre elevated park, Cira Green (connected to the FMC Tower via a sky bridge). It will run across the eastern entrance of the FMC Tower and accessed via glass elevator from the parking garage. This green space is meant to demonstrate the HQ’s commitment to green concerns but also to that area’s evolving green projects. So Cira Green will not only offer daily recreation for employees or catered company events. It will also be an available stage for music concerts, live arts performances, and summer movie screenings.

Now, more news:
Drexel plans 24-story, $170M tower at 34&Lancaster [philly.com]
Robinson Luggage packing it in [Inquirer]
• Saffron: City’s revival strategy must shift – to new millennial residents [Inquirer]
Passyunk Square: Worn Out Old Building Turning Into Apts on Ninth St. [Naked Philly]
D3 Development’s education hub at Front and Oxford [City Paper]