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Philadelphia Police Administration Building

The Roundhouse
Threatened
  • Brutalist
  • Identity of Building/Site
  • History of Building/Site

Philadelphia Police Administration Building

Credit

Photo: George Cserna, Avery Library at Columbia University

Site overview

A landmark of the Philadelphia School, the “Roundhouse” was designed using an innovative precast, prestressed concrete system known as Schokbeton. Engineered by August Komendant as one of the first of its kind in the country, the building was assembled using precast panels that fully integrate the building’s structural and mechanical systems. A watershed moment in the post-World War II redevelopment of Philadelphia, the building’s construction was championed by Richardson Dilworth and Edmund Bacon.

Philadelphia Police Administration Building

Site overview

A landmark of the Philadelphia School, the “Roundhouse” was designed using an innovative precast, prestressed concrete system known as Schokbeton. Engineered by August Komendant as one of the first of its kind in the country, the building was assembled using precast panels that fully integrate the building’s structural and mechanical systems. A watershed moment in the post-World War II redevelopment of Philadelphia, the building’s construction was championed by Richardson Dilworth and Edmund Bacon.

Philadelphia Police Administration Building

Site overview

A landmark of the Philadelphia School, the “Roundhouse” was designed using an innovative precast, prestressed concrete system known as Schokbeton. Engineered by August Komendant as one of the first of its kind in the country, the building was assembled using precast panels that fully integrate the building’s structural and mechanical systems. A watershed moment in the post-World War II redevelopment of Philadelphia, the building’s construction was championed by Richardson Dilworth and Edmund Bacon.

How to Visit

Not open to public

Location

700-734 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19106

Country

US

Case Study House No. 21

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Designer(s)

Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham

Architect

In 1953, architects Robert Geddes, Mel Brecher, George Qualls, and Warren “Barney” Cunningham co-founded a collaborative practice, Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham: Architects (also known as GBQC Architects), in Philadelphia, later adding an office in Princeton. GBQC won national and international competitions and awards, starting with being runner-up in the Sydney Opera House design competition (1955). Other notable projects include: the Pender Labs at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania; the Police Headquarters of the City of Philadelphia; Richard Stockton College in New Jersey; Hill Hall at Rutgers University-Newark; the College of Liberal Arts of Southern Illinois University; the Architects Housing in Trenton, New Jersey; Princeton Community Housing’s Griggs Farm neighborhood; and probably best known, the Dining Hall and Birch Garden quad at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 

August E. Komendant

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Commission

1959

Completion

1962

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