Within hours, a demolition crew had stripped the stone from the facade of a 1962 modernist addition to the former headquarters of the Philadelphia Life Insurance Co.
Leadbetter's order does not guarantee that the structures will survive, but it ensures that the conjoined pair will remain standing at least until after Mayor-elect Michael Nutter takes office on Jan. 7. She asked both sides to appear in her Harrisburg courtroom for legal arguments the next day.
"This freezes the situation," said John Gallery, the Preservation Alliance's executive director, after learning that the injunction had been granted. "They [Department of General Services] don't have the right to choose which parts of the 2004 agreement they're going to accept."
The alliance wants the department, which coordinates state construction projects, to repair the damage done Saturday through rebuilding the ruined facade, according to the petition filed by Center City lawyer Paul Boni.
Significantly, Leadbetter ordered the department and the Convention Center Authority "to save and preserve" the stone pieces torn off the facade.
In an e-mail sent yesterday, department spokesman Edward Myslewicz reiterated the agency's belief that it had the legal authority to act on its own.
The linked buildings - one a petite neo-classical temple, the other a 1962 addition by the renowned Philadelphia School architect Romaldo Giurgola - had been singled out for preservation in the 2004 legal agreement, signed by the heads of the state Historical and Museum Commission and the Convention Center Authority. Nutter was the authority chairman at the time.
