It is also true that the firm's buildings tend to grab you by the lapels. But demanding to be looked at is not a fatal flaw in itself, and, given Philadelphia's congenital preference for extreme architectural reticence, it may be a positive trait. In any case, the complaint strikes me as a narrow reading of their work, which is among the most interesting in Philadelphia today.
Their new dorm, Millennium Hall, is sure to fire up the debates. Not only is it Drexel's tallest building yet, the 17-story tower on 34th Street has the elliptical profile of a football, and it rides the skyline like an oversized Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is, at once, their most ambitious and most flawed design.
Most of Erdy McHenry's previous Philadelphia projects have been big, horizontal slabs - the Edge at Temple University, the Radian at Penn, the Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties. The architects liken the form to skyscrapers on their sides. Because the tiny Drexel site, a former tennis court just south of Powelton Avenue, precluded a slab, it forced the architects to go vertical. It's nice to see the firm move away from the wide slab, which can get pretty oppressive.
For a first tower, Millennium Hall was conceived with no shortage of brio. It's not just the unusual shape, or the silvery sheen of the aluminum panels that hug its curves like the latest bondage dress.
Typically with tall buildings, the placement of each floor mirrors the one below. But here, each successive, 5,000-square-foot plate shifts 10 inches off center, so that by the time you get to the top, the ovoid floors have rotated by 13 feet. The 202-foot tower, which cost more than $40 million, almost seems to spin.
