Changing Skyline: Powering down

The steam plant didn't get the full limestone treatment, but the result still has the noble stature of a bank or library. The art deco trimmings must have made the workers who tended its turbines feel they were part of a great, city-building enterprise. An unusual, eight-sided stack, 21 feet in diameter, towered over the station. Its dramatic outline still holds its own on the west bank skyline, though now it's wedged between Cira and Drexel's new Millennium Hall tower.

The design for the Pullman dormitory, by the same architects, was modest, but its history is also intriguing. The building housed sleeping quarters for the mostly African American Pullman porters, the corps of uniformed railroad attendants who are credited by historians with laying the groundwork for the civil-rights movement. Those black porters were restricted to the basement, while other workers enjoyed better rooms on the upper floors. It's possible the first stirrings of protest began with conversations in that dank basement.

It's no wonder that, when Amtrak broached plans to demolish the structures, both the city and state historical commissions protested. City records show that the Historical Commission asked Amtrak to analyze the costs of retrofitting the buildings to lease to outside tenants.

Amtrak's response was that post-9/11 security concerns made it impossible to bring in outside tenants. The two commissions eventually acquiesced to Amtrak's plans. Yet, Amtrak's security concerns would imply that the railroad's land holdings could never be developed - a serious blow to Philadelphia. Somehow, those issues aren't stopping New York and Chicago from building in their rail yards.

Retrofitting industrial buildings like the steam plant requires greater creativity and perseverance than other projects, though not always more money. Preserving the industrial past is one way cities can remember their roots. The steam plant helped Philadelphia become a modern manufacturing metropolis. If Amtrak understood the potential of its rail yards, it could return the favor a second time.

Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.