Changing Skyline: Rittenhouse Square's traditionalist pretender

Stern's office saved its real skill for the apartments, designed with Ismael Leyva. With their generous hallways, foyers and laundry rooms, the condos - the salespeople prefer to call them "homes" - really do match prewar standards. And the bay windows that look so awkward on the outside provide residents with fabulous views and staggering amounts of light. The experience, incidentally, is not unlike being inside a contemporary tower.

Stern's design isn't the first on Rittenhouse Square to fall short of what that great public park deserves. The square is now entirely ringed by high-rises, one for virtually every decade of the last century. Most of the clunkers are modern designs, it's true. But the postwar Dorchester and 220 W. Rittenhouse Square are looking pretty good, especially in comparison with 10 Rittenhouse.

And that raises the question: If Philadelphia could build the sexy, modern Dorchester in 1964, why can't it build its equivalent today? Why have wealthy Philadelphians lost faith in modern design, and the optimistic future it still promises, to the extent that they prefer a traditionalist pretender?

Stern's other recent homage to the great prewar apartment houses, Manhattan's 15 Central Park West, is far more convincing because the craftsmanship is better. Those condos, however, sell for double and triple the prices of 10 Rittenhouse, located on the most desirable piece of real estate in Philadelphia.

The economics of construction make it hard enough to create a decent modern building in Philadelphia, never mind a credible, well-crafted traditional one. When the real estate market comes back, it will be worth asking ourselves if there is a better way.

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