Case Study: Symphony House, Philadelphia, PA

Concrete Facts

• 32-story condominium tower with retail, parking and 365-seat live theater
• 7 levels of parking with a total of 400 spaces
• 804 lightweight precast panels on the exterior
• Precast installation completed in five months

Products Used

Precast adds aesthetic appeal to luxury living.

The residents of Philadelphia's Symphony House are truly at home
with the arts. Rising 32 stories from one of Philadelphia's premiere
cultural districts, residents enjoy a luxury reminiscent of the high style
elegance of the 1920's. Marble and granite grace the living areas, while an attached three-story Broadway-style theater offers live, professional
entertainment without ever leaving the building.

Developer Carl Dranoff of Dranoff Properties is noted for his track
record of renovating historic properties and converting them into luxury
residences. For this highly prominent high rise condo tower, just steps from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, he wanted to create a classic design that was distinctive, yet would also blend with the
character and tradition of nearby structures along Philadelphia's
Avenue of the Arts.

Lightweight precast concrete panels with a red textured finish
complemented by smooth brown sections and trim were used on
the exterior walls to give the building its grand character—and a
60% lighter weight load. Twenty-four floor decks utilized lightweight
precast, but conventional precast panels were chosen to meet the
functional impact requirements of the decks on the facility's
seven-level parking structure.

“Precast construction offered us more design options at no greater construction costs,” noted Dranoff. “Plus we stayed on schedule completing erection in just five months.” 804 exterior panels were manufactured for Symphony House by High Concrete Group, LLC of Denver, PA. The panels were manufactured under quality controlled factory conditions and shipped ready for erection. The 7"–deep panels, reinforced with carbon fiber mesh, produced deep, aesthetically pleasing reveals, recessed planes and window recesses adding a pleasing balance of light and shadow. Symphony House is the first major precast skyscraper built in Philadelphia in the 21st Century. The success of Symphony House proves that precast concrete is a viable player on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts and anywhere owners, developers, builders and architects want flexibility of design, speed of construction and cost effective quality. “Precast panels gave us exactly the look and feel we wanted for the structure and for the prominent urban location. We really couldn't have made a better choice,” notes Dranoff.

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