The PECO Building is a
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
office highrise in
Center City Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. The building is the current headquarters of the
PECO Energy Company
PECO, formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company, is an energy company founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1929. It became part of Exelon Corporation in 2000 when it merged with Commonwealth Edison's holding company Unicom Corp.
The company has ...
, formerly the Philadelphia Energy Company (PECo), and one of the companies that merged to form the
Exelon
Exelon Corporation is an American Fortune 100 energy company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and incorporated in Pennsylvania. It generates revenues of approximately $33.5 billion and employs approximately 33,400 people. Exelon is the larges ...
Corporation. The building lies adjacent to the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It ...
, extends 27 stories tall, and has the address of 2301 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Overview
The Building consists of two conjoined buildings designed by architects
Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson. The North building has a height of 96 feet and a length of 380 feet and a width of 196 feet. The south has a height of 384 feet and a length of 165 and a width of 67 feet. The North building was built in 1916 and the South building was completed in 1970. The PECO Building is notable for its electronic display, formally called the , which displays news and a variety of other community messages.
Crown Lights
The Crown Lights have been displaying messages atop the structure since July 4, 1976.
The original electronic message board consisted of a total of 2,600 individual amber-colored bulbs which displayed scrolling text around the top of the building. At midnight on January 1, 2009, the lights were shut down and replaced with a more energy efficient and full color LED-based system which went live on July 4, 2009. In November 2020 the lights were upgraded once more, after being dark for four months. The new display's pixel density was improved from 25 to 39
pixels per inch
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
.
The display is 38 feet high, 148 feet long along the North and South side of the building, and 71 feet long along the East and West side.
References
A View on CitiesSkyscraperpage.com
Individual signs in the United States
Exelon
Skyscraper office buildings in Philadelphia
{{Pennsylvania-struct-stub
Office buildings completed in 1970
1970 establishments in Pennsylvania