The PPL Building, formerly the Pennsylvania Power and Light Building, is a 24-story office building in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

. At in height, it is the tallest building in the city and the surrounding

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

metropolitan area. The building is the headquarters for

PPL Corporation PPL Corporation is an energy company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as and is part of the S&P 500. As of 2022, the compa ...

, the main electricity provider for the Lehigh Valley,

Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA or Nepa) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton (the area's largest city), Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Ha ...

, and other regions of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and the United States. The PPL Building is often uniquely illuminated at night, especially during the Christmas season, with a candle on one face of the building, and a

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen pinophyta, conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was deve ...

on the other.

History

The PPL Building was built between 1926 and 1928 by Pennsylvania Power & Light, forerunner of PPL, and to this day has been the headquarters of the company. The building was designed by architect and skyscraper pioneer Harvey Wiley Corbett, who would later have a hand in designing New York City's

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

and other prominent buildings. The building exterior features bas reliefs by

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

. In 1930, the PPL Building was named the "best example of a modern office building" by ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'', and also featured the world's fastest elevator. During the 1960s, PPL supported the local United Fund community fund drive program by using the building's brightly lit windows at night to spell out the abbreviation "U.F." to remind area residents to contribute to the fund drive. In June of 2023, PPL Corporation announced plans to vacate the building and put it up for sale. In early 2024, the building was sold for $9 million to a

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeaste ...

-based realtor, which plans to convert it into commercial spaces, apartments, and other amenities.

In popular culture

Exterior shots of the PPL Building appear in ''

Executive Suite ''Executive Suite'' is a 1954 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The film stars William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara St ...

'', a 1954 film."M. Night Shyamalan's 'Glass' joins these 21 other films shot in the Lehigh Valley," Lehigh Valley Live, September 24, 2019
retrieved February 15, 2022]

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Allentown, Pennsylvania Office buildings completed in 1928 Skyscrapers in Pennsylvania Skyscraper office buildings in Pennsylvania