Architect: Unisys sign would mar Liberty Place

The way some experts were talking yesterday, Two Liberty Place is not just a building. It's a Philadelphia icon - what the Chrysler Building is to New York, or the Sears Tower to Chicago.

From the architect who helped design it in the mid-1980s to an executive from Cigna Corp., the building's largest tenant, experts who testified at a zoning hearing on whether Unisys Corp. should be able to put its logo on the side of the skyscraper talked as if it were a legend.

As many as eight witnesses have yet to testify in the hearing, which resumes Aug. 26. The Philadelphia Zoning Board had expected testimony to fill only two hours, but the issue has become so contentious that it has now eaten up 6.5 hours over two days as parties weigh in, often for 30 or 40 minutes at a time.

Unisys argued its case July 23. The Blue Bell firm has said the sign is crucial to its effort to rebrand itself as a leading Philadelphia company when it moves its headquarters to Two Liberty.

Yesterday, Unisys opponents had their say. They defended Two Liberty as an indelible icon that should not be "marred," to quote more than one opponent. If the skyscraper were to wriggle into a rhinestone-encrusted dress and sing "Happy Birthday" to the president, these experts probably would have compared it to Marilyn Monroe.

Larry Waetzman, president of a Bryn Mawr planning group that bears his name, displayed large pictures of the TransAmerica Building in San Francisco, the Sears Tower and the Chrysler Building to argue that the 11-foot-high red letters Unisys has proposed putting on the building when it moves its corporate headquarters there would be an injustice.

He quoted the late Willard G. Rouse III, the Liberty Place developer, as saying that the buildings were "sending a message that Philadelphia can once again be the greatest city in this country."

Rouse did make history when he constructed the first building taller than William Penn's hat on City Hall. Never mind that the building that broke the height barrier was actually One Liberty Place, built a few years before Two Liberty next door.

The two towers were as one in yesterday's discussion.

Scott Pratt, an architect involved with the design of Two Liberty Place testified yesterday that putting a large corporate sign on the landmark Center City skyscraper would be "like a vandal going into an art museum and splashing paint on a sculpture."

Other people who spoke yesterday had expertise in lighting, engineering and city planning. No condominium residents spoke, but Cigna executive vice president John Murabito said the proposed logo would hurt his company's morale. Cigna has a small sign on the lower level of the building. He said his colleagues had taken pride in working in Two Liberty, which they perceived as "iconic."

"I think we'll lose pride," Murabito said, "and pride is a source of energy and commitment."

Unisys has said the company might "reevaluate" its plans to move its corporate offices to Liberty Place if the sign were not allowed. It has already signed a lease, however.

Other residents of the building have complained that the sign would mar Philadelphia's skyline and lower their property values.

Pratt, of the Chicago architectural firm Murphy/Jahn, said the proposed sign would interrupt the soaring lines of the "history-making" building and its neighbor One Liberty Place.