Creation
In his Brazilian Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, and his Centennial National Bank (1876) at 32nd St. & Lancaster Ave., Furness experimented with architectural features that would become part of his distinctive design vocabulary: unorthodox stone massing; revealing (and even highlighting) structure; compressed, piston-like columns; polychromy, all in a Moorish-influenced Modern Gothic style. The Provident Life & Trust Company was a major breakthrough for Furness, and remained vibrant even after later additions, interior and exterior, seriously compromised its power.
The bank at 409 Chestnut Street was to be part of Philadelphia's "Banker's Row", and the challenge was to distinguish it from the established Italianate buildings. Furness won the Provident commission in a national design competition in 1876, besting his former partner George Hewitt. His forceful Modern Gothic facade demanded attention, its projecting bay and tower balanced on compressed columns, themselves supported by corbels (brackets) jutting out from the building. The whole was a study in tension and compressed energy, heavy, but not looming.
The interior was one enormous room, its 4-story walls and floor covered with multi-colored Minton tiles, an arched iron truss at mid-building decorated with machine-inspired cutouts, and skylights supported by iron trusses with similar cutouts. The front half was lit by the great Gothic window of the facade's projecting bay and a large skylight; the rear half, by another skylight and clerestory windows facing north. Rear windows from the insurance company on 4th Street opened into the tall light-filled banking room. The effect was more church-like than secular—a shrine to commerce—with a severity and logic that presaged the Chicago School of early-20th century modernism.
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