Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters, International Style office building near Independence Mall, Philadelphia, United States.
The Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters is a nine-story office building in Philadelphia with translucent corrugated sunscreens made from the company's Plexiglas product, supported by aluminum lattice frames. The transparent panels form a distinctive outer layer that defines the building's appearance from street level.
The building was completed in 1964 as the first private investment in the Independence Mall renewal project led by city planner Edmund Bacon. It marked a turning point in how the historic area around Independence Hall was being redeveloped after World War II.
The building visibly demonstrates how a manufacturer embedded its own products into corporate architecture, turning the workplace into a statement about what the company made and valued.
The building is located two blocks from Independence Hall, making it easy to visit while exploring downtown Philadelphia on foot. The exterior can be viewed from the street, and the 2006 renovations kept the original facade intact while updating the interior systems and workspaces.
The building uses Plexiglas not just as decoration but as a functional part of its structural system, turning the entire facade into a working demonstration of the company's product. This approach was unusual for office buildings and showed confidence in how durable the material could be over decades.
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