Armond Scavo Photography

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Avenue of the Arts, Color

$19.00

The Avenue Of The Arts is the cultural center of Philadelphia. Theaters, restaurants Art Schools, and Philadelphia’s two great concert halls, The Kimmel Center and the Academy of music lined both sides of this grand boulevard. At its center is our City Hall.

City Hall is more than simply an architectural achievement, it is a museum of artwork as well. Integrated into the building are over 250 marble carvings of animal and human figures in addition to the usual scroll work and reliefs common to architectural designs of the period.

Keystones, spandrels, panels, columns, and sculptures adorn City Hall’s elevations and entrance portals. Symbolic images of continents, racial groups, and judicial processes, the sculptures portray allegorical themes expressing the city’s glory and contemporary world role as well as specific building functions.

Some of the sculpture is found inside the portals. Most of the sculpture adorns the exterior elevations – the center pavilions and corner pavilions as well as the tower. At the Top is a sculpture of William Penn overlooking his great experiment.