Brandywine Kicks Off 735,000-SF Cira Centre Project

PHILADELPHIA-Brandywine Realty Trust has put a name to the elegant façade that will soon become a dominant element of the city’s historic skyline. Located on an Amtrak-owned parcel adjacent to 30th Street Station, Cira Centre will be a 735,000-sf tower with 28 stories of office, conference and retail space.

Newtown Square, PA-based Brandywine’s first Philadelphia development has been designed by globally prominent architect Cesar Pelli and prestigious local design firm Bower Lewis Thrower. The REIT yesterday gave its new project a bigger-than-life kickoff, with a splashy multi-media presentation at 30th Street Station attended by Mayor John F. Street, Pelli, a host of city officials and the cream of Philadelphia’s real estate community.

Pelli, best known for his design of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the World Financial Center in New York and Canary Wharf in London, said he considered the skyline and location in designing this office building. The crystalline, faceted structure will be built with maximum reflectivity to capture the light of the sky and changing hues as day turns to dusk. At times, Pelli said, the “light, dynamic, diaphanous” structure will be appear as a shimmering mirage to the glancing eye while other moments will recall the building as “a sculpture carved as a single block of crystal.”