One Meridian Plaza facts for kids

Quick facts for kids One Meridian Plaza
One Meridian Plaza in 1972
General information
Status	Destroyed
Type	Office
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	39°57′5″N 75°9′53″W / 39.95139°N 75.16472°W / 39.95139; -75.16472
Construction started	1968
Completed	1972
Demolished	1999
Cost	US$40 million
Height
Roof	492 ft (150 m)
Technical details
Floor count	38
Floor area	756,000 sq ft (70,200 m2)
Design and construction
Architect	Vincent Kling & Associates
Developer	Girard Bank Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance

One Meridian Plaza was a very tall office building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It had 38 floors and was about 492 feet (150 meters) high. The building was designed by Vincent Kling & Associates and finished in 1972.

Sadly, the building was taken down in 1999. This happened because of a huge fire that started on February 23, 1991. The fire began on the 22nd floor and burned out of control for many hours. Investigators found that the fire started when rags soaked in linseed oil caught fire by themselves.

Philadelphia firefighters bravely fought the blaze. But they faced big problems. The building lost power, and the water pipes inside didn't have enough pressure. Three firefighters tragically died in the fire. They got lost in the thick smoke. Eventually, firefighters had to leave the building because they worried it might fall down.

The fire was only stopped when it reached the 30th floor. This floor was one of the few that had automatic sprinklers. Ten sprinklers helped hold back the fire until it started to burn itself out. The fire was finally controlled almost a full day after it began. It badly damaged the building, ruining eight floors and hurting nearby buildings too.

For eight years after the fire, One Meridian Plaza stood empty and damaged. It was right in the middle of Philadelphia's business area. The building was stuck in a legal fight between its owners and the insurance company. They argued about how much money the insurance company would pay and how the building would be fixed or taken down. Businesses nearby closed or moved away. The city even sued the owners to make them do something with the building. After the lawsuits were settled, the building was declared completely ruined. It started to be taken apart in 1998.

About the Building

One Meridian Plaza was a 38-story office building. It was designed by Vincent Kling & Associates. Construction started in 1968 and finished in 1972. The building was approved for people to move in by 1973.

It was built at the corner of 15th Street and South Penn Square in Center City, Philadelphia. The $40 million building was next to the Girard Trust Building. This building is now called the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia. One Meridian Plaza's front faced Philadelphia City Hall across the street.

The building was 243 feet (74 meters) long and 92 feet (28 meters) wide. It had 756,000 square feet (70,200 square meters) of space. Out of 38 floors, 36 were for offices, and 2 were for building equipment. There were also 3 levels underground. The building was made of steel and concrete. Its outside walls were made of granite. There were two helipads on the roof.

When One Meridian Plaza was built, Philadelphia used an old building code from 1949. This code didn't have special rules for very tall buildings. In 1984, Philadelphia got new rules that required automatic sprinkler systems in all new buildings. When One Meridian Plaza was built, sprinklers were only in the underground service areas.

By 1988, there were plans to put automatic sprinklers throughout the whole building by November 1993. By 1991, four floors had full sprinkler protection. Three other floors had some sprinklers. These sprinklers were added during office renovations when tenants asked for them. The building owners planned to add more as other floors were updated.

The building was first called the Fidelity Mutual Life Building. It was named after Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co. They built it with Girard Bank. This skyscraper was the tallest building built in Philadelphia since the early 1930s.

Girard Bank sold its part of the building to Fidelity Mutual Life in 1982. Fidelity Mutual Life then sold the building to E/R Partners in 1983. In 1984, it became the Three Mellon Bank Center. This happened after Mellon Bank bought Girard Bank. In 1990, it was renamed again to One Meridian Plaza. This was after Meridian Bank became the main tenant. Another big company there was Comcast. They made 81,000 square feet (7,500 square meters) of One Meridian Plaza their main office in 1989.

The Fire Incident

On February 23, 1991, around 8:23 PM, a fire started on the 22nd floor. It was a Saturday night, and only three people were in the building. These were an engineer and two security guards. Earlier that day, workers had been fixing wood in an empty office. They left a pile of rags soaked in linseed oil on the floor.

The linseed oil reacted with the air and got hot enough to make the rags catch fire by themselves. This then set other nearby liquids on fire. Smoke detectors didn't cover the whole floor. By the time the fire alarm went off, the fire was already big.

After the alarm, the engineer went to the 22nd floor to check. When the elevator opened, he found thick smoke and heat. He couldn't reach the elevator controls to go back down. The engineer escaped by radioing a security guard in the lobby. That guard used fire safety controls to bring the elevator back. The second security guard was on the 30th floor. He used the stairs to get to the ground floor.

The lobby guard called the alarm company back. But he never called the Philadelphia Fire Department. The first call to 911 came from someone on the street. They saw smoke coming from the building. Around 8:27 PM, the alarm company finally told the fire department about the fire.

Engine 43 was the first firefighting unit to arrive. They saw heavy smoke and flames in one of the windows. As firefighters started to fight the fire, it grew bigger. Flames broke through windows and climbed up the side of the building.

Challenges for Firefighters

Firefighters faced problems even before they reached the fire. By the time they got to the 11th floor, the building had lost power. The heat from the fire damaged the electrical cables. The emergency generator never turned on. The building had no electricity for the whole event. This meant firefighters worked in darkness and without elevators.

Also, the power boxes for the nearby Girard Trust Building were in the basement of One Meridian Plaza. These power boxes were shut down because water collected in the basement. Firefighters trying to put out the fire from that building also had to work without elevators.

Firefighters also struggled with the water pipes, called standpipes. The pressure relief valves on these pipes were not set correctly. Philadelphia Fire Department hoses needed 100 psi of water pressure. But One Meridian Plaza's pipes only gave less than 60 psi. This was not enough to fight the fire effectively. It took several hours for a technician to arrive and fix the valves.

The area around the building was cleared of people because of falling glass and debris. This falling debris was dangerous for firefighters. They often had to cross the danger zone to enter and leave the building. Hoses going into the building were damaged by falling debris. One firefighter was seriously hurt by debris while working with the hoses.

Lost Firefighters

During the second hour of the fire, it spread to the 23rd and 24th floors. Thick smoke filled the stairwells. A captain and two firefighters from Engine 11 were told to go to the top floor to clear the smoke from the stairwell.

The three firefighters went up a central staircase from the 22nd floor. Soon, they radioed that they were lost in heavy smoke on the 30th floor. People tried to guide them by radio. The captain then asked if he could break a window for air. After that, a message came that the captain was down. Permission to break the window was given, and a search and rescue team was sent.

Search teams went from lower floors and looked on the 30th floor. But they did not find the missing firefighters. The teams then moved to higher levels. One team got lost on the 38th floor and ran out of air in their breathing tanks. That team was saved by another search team that a helicopter had dropped on the roof. Rescue attempts continued until helicopter operations stopped because of thick smoke and hot air currents from the fire.

Using a searchlight, the helicopter crew looked at the outside of the building. At 1:17 AM on February 23, the helicopter saw a broken window on the 28th floor. This area could not be seen from the street. Around 2:15 AM, a rescue team went to that spot. They found the three missing firefighters unconscious and out of air in their breathing tanks. The firefighters were taken to a medical area set up on the 20th floor. Attempts to revive them were not successful, and the firefighters were pronounced dead.

The Fire Ends

After six hours, the fire had spread up to the 26th floor. Because the water pipes didn't have enough pressure, firefighters had to carry hoses up the building's stairwells. While hoses were being brought up, a sprinkler technician arrived to fix the water pressure. This helped the water streams from the hoses. But the fire had taken over several floors and couldn't be stopped with just hoses.

By 7:00 AM, almost eleven hours into the fire, firefighters gained control of the fire on the 22nd through 24th floors. But the fire was still out of control on the 25th and 26th floors and was spreading higher. Firefighters saw damage inside the building. After talking with a structural engineer, they worried the damaged floors might collapse.

At 7:00 AM, Fire Commissioner Roger Ulshafer ordered everyone to leave the building. The building was completely empty by 7:30 AM. After the evacuation, the only firefighting efforts left were water streams. These were aimed at the building from the nearby Girard Trust Building and One Centre Square.

The fire stopped spreading only when it reached the 30th floor. This was the first floor affected by the fire that had automatic sprinklers. Ten sprinklers put out the fire on the 30th floor and stopped it from spreading further. The fire was contained by the sprinklers and ran out of things to burn. It was declared under control at 3:01 PM.

The fire lasted over nineteen hours. It destroyed eight floors. Three firefighters died, and twenty-four were injured. Twelve alarms were called, bringing 51 engine companies, 15 ladder companies, 11 special units, and over 300 firefighters. The fire caused about $100 million in damage.

After the Fire

By February 26, city officials said One Meridian Plaza was not in danger of falling down. There was damage to the steel beams and floor sections on most of the burned floors. Under the extreme heat, the beams bent and twisted. Cracks appeared in the concrete floors. However, the overall structure was stable and could still hold the building's weight. The heat also caused some of the granite panels on the outside to fall off.

The streets and buildings around One Meridian Plaza were closed off. The 20-story Morris Building and several shops behind One Meridian Plaza on Chestnut Street were damaged by falling debris. They were empty for years until they were taken down in 2000. The nearby Girard Trust Building (then called Two Mellon Plaza) had a lot of water damage. This forced it to close. A bank in that building reopened a month later, but the rest of the tower stayed empty for years. Roads around One Meridian Plaza were closed for months. This included parts of two major Philadelphia streets, Broad and Market.

One Meridian Plaza was no longer usable. Its tenants moved to other offices in Philadelphia. This took 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 square meters) of office space off the market. In 1990, 14.3 percent of offices in the city were empty. In the two months after the fire, this dropped to 10.7 percent. On December 18, Mayor Wilson Goode signed a law. It required every non-residential building 75 feet (23 meters) tall or taller to have sprinklers by 1997. About 300 buildings in the city were affected by this new law.

An Empty "Eyesore"

In the years after the fire, One Meridian Plaza stood empty in the middle of Philadelphia. The building's future was uncertain. The owners and their insurance company, Aetna, were preparing for a legal battle. They argued about how to fix the building, who would control the repairs, and how much it would cost.

E/R Partners, the owners, suggested taking the building down to its 19th floor. Then they would rebuild from there. Aetna claimed that the steel beams above the 19th floor could be repaired and used. This would save $115 million from the owners' $250 million repair estimate. Aetna also offered to take over the rebuilding. E/R Partners spent $50 million just to secure One Meridian Plaza. They also spent up to $500,000 a month on security guards, utilities, and engineer checks while the building was empty.

Lawsuits were filed in 1991 by 16 people and businesses who lost money because of the fire. In February 1995, an agreement was reached for $15 million. This money was to pay back workers and businesses affected by the fire. E/R Partners paid the $15 million (minus legal fees). This was for uninsured losses for businesses and workers in One Meridian and the damaged buildings nearby.

The burned, empty tower was called "eyesore of the year" by The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper in 1994. The newspaper said it was even more embarrassing because One Meridian Plaza could be seen in the background of the movie Philadelphia.

The fire left the area around the building empty of businesses. Most big stores closed, and property values dropped. Nearby property owners waited for a decision on the building's future before making their own development plans. In 1996, the City of Philadelphia sued E/R Partners. The city said One Meridian Plaza was a danger to the environment and should be taken down or fixed.

Taking the Building Down

In March 1997, E/R Partners settled with Aetna. They received about $300 million. After the legal issues were solved, E/R Partners announced the building would be taken apart. With this news, the city dropped its lawsuit against the owners.

They couldn't use explosives to make the building fall down because of how close other buildings were. So, E/R Partners started an 18-month, $23 million process to take the building apart piece by piece. This began in 1998. At first, the owners hoped someone would buy the property as it was, or with only the damaged part removed. But that hope was soon given up. The process was finished in 1999.

When it was taken down, One Meridian Plaza was the third tallest building ever to be demolished. It is currently the seventh tallest. Other taller buildings that were taken down include the World Trade Center's twin towers, the Singer Building, and the original Seven World Trade Center in New York. Also, the Morrison Hotel in Chicago, and 130 Liberty Street in New York.

What Replaced It

The land where One Meridian Plaza stood was bought by the Arden Group in 2000. The site was turned into a parking lot. Construction on a new building was delayed because of a fight over land use rules with the neighboring site, 1441 Chestnut Street. This site had the Morris Building and other smaller buildings behind One Meridian Plaza.

The dispute between Arden Group's CEO Craig Spencer and 1441 Chestnut Street developer Tim Mahoney started in 2003. Spencer and Mahoney settled their disagreement in March 2006. Construction on One Meridian's 48-story replacement, the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, began in May. The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton opened in January 2009.

A memorial was revealed on October 21, 2009, at the new skyscraper. It honors the three firefighters who died in the fire. The memorial has three bronze firefighter helmets on a marble base with the firefighters' names. It sits in an empty area between the condo building and the hotel. This is along the south side of South Penn Square, across from the southwest corner of Dilworth Park.