United States Custom House vs Lewis Tower

Comparing the United States Custom House and the Lewis Tower is interesting because they both stand in Philadelphia, PA, and were completed within 5 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Lewis Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 390ft (119m) with 33 floors above ground, while the United States Custom House reaches 285ft (87m) with 17 floors above ground.

Despite being taller and having more floors, Lewis Tower has less total built-up area than United States Custom House.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the United States Custom House and the Lewis Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Ritter & Shay and Edmun Gilchrist followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The United States Custom House is primarily governmental, while the Lewis Tower is primarily residential.

Originally, the Lewis Tower was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to residential. The United States Custom House by contrast has maintained its original role.

The United States Custom House also provides 30 parking spaces.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.