Symphony House

Durable, lightweight exterior for 32-story tower

The developer of Symphony House, a breathtaking 31-story, $125-million condominium in Philadelphia, promises residents “a provocative design that takes from the grandeur and romance of the 1920s and gives it 21st century transformation.” Coincidently, the same could be said about the building’s exterior, a majority of which features next-generation CarbonCast® Architectural Cladding manufactured by High Concrete Group that deliver a traditional aesthetic sensibility and a remarkable 33% weight reduction of precast members.

Designed by Bower Lewis Thrower Architects and constructed by a joint venture of L.F. Driscoll Co. and Intech Construction, the impressive structure rises along Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. The project includes a tower with an adjacent theater and eight levels of parking. The base is clad in conventional solid precast panels, and the 24 residential floors use CarbonCast.

The weight reduction provides two benefits. First, the restrictive building site necessitated a tower crane to lift the 770 exterior panels into place. The CarbonCast panels, which use significantly less concrete than conventional panels, were easily accommodated by the crane—even at the more distant corners of the building. Second, the lower-weight panels reduced loads on the floor slab, where they were mounted, as well as on the rest of the reinforced concrete structure.

Conventional precast panels from High were used on most of the building’s podium; although CarbonCast panels could have worked, the architect opted for thick, heavy, standard panels to meet the functional impact requirements of the parking deck.