Home Address: Two Liberty Place

For those who really want to be above it all in Philadelphia, condo apartments will soon be available in Two Liberty Place, the squatter half of the celebrated Market Street office complex that broke the city's height barrier in 1990. Demolition has started on floors 37 to 57 and Agoos/Lovera Architects is busy designing layouts for 140 units, mainly two bedrooms with dens.

Of course, living in a former office tower, built to provide the maximum amount of column-free floors for commercial tenants, has its complications. The 848-foot-tall building, like most modern office towers, does not have operable windows. And getting sunlight into the deep, deep spaces will be a challenge. Still, residents will be able to claim they live in the highest units in town - for awhile at least.

Agoos/Lovera is also designing what could be the tallest residential tower in Philadelphia, a 70-story mixed use skyscraper on Delaware Avenue that would hover 900 feet over Poplar Street. Bridgman's View is just 45 feet shy of One Liberty Place, and only 75 feet less than the Comcast Center, which will be the tallest building in the city. The Delaware Avenue skyscraper is being developed by Marc F. Stein, a third-generation steel contractor, and has financial backing from a group of New York investors. Unlike the Spring Garden civic association, which is fighting a 500-foot skyscraper on the site of the Ben Franklin Motor Inn, the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association did not start by threatening a lawsuit when Agoos/Lovera presented the project on Monday. The group is weighing the project on its merits, which are discussed in tomorrow's Changing Skyline.