Bingham Court (New Construction)

The urban renewal of Society Hill was marked by both restoration and new construction. The new construction could be an individual rowhouse or a larger project. Bingham Court is one of several clusters of new construction around the neighborhood, include rowhouses designed by architects Hassinger & Schwam, Louis Sauer, and Joshua Fish.

Bingham Court is a row house complex designed by architect I. M. Pei and completed in 1967. It is named after the former Bingham Estate that was once located on this block. Bingham Court is one of several row house developments introduced into Society Hill during urban renewal to take advantage of relatively large sites that had previously housed uses that planners deemed incompatible with the primarily residential-only community they were fashioning. Architects and planners intended for developments like Bingham Court to help compete with the lure of the suburbs.

Questions:

1. Examine the 1922 Bromley atlas (in the accompanying image - which is bounded on the east by S 3rd St and the west by S 6th St) to determine who/what previously resided on this site before Bingham Court was built and consider why planners may not have wanted to keep it there.

2. Now look at the development itself and consider in what ways it does or does not fit in with the Federal and Georgian rowhouses elsewhere in the neighborhood.

3. How might I. M. Pei have been trying to appeal to suburban residents with the design of this project?

Image Source: G. W. Bromley, 1922 Philadelphia Atlas, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, available at Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network