Highrise #42

**Pennsylvania Power & Light Building** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Research by: ** Mark Houser 43 Pennsylvania Power & Light Building Seeking a steady hand at the controls in 1920 when eight utilities merged into Pennsylvania Power & Light, board members chose Edward Hall, a lawyer and well-connected corporate executive. Under Hall’s direction, the company broke ground on this tower, decorated with avant-garde carvings by Alexander Archipenko and topped since the day it opened with a tall flagpole. Hall is also heralded as the savior of modern football, owing to his work as chairman of the fledgling NCAA rules committee from 1908 until his death in 1932. He championed the forward pass to speed up the game, and pushed to eliminate plays such as the “flying wedge” that led to serious injuries and occasional death on the gridiron. This was the first skyscraper project for architect Wallace Harrison, who soon went on with partner Harvey Corbett to join the design team responsible for Rockefeller Center. Harrison became a major New York architect, overseeing the United Nations and Lincoln Center complexes and designing numerous midcentury skyscrapers for Time-Life, McGraw-Hill, and Exxon, as well as Empire State Plaza in Albany after his earlier patron, Nelson Rockefeller, became governor.