Zantzinger, Borie & Medary

Zantzinger, Borie & Medary was an American architectural firm founded in Philadelphia in 1910, which was the first recorded American firm to employ French-born American architects. They were equally at ease with the popular Colonial and Georgian Revival styles and were employed at Church Farm School (Glenlock, Pennsylvania), where they ably manipulated the Pennsylvania Colonial Revival and at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, with a more formal Georgian Revival. They were also involved in the Philadelphia Parkway at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and with the museum itself.

Clarence Clark Zantzinger (1872-1954) was an architect and town planner, who studied at the University of Pennsyslvania. He became a member of the American Institute of Architects. Milton Bennett Medary (1874-1929) also studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a design consultant to several universities, and became president of the American Institute of Architects, and was affiliated with the Foundation for Architecture and Landscape Architecture and with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Charles Louis Borie, Jr. (correct II) (1870-1943) also studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He was extremely active in both professional and social organizations, and later served on the University’s Board of Fine Arts. His son Charles Louis Borie III (1894-1964) joined his father’s company in 1926.

Just 250 meters away from Horace Trumbauer’s Racquet Club of Philadelphia, their 16-story building of the Pennsylvania Athletic Club, constructed in 1923, was located at Rittenhouse Square. The central atrium would have provided enough space for a baseball field. After its opening in 1927, the club became one of the best addresses for the political and business elite of Philadelphia. The end came with the Great Depression. After World War II, the building was initially used as an office complex and after a renovation in 1957 as a hotel. It now houses about 260 luxury apartments and a fancy French restaurant.