Philadelphia City Hall (Second Empire masterpiece)

Designed by John McArthur Jr. in the Second Empire style and completed in 1901, Philadelphia City Hall is a monumental example of 19th-century civic architecture with ornate stone carving and mansard roofs. The building is crowned by a 37-foot bronze statue of William Penn sculpted by Alexander Milne Calder, mounted atop a masonry tower. At the time of its completion it was the tallest habitable building in the world, and it remains one of the largest municipal buildings in the United States. The structure's masonry construction and sculptural program reflect the era's ambitions for civic monumentality.