The Effects that William Penn Building Has on Its Surroundings Research Paper

The Effects that William Penn Building Has on Its Surroundings - Research Paper Example Penn himself suggested the name the Latin name of "Sylvania" for this place, which means land of woods, but King Charles of England amended it to â€Å"Pennsylvania† which means Penn’s woods, in order to pay great regards for Penn. In the honor of the founder of the city, a huge bronze statue of Penn is mounted over the top of city’s hall building, also termed as the William Penn building. Penn was not only a good state developer, but he was also one of the early voices for democracy & the union of states. He had very good relations with the colonials & he was in favor of united states of Europe too, along with the United States of America. He proposed some principles for the Pennsylvanian government which are of great inspiration in today’s US constitution. He argued in his most writings that unity is the solution to the problems faced in that time particularly & there is no place for war & unnecessary occupation over people & places. Since his childhood he had seen many sufferings; he was a deep reader of human reaction to sufferings & epidemics & always preferred peace & harmony between people of every place & every religion. The William Penn building has been built on a public square termed by Penn as the Centre square since it is located at the middle of the city of Philadelphia. The centre square is one of the squares laid by Penn himself & planned that it would be a ten-acre place for public buildings. Hence according to his wishes, the Philadelphia city hall has been built at the place. The construction started in the year 1871 & since then many changes have been made to the building with a total cost of $24 million. It covers a total area of 58,222 m ² & is of 167  m height including the bronze statue of William Penn. The building was completed in the year 1901 & since then it has been one of the tallest buildings in the world. For many years, it was forbidden to build any building in the surroundings which gets higher than the statue of Penn, but then the restriction was lifted. It is also the largest  municipal building in the United States. It was designed by a famous architect of that time s John McArthur, Jr. in the second empire style of architecture.