From Family Court to elegant hotel? A beautiful building with a future.

From Family Court to elegant hotel?

With 15 stories' worth of steel beams in place for a new Family Court building at 15th and Arch Streets, city development officials can shift more attention to another major project - turning the old Family Court at 18th and Vine Streets into something more than another vacant building when the court moves into new quarters next year.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell had no doubt what would happen to the old court building when he committed $200 million in state funds for the new courthouse in 2010.

The old courthouse, originally completed in 1940 by the Depression-era Works Projects Administration, was destined to become "the most exciting, glamorous hotel," Rendell said - just like the elegant Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, the mid-18th century building that was the model for the Philadelphia courthouse.  Read more here…