This CityPaper article makes a point of the two new skyscrapers under consideration for Philly and their viability.

A decade ago, the Philadelphia Orchestra was still playing in the Academy of Music, erected in 1857. That was when the powers that be decided the city had crossed the line from charming to pathetic and resolved to build a new state-of-the-art performing arts center. Last December, the Rafael Vi?oly-designed Kimmel Center, with its Y2K-vaulted glass roof, opened to rave reviews. The French newspaper Le Monde gushed, ?Philadelphia opens a concert hall that Paris can only dream about.?

The cause of putting Philadelphia on the contemporary architecture map keeps picking up steam. As of this month, two Center City high-rise office buildings have been announced to open in 2004 and 2005 respectively, each designed by a brand-name architect: Robert A.M. Stern and Cesar Pelli.