Guild House
711 Spring Garden Street
Completed in 1964, this is one of the earliest works of renowned Philadelphia architect Robert Venturi. Love it or hate it, Guild House is a defining example of 20th-century post-modern architecture precisely because of its use of ordinary materials, familiar forms, and minimal decorative elements. Today the building is managed by the Friends Neighborhood Guild as a community-based, independent-living housing facility for the elderly. Although only 40 years old at the time, Guild House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004 as part of a movement to designate architecturally significant buildings of the "recent past."