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29-470: A city ordinance dictates that no building within 250 feet (76 m) of the nearby Benjamin Franklin Parkway may rise taller than 250 feet (76 m); the tower stands just outside this zone. A landscaped plaza, constructed of the same red granite as the building, occupies the rest of the plot, fulfilling a city requirement that 1% of the total budget for new building construction must go toward

58-499: A great challenge. A bronze Rocky statue is located at the bottom right of the steps, and is a popular photo opportunity for visitors. The top of the steps offers a commanding view of Eakins Oval , the Benjamin Franklin Parkway , and Philadelphia City Hall . Rocky creator Sylvester Stallone has recounted that the genesis of the iconic scene occurred when the 1976 film crew for the movie, constrained by

87-627: A joke in Rocky Balboa . On September 8, 2006, the Rocky statue was returned to the Art Museum and placed on a pedestal in a grassy area near the foot of the steps to the right of the Museum. The unveiling ceremony included live music, the debut of the first full trailer for Rocky Balboa, and a free showing of the first Rocky movie. At the ceremony, Philadelphia Mayor John Street said that

116-627: A regular oval; this pattern was modified in the early 1960s to its present elongated circular shape, with the truncated lanes serving as staging areas for various events. On July 2, 2005, the steps of the museum played host to the Philadelphia venue of Live 8 , where artists such as Dave Matthews Band , Linkin Park and Maroon 5 performed. In Spring 2012, a new museum for the Barnes Foundation 's collection of Impressionist art on

145-411: A tight budget, identified the steps one night while searching for filming locations around the city. Stallone first thought Rocky should carry his dog Butkus up the steps, but the big bull mastiff proved too heavy for the scene to work. Still, the view from the top of the stairs inspired him to reshoot the scene without the dog. In the 2006 film Rocky Balboa , Rocky lifts his dog Punchy when he reaches

174-494: A work of public art. A banquet hall, known as Top of the Tower, occupies the top floor of the building and is available for public rentals. It was the headquarters for Philadelphia-based Baby Bell Bell Atlantic until 1996, when Bell Atlantic acquired New York City -based NYNEX and moved its headquarters to New York. In 2000, Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to become Verizon and the "Bell Atlantic" name became obsolete. However,

203-630: The Rocky statue by A. Thomas Schomberg . 39°57′49″N 75°10′43″W  /  39.9637°N 75.1787°W  / 39.9637; -75.1787 Rocky Steps The Rocky Steps are 72 stone steps leading up to the East entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia that gained global fame after being featured in a notable scene from the 1976 film Rocky . In

232-692: The Philadelphia Museum of Art . In a city famous for its urban planning , the Parkway represents one of the earliest examples of urban renewal in the United States. The road was constructed to ease heavy industrial congestion in Center City and to restore Philadelphia's natural and artistic beauty, as part of the City Beautiful movement. The vision for a grand parkway came from retail pioneer John Wanamaker . Preliminary proposals for

261-532: The Philadelphia Museum of Art . The Champs-Élysées terminates at the Arc de Triomphe , and the Parkway's terminating at the Art Museum gives the notion of "a slice of Paris in Philadelphia." The Parkway contains flags of countries from around the world. The traffic rotary on the western end of the Parkway, at the foot of the Art Museum's Rocky Steps , is named Eakins Oval after Philadelphia painter Thomas Eakins . The traffic lanes around Eakins Oval originally formed

290-867: The Rodin Museum , Eakins Oval , the Barnes Foundation , and the Philadelphia Museum of Art . From its northern end, the Parkway provides access to Fairmount Park through Kelly Drive (formerly East River Drive), Martin Luther King Drive (formerly West River Drive), the Schuylkill River Trail , and the Schuylkill Expressway ( I-76 ). The Parkway also is an outdoor sculpture garden. Works include: The Thinker by Auguste Rodin , The Gates of Hell also by Rodin, LOVE by Robert Indiana , The Ideal Scout by Robert Tait McKenzie , Three-Way Piece by Henry Moore ,

319-630: The International Institute for Sport and Olympic History. It is currently exhibited at the Schomberg Studios Gallery in Denver, Colorado. After filming was complete, a debate arose between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Philadelphia's Art Commission over whether the statue met the definition of art . City officials argued that the Rocky statue was not "art" but a "movie prop ", and eventually moved it to

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348-562: The Parkway , is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia , the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020. The parkway is named for Benjamin Franklin , a Founding Father greatly affiliated with the city and the successful American Revolution , which led to American independence. The mile-long parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City 's northwest quadrant, starting at Philadelphia City Hall , curving around Logan Circle , and ending before

377-578: The Parkway did not begin until 1917, when French landscape architect Jacques Gréber submitted a revised plan to the Commissioners of Fairmount Park. Gréber designed the Parkway in 1917 to emulate the Champs-Élysées in Paris , France. The route was determined by an axis drawn from Philadelphia City Hall to a fixed point on the hill that William Penn called "Fairmount" , now the site of

406-628: The Parkway had been produced and added to the City Plan by 1906, but the first comprehensive plan for the Parkway was commissioned in 1907 by the Fairmount Park Art Association, now the Association for Public Art . The Association commissioned architects Horace Trumbauer , Clarence Zantzinger, and Paul Philippe Cret , who created a detailed parkway design that was formally added to the City Plan in 1909. Construction on

435-399: The Parkway was flooded with over a million visitors both weekend days, a Celebration of Families on Saturday, and a Holy Mass on Sunday. There has been concern that the original plan of a wide, multi-sectioned, multi-lane, tree-lined boulevard, while beautiful to travel on, is not very engaging for pedestrian or other public use. Traffic along the Parkway has decreased considerably because of

464-661: The building's managers kept the original name, mainly because of the difficulties in getting all necessary parties to agree to change it. The building had been offered for sale in the past, and on August 5, 2010, it was sold to Brandywine Realty Trust . The company has since renamed the tower Three Logan Square, to better identify its location near two other Brandywine-owned buildings, One and Two Logan Square . Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin Parkway , commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called

493-563: The completion of Interstate 676 (Vine Street Expressway), linking the Schuylkill Expressway with the Benjamin Franklin Bridge . The roadway was since narrowed somewhat and the sidewalks expanded around Logan Circle . A plan for a greener, more walkable Parkway was released by the city in 2023. As of 2023, the Parkway is part of Philadelphia's High Injury Network , the small fraction of streets on which

522-604: The front of the Philadelphia Spectrum , which was then the indoor arena for the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers . It was later returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the filming of Rocky V , then brought back to the Spectrum. The statue was replaced with a bronze inlay of Converse sneaker footprints with the name "Rocky" above them. The statue's removal was the subject of

551-611: The majority of traffic deaths and serious injuries occur. [[Image:]] The Parkway is the spine of Philadelphia's Museum District. Some of the city's most famous sights are located here: Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul ; Swann Memorial Fountain ; Parkway Central Library , the Family Court Building , the Franklin Institute , Moore College of Art and Design , the Academy of Natural Sciences ,

580-502: The scene, Rocky Balboa , an unpolished but ambitious boxer from South Philadelphia played by Sylvester Stallone , begins intense physical training after deciding to fight Apollo Creed , the World Heavyweight Champion . The scene is widely considered one of the most iconic in the history of modern films. Tourists often mimic Rocky's famous climb, which has become a physical metaphor for an underdog rising to

609-737: The site between the Free Library and the Rodin Museum opened in Spring 2012. The Parkway has been used for several subsequent editions of the Made in America Festival. The Parkway was also the site of Jay-Z 's Made in America Festival on September 1–2, 2012, featuring Jay-Z, Pearl Jam , Skrillex , Calvin Harris , and others. On September 26 and 27, 2015, Pope Francis visited Philadelphia for that year's World Meeting of Families ;

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638-607: The statue of Rocky with Vikings colors. Despite being underdogs as they fielded backup quarterback Nick Foles , the Eagles defeated the visiting Vikings, 38–7 , which was nicknamed the "Minneapolis Massacre", thus denying the Vikings the opportunity to become the first team to play in a Super Bowl in its home stadium. In the run-up to Super Bowl LVII , the Kansas City Chiefs ' Travis Kelce warned "Chiefs, do not touch

667-484: The steps were one of Philly's biggest tourist attractions, and that Stallone, a native New Yorker , had become "the city's favorite adopted son". The Rocky film scene has become a cultural icon. Many tourists visit the steps to recreate the scene themselves. E! Channel ranked it No. 13 in its 101 Most Awesome Moments in Entertainment . During the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay , Philadelphia native Dawn Staley

696-917: The three River figures in the Swann Memorial Fountain by Alexander Stirling Calder , Shakespeare Memorial also by Calder, Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs by Nathan Rapoport at the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza , Joseph Leidy by Samuel Murray , Aero Memorial by Paul Manship , General Galusha Pennypacker by Charles Grafly and Albert Laessle , Jesus Breaking Bread by Walter Erlebacher , All Wars Colored Soldiers and Sailors Memorial by J. Otto Schweizer , Thaddeus Kosciuszko by Robert Aitken , Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial by Hermon Atkins MacNeil , Kopernik by Dudley Vaill Talcott , Joan of Arc by Emmanuel Fremiet , Washington Monument by Rudolf Siemering , and

725-489: The top of the steps. The closing credits of Rocky Balboa show a montage of dozens of people running up the steps. This scene was one of the first uses in a major film of the Steadicam , a stabilized camera mount that allows its operator to walk and even climb steps while smoothly filming. Boxer Joe Frazier , who had a paid cameo as himself later in the film, claimed that the scene was based in his training, even if he

754-493: Was chosen to run up the museum steps. The steps are the backdrop for the annual Independence Day celebration, and have often been featured in large concerts such as Live 8 . Two journalists from the Philadelphia Inquirer spent a year interviewing people who ran the steps, and published a book in 1996 called Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope, and Happiness at America's Most Famous Steps . The 2017 NFL draft

783-577: Was held from the steps, the first time the NFL Draft was held outdoors. The Rocky steps has been the subject of pregame dress-up by fans right before their NFL team plays the Philadelphia Eagles . As an example, in the days leading up to the 2017-18 NFC Championship , Minnesota Vikings fans were seen performing the "Skol!" chant around various Philadelphia landmarks, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art , where they also adorned

812-602: Was not paid for it. Prior to the 1982 release of Rocky III , Sylvester Stallone commissioned A. Thomas Schomberg to create a bronze statue of Rocky. Three 2-ton, 10-foot (3.0 m)-tall copies were to be cast. One was installed atop the steps for the filming of Rocky III , and was ultimately relocated to the bottom of the steps. The second Rocky was in the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum in San Diego, California , until it closed in 2017. The statue

841-449: Was then put up for auction, and purchased by an anonymous buyer who was later revealed to be Sylvester Stallone himself. In 2006, Schomberg realized the casting mold for the statue was beginning to decay, and the third and final edition of the statue was cast in bronze and put up for auction on eBay three separate times between 2002 and 2005, with a starting bid of US$ 5,000,000, then US$ 3,000,000, and finally US$ 1,000,000 to raise funds for

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