If buildings could make distress signals the Mercantile Library on Chestnut Street would fill the ears of all in Center City. The once sleek, mid-century modern structure, vacant for 26 years, now sits in a state of slow decay. Interior architect Shila Griffith says the bones of the building are still strong and envisions a co-working space for medical industrial designers with this month’s Marked Potential

Memories of the Mercantile Library from an obscure insurance company executive who doubled as first rate essayist

Ben Leech interviews the architects who will renovate the 1952 Mercantile Library on Chestnut Street, the long-boarded up building that Louis Mumford called one of the best examples of mid-century modern architecture in the nation