Editing Society Hill Restoration (section)

== Architectural Results ==

The restoration preserved and highlighted Society Hill's collection of colonial and Federal-era architecture, creating streetscapes that approach the character of the neighborhood's eighteenth-century prime. Row houses, freestanding mansions, and institutional buildings display the brick construction, Georgian doorways, and Federal-era refinements characteristic of early American architecture. The restoration's requirements ensured that alterations respected historic character, maintaining visual coherence that careless changes might have compromised.<ref name="bacon"/>

New construction within Society Hill follows design guidelines intended to complement historic buildings without imitating them. I.M. Pei's Society Hill Towers, three high-rise residential buildings completed in 1964, demonstrate that modern architecture can coexist with historic surroundings when carefully designed. The towers' location, set back from the street on landscaped grounds, provides transition between their height and the low-rise historic fabric. Their architectural quality—Pei was among the era's most celebrated modernists—ensured that new construction would enhance rather than diminish the neighborhood's distinction.<ref name="gallery"/>