John McArthur Jr. designed the building in the French Second Empire style, and Alexander Milne Calder made more than 250 sculptures. Construction ran from 1871 to 1901, though other passages give 1870 and 1872 as the start. The cost was $24 million.
It is the largest free-standing masonry building in the world, with load-bearing walls up to 22 feet (6.7 m) thick and about 88 million bricks. The height of 548 feet (167 m) includes the 37-foot (11 m) bronze statue of William Penn.
It was the tallest habitable building in the world from 1894 to 1908. The clock faces, 26 feet (7.9 m) across, are larger than Big Ben's. An observation deck just below the Penn statue is reached by a glass elevator.
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