I spent much of the summer of 2008 painting Philadelphia's City Hall at different times of day or night and from different angles. City Hall is a challenge to paint due to its massive scale and elaborate ornamentation. It is a huge structure covered with sculpture by Alexander Milne Calder, and a façade of white and gray marble, limestone and granite. City Hall was designed by Scottish architect John McArthur Jr. and took 30 years to construct. At the time of its completion in 1901, City Hall was the largest government building in the world. It remains the world's tallest masonry building, with supporting walls up to 22 feet thick.

In order to include the entire height of the building in a painting composition I needed to be at least 3 blocks away from it. On a hot July, night I circled City Hall looking for painting angles ranging as far as 10 blocks away to find good views to paint. In this case I set up on the median of South Broad Street.