The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA), originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, opened in a into its permanent home on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwestern end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, in 1928. The main building's Greek Revival design was the product of collaboration of the architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary, but mostly credited to two architects in Trumbauer's firm--Howell Lewis Shay for the building's plan and massing, and Julian Abele, the first African American to graduate from University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, for the detail work and perspective drawings. The museum houses more than 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin, spread across more than 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years.
In 2007, the Philadelphia Museum of Art was ranked #24 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
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