Swastika Philadelphia City Hall

Photo by Bugeyed from One of many beautiful ceilings and light fixtures in Philadelphia City Hall.
The building was designed by Scottish-born architect John McArthur, Jr., in the Second Empire style, and was constructed from 1871 until 1901 at a cost of $24 million. Designed originally to be the world's tallest building, by the time it was completed it had already been surpassed by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower, though it was indeed the world's tallest habitable building at the time of opening. It also was the first modern building (excluding the Eiffel Tower, see above) to be the world's tallest and also was the first secular habitable building to have this record: all previous world's tallest buildings were religious structures, whether European cathedrals or, for the previous 3,800 years, the Great Pyramid of Giza.