One Port Center, Camden

One Port Center is a modern office building on the waterfront and one of the clearest signs of the area’s late 20th-century redevelopment. Completed in 1996, it was designed by architect Michael Graves and serves as the headquarters of the Delaware River Port Authority. The building was originally planned as part of a larger complex, with its L-shaped site meant to frame a parking garage and a second companion building that was never constructed.

Its design reflects Michael Graves’s Postmodern style, with strong colours, geometric forms, and symbolic details. Blue and white glazed brick links the lower levels to the riverfront setting, while the grey middle section suggests the area’s industrial past. At the top, three-story yellow aluminium columns contain executive offices and the DRPA boardroom.

For tourists, One Port Center is mainly an architectural and urban-history stop rather than a visitor attraction with exhibits. Its setting recalls the area’s industrial past, including nearby shipyards that produced major vessels for both World Wars. More recently, a 1 MW solar canopy installed in 2021 linked the site to the DRPA’s Green Port Initiative. Today, it helps show how the former industrial waterfront has shifted toward offices, public spaces, transport, and recreation.