This wonderful and very fun building represents the first major expansion of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In fact, we didn't even know what it was until a bus ferried the kids and I over from the main building for the Museum's Splash event, a program for children. The building is now a hot spot for kids and moms & dads, with five family-friendly exhibitions, Pay What You Wish family festivals, interactive art and play zones, and daily family programs. We explored every inch of the building as well as learned how to make embossed art. I was most impressed with the outside of the building. I spied over 20 examples of relief art, and that was only the front and the two winged sides; lord knows what's going on in the back of that thing.
About the Building
The NRHP site is located across from the Museum’s main building and featuring a beautifully preserved Art Deco façade, the Perelman Building holds the museum’s vast costume and textile collection. Also on display are photographs, modern and contemporary designs and several pieces from the Museum’s private collections (the kids loved that). With approximately 2,000 square feet of gallery space, the Perelman Building features a glass-walled study gallery providing access to the esteemed costume and textile collection, which includes some 30,000 pieces. SOURCE Wikipedia describes the building as an Art Deco building that features cathedral-like entrances and is adorned with sculpture and gilding. SOURCE All true.
Philadelphia architectural firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary, which had collaborated on the Philadelphia Museum of Art, designed the building to be the headquarters for Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company.[2] Construction began in 1926 and the building was completed in 1928. Sculptor Lee Lawrie created its decorative scheme, which features polychrome facades adorned with figures symbolizing attributes of insurance: the owl of wisdom, the dog of fidelity, the pelican of charity, the opossum of protection, and the squirrel of frugality.[2] Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company occupied the building from 1927 to 1972.[3] In 1982, it was acquired and restored by the Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, which in turn relocated in 1999. SOURCE
About the Man
So, why did the building change its name from Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company Building to the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building? Betcha it had something to do with a he!! of a lot of dough! Raymond and Ruth Perelman made an unrestricted gift of $15 million to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a gift that would contribute to strengthening the Museum's financial base and advance long-term objectives for expansion to serve its collections and its growing public. This gift has provided crucial support for the Museum's acquisition and renovation of Reliance Standard Life Insurance Building, named the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building in their honor by grateful trustees. SOURCE
A Museum trustee for more than 30 years, Mr. Perelman served as chairman of the board from 1997 until 2001, and is currently chairman emeritus as well as chairman of the Executive Committee. Born in Philadelphia on August 12, 1917, Raymond Perelman grew up in the Feltonville and Olney sections of the city, and attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a flight officer in the Air Force during World War II and then joined his father at American Paper Products. While working in the family business, he began developing his own niche, buying properties, buildings, and companies in the Philadelphia area. In 1960, he bought Belmont Iron Works, the largest steel fabricator in the Northeast for the construction industry. The many additional companies he has acquired since that time are now consolidated under the Belmont Holdings Corporation. SOURCE
Final Narrative
I was also able to dig up some self-promoting hoopla written hosted on the museum's website to promote its interests in the building and their art program: With its gleaming rows of windows, bright interior, and twin cathedral-like entrances, the landmark Art Deco building on Fairmount and Pennsylvania avenues was called "the Gateway to Fairmount Park" when it opened in 1927 as the headquarters for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company. It has now been dramatically recast in a new role as the gateway to the future for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the first phase of a master plan to expand and modernize the Museum.
The building occupies a two-acre site bordered by Pennsylvania and Fairmount Avenues and 25th and 26th Streets in Philadelphia. It faces the main Museum building across Kelly Drive and is among the most distinctive architectural structures along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, featuring one of the city's most elaborate Art Deco facades.
In 2001, Gluckman Mayner Architects was selected for the Perelman project. In October 2004, following a groundbreaking celebration for its donors, the major construction began in earnest and the original building was expanded by a 59,000-square-foot addition. As a focus for learning, connoisseurship, and sheer enjoyment of works of art, the Perelman Building is an important catalyst for the Philadelphia region's ongoing cultural renaissance.
Additional Source Materials
1. 
NRHP Focus
2. Visit Philly (Tourism)
3. New York Times