The Design Center, located in the Goldie Paley House, was founded in 1978 as the Paley Design Center, an exhibition space for regional fine art, and a home to a textile archive for Philadelphia University (formerly the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science). The building is located on the campus of Philadelphia University in the East Falls section of the city. Designed by Philadelphia architect, Earl Bolten, and constructed 1952-1954, the structure was built as a private residence for Ike and Rita Levy.

The first "Hollywood House" in Philadelphia, the design borrows from the California Case Study homes of the period. The building, a one-story ranch encompassing over 7,000 square feet, is a regional treasure. A marble-flanked entranceway leads to an expanse of windows overlooking Fairmount Park. Beneath an undulating roof overhang, a rear terrace curves along the home's entire length. The grand piano-shaped swimming pool, located on the lower terrace, and an ornamental Japanese maple tree, create extraordinary focal points against the canopied forest.

All the public rooms -- living room, library and dining room, now The Design Center's galleries -- open onto the next in orderly enfilade. Two wings flank these rooms. The right wing, presently an office area, housed the staff quarters, a painting studio and a four-car garage. This wing includes a kitchen and pantry, four bedrooms and two baths. The staff's dining area, presently the Color Room, is located just off the main kitchen. The left wing of the house, now a textile archive, once served as a guest bedroom and master suite with views of the pool and surrounding woods.

Goldie Paley acquired the house in 1965 following the death of her husband, Samuel Paley. After Mrs. Paley's death in 1977, her daughter, Blanche Paley Levy, donated the home to Philadelphia University as a memorial to her mother.

By that time, university faculty had amassed a variety of historic textiles, fabrics and apparel, textile-making artifacts and tools. All of these collections were consolidated and moved to the new Paley Design Center. Minor alterations turned this private home into offices and storage space for textile materials permitting the building to serve as an educational resource for students, faculty, researchers, and the general public. The dedication of the center coincided with the opening of its first exhibition entitled "A Fabric Bestiary" on September 12, 1978.

In July of 2001, the Paley Design Center was renamed The Design Center at Philadelphia University. Its primary address remains the Goldie Paley House, though exhibitions occasionally take place at other sites in Philadelphia. The Design Center is now completely devoted to exploring the design arts and their relationship to our communal past and present. Today, exhibitions focus on contemporary and historic design art issues of national interest. And, the textile collections remains available by appointment to scholars and design professionals.

About Goldie Paley

Goldie Paley and her husband, Samuel, were both born in a small town in Ukraine, Russia, where they first met. They were very poor, and as children each emigrated with their families to Russian-Jewish communities in America. They met again in Chicago, where they married and became the parents of two children, son William Paley, founder and chairman of CBS network, and daughter, Blanche Paley, who married into the Levy family. Samuel's initial fortune was made as a cigar merchant, and later as an investor in radio stations.

The family eventually moved to the prosperous Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. After the death of her husband, Goldie Paley moved from her French provincial mansion to the modern "Levy" house on Henry Avenue, close to her daughter. Mrs. Paley wintered in Palm Beach, traveling there with her staff in her son's private jet. Well into her 90's, she died in 1977.