William Jordy said the building's uniqueness "appears in its extraordinary ambiguity, as reconciliation, synthesis, and prophecy." Jordy also said, "Although it does epitomize the coming America of the European functionalist style of the twenties, this event occurred so late as to make it seem more of a synthesis of previous developments than a herald of new departures. Yet...as a synthesis, then as an American synthesis, PSFS is worthy of study today...it is rather more innovative than its appearance, date, and provincial position suggest...PSFS is not even quite the unadulterated exemplar of the International style that it seems to be. It depends as well on Beaux-Arts theory, which it ostensibly repudiates."