Comcast Center (office building)

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Comcast Center
Information
Location 1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Status Under construction
Groundbreaking January 2005
Estimated completion May 2008
Opening June 2008
Use Office
Height
Roof 975 ft (297 m)
Technical details
Floor count 57
Floor area 1,238,000 ft (377,300 m)²
Elevator count 35
Cost $540 million
Companies
Architect Robert A. M. Stern Architects
Structural
Engineer		 Thornton Tomasetti
Contractor L. F. Driscoll Company
Developer Liberty Property Trust
Owner Liberty/Commerz 1701 JFK Boulevard L.P.
For the arena in College Park, Maryland, see Comcast Center (arena).

Comcast Center is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The building is expected to completed in June 2008. Presently, the building is open to its primary tenant, Comcast, which will complete relocating employees to the new tower by July 2008.

On June 18, 2007, it became the tallest building in Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in an official topping-out ceremony led by then Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street.

When the final beam in the construction was raised on June 18, ironworkers of Local Union 401 attached a small figurine of William Penn to the beam in homage to the statue atop Philadelphia City Hall, and in a half-joking attempt to break the curse of Billy Penn.[1]

Contents

[edit] Design and construction

South elevation. One Liberty Place is reflected in the glass.
South elevation. One Liberty Place is reflected in the glass.

Designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, LLP, it rises to a height of 975 feet (297 m), Comcast Center will have 57 floors, 56 rentable with 1,248,000 square feet (115,900 m²) of office space and about 23,000 square feet (2,100 m²) of retail facilities. As of 2005, over 70% of the office space has been reserved. In 2006, the building was valued at $523 million.[2]

The building is situated between Arch Street, 17th Street, 18th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard (the building's footprint obliterated a one block section of Cuthbert Street). While its official address will be One Comcast Center Philadelphia, PA 19103-2838, it is located at 1701 John F. Kennedy Boulevard and the tower itself rises on the Arch Street side of the block, due to the Suburban Station concourse and rail tunnel that run directly beneath Liberty Plaza in front of Comcast Center.

Owing to the terracing and idiosyncratic notch, the Philadelphia Inquirer has joked that Comcast built a giant USB memory stick.[3]

Part of the public space includes a new entrance to the SEPTA's Suburban Station with a 120-foot (37 m) high glass-enclosed winter garden. Other features include:

  • multiple three-story stacked atria rising on the south face of the building
  • ½ acre landscaped public park, Liberty Plaza, with a fountain display and an outdoor cafe seating 85.
  • expansion of Suburban Station's underground retail concourse
  • 500-seat concourse level dining court
  • 120 private space underground parking garage
  • new entrance lobby addition to historic Arch Street Presbyterian Church
  • sustainable building design with the goal of achieving a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council
  • waterless urinals

The project had originally been named One Pennsylvania Plaza, but when Philadelphia-based Comcast Corporation agreed to a significant presence in the tower — taking 873,000 square feet (81,100 m²) on 39 floors in a 15 1/2-year lease — the entire project was named after Comcast.

The lighting scheme for the building was designed by Quentin Thomas Associates and features LEDs at a color temperature of 4100k to compliment the existing fluorescent lighting present in the office space. The LEDs are placed in the corners of the building along the spandrel panels, in the cut-outs on the north and south faces and lastly on top 5 floors of the tuned liquid column damper. In addition there is a set of color-programmable LEDs on the top floor facing downwards that will be set to celebrate various events and holidays similar to other buildings in the Philadelphia skyline.

The building has gone through four iterations before the current and final design was adopted. The second version of One Pennsylvania Plaza would have risen to a height of 1,030 feet (314 m) with 62 stories, and would have been the tallest building in the United States, outside of New York City and Chicago.

A second 16-story, 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m²) companion tower is planned for the southwestern section of the parcel.

Upon completion, Comcast Center will contain the largest Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD) in the world.[4]

[edit] Ownership

The building was begun by Liberty Property Trust of Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania state government has contributed $30 million for the building's public spaces. In 2006, Liberty Property Trust sold 80% of their interest in the building to CommerzLeasing & Immobilien AG, a German company and subsidiary of Commerzbank AG. Liberty will continue to operate the Comcast Center as a joint venture with Commerzbank. The 80%-Part of the CommerzLeasing & Immobilien AG will merge into a closed end fund, sold in Germany by another daughter of the Commerzbank, the Commerz Fonds Beteiligungen, CFB.

[edit] See also

Philadelphia Portal

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Holcomb, Henry J.. "Comcast Center topped off". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 
  2. ^ "Liberty sells 80% of Comcast Center", Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14, 2006. 
  3. ^ Blinq: Did Comcast Build a Giant Memory Stick?
  4. ^ Motioneering. Retrieved on 2007-05-02.

Coordinates: 39°57′17″N, 75°10′06″W

Preceded by
One Liberty Place		 Tallest Building in Philadelphia
2008—Present
297m		 Succeeded by
Present
Preceded by
One Liberty Place		 Tallest Building in Pennsylvania
2008—Present
297m		 Succeeded by
None
v • d • e
Skyscrapers in Philadelphia
Current
Under construction
Approved
Proposed
See also