Results tagged “comcastcenter”

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2009 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know!

We kept walking by the Comcast Center and seeing a giant test pattern in the lobby. This is what we were missing.

Please make the break for more photos...

'kay thanks, bye!

You guys picked the items in this list - which made this post a lot easier to write! And we thank you for that, because we're really kind of burning out on this whole "a list every weekday of December" thing. Why did we decide to do this again?

Haverford Township Commissioner Fred Moran went on trial yesterday for "his alleged attempt to extort $500,000 from the developers of the Haverford State Hospital site in exchange for granting them zoning approval." Thanks in part to the influence of Betty Thompkins, a microscopist in Albert Einstein Medical Center's pathology department and one-time U. Penn researcher, Central High School "will be the first high school in the nation to receive the Phenom, a $72,000 tabletop electron...

It's been a wretched, sticky summer as usual, but we've still managed to hit the pavement to see our overgrown baby mature. Within a month, the Comcast Center will have a completed glass exterior, but we'll still get to watch the development of the outdoor plaza along JFK Blvd, the atrium and entrance to Suburban Station, and best of all, the unveiling of the lighting scheme. (Don't confuse the construction lights seen so far for the final illumination.)

Yesterday, a few vertical beams brought our concrete, steel, and glass behemoth to 975 ft. Congratulations, Philadephia. You've got a new tallest building, an honor enjoyed by One Liberty Place for nineteen years.

Inquirer photographer Sara J. Glover had the topping-out festivities covered, while Barbara L. Johnston showed the ironworkers doing their thing high above the streets.

When we last posted an update on the construction of the Comcast Center, it was from a lofty position on the 43rd floor. This update comes from a bit more humble of a perspective - namely, the street - but displays a pretty impressive feature anyway: glass.

The installation of glass at the site is hardly breaking news, since it began in October. Not until the last month, though, has it reached a height that can hint at how stunning the finished exterior will be. The skyscraper's skin is being formed with two different types of glass. One is highly reflective, while the other is mostly transparent.

The transparent glass will provide architectural variety by responding differently to the sky and by allowing more interior light to exit the building. The enormous, well-lit atrium on the JFK Blvd side and the cutout corners are both encased with the transparent glass, as will be the square crown making up the top 100 feet. (The steel construction is now just below this final crown.) The difference between the glass types can be seen in the photo on the right.



Even though the glass has been a pleasent surprise, looking much better on site than it did in the renderings, the Comcast Center still has a feature or two that it's been waiting to show off. A few floors up in the photo above, one lone bright spot can be seen on the left side. This is actually a test of the building's LED lighting system. When completed, it will create a striking effect by illuminating the all four corners and the crown.

More photos after the jump...

Remember to keep an eye out and be careful when walking the streets this afternoon and evening. The ice that accumulated on the taller buildings around the city is falling - a perpetual danger this time of year in Philly. The contractors at the construction site of our soon-to-be tallest building, the Comcast Center, wisely closed the sidewalks around the building (17th and Arch) earlier today for fear of falling ice. So if you were heading that way, take a detour - hopefully past some lower-lying buildings.

It was a urban photographer's dream.

Having seen my Comcast Center construction documentation page, one of the men working on the skyscraper's construction invited me on site and up the elevators to improve the collection. So on January 2nd, this Phillyist was on the very raw 43rd floor of the Comcast Center for an ironworker's view of the construction progress and amazing views of Philadelphia.



We began by climbing a few staircases and ladders to the third floor to catch the lift that carries equipment and workers to the upper levels. My tour guide contacted the lift operator by intercom to tell him our current location and destination, much like someone would hail a cab: "Jim, I'm on 3, need to go to 41!" There are only two such elevators to serve the entire project, and with large loads of tools and materials that need to share the space with workers, spots on the elevators are at a premium.

It took about 20 minutes for the elevator to finally pick us up. The apparent anger of my host was the source of my entertainment during our wait. Every couple minutes he blared into the intercom, "YO JIM, WHAT THE FUCK!?" A few times, as the completely full elevator passed without picking us up, Jim got a non-electronic variant of the same question.

(This early impression made me think my guide had a pretty short temper. Then, his friendly interaction with the lift operator once we were on board made me realize this is simply the language with which Philly's union construction guys communicate. The knowledge was helpful a few days later, when I received a profanity-laden voicemail from him because my phone was off while I was on a plane. Much like the face-to-face interaction with the elevator man, the ensuing phone call was polite and friendly.)

After stopping at what seemed like every floor, we finally reached the end of the line, 41. A brief and initially tentative walk to the edges for the view had me mesmerized, but we didn't stay there long before he suggested that we go up a few more levels by ladder.

With the Comcast Center pushing upward, 2006 will be the last year that One Liberty Place can claim to be Pennsylvania's tallest building, a title it's held since its controversial ascent was completed in 1987.

Standing at 61 stories and 945 feet, One Liberty Place was the tenth-tallest building in the United States when completed (it's currently 18th). It is a visually striking structure, an angular postmodern homage to New York's Chrysler Builidng, the 1930 masterpiece that is said by some to be the greatest skyscraper ever built. Credit for One Liberty Place's appearance goes to German architect Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects, whose work can be found in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

There was much debate in Philadelphia about whether One Liberty Place should be built at all. Although never an official law, a gentlemen's agreement not to build taller than the William Penn statue atop City Hall (548 feet) had limited the city's skyscrapers to a modest 500 ft.

A flashy building nearly 400 feet taller than the statue, Liberty One looked extremely awkward as the first and only building above City Hall. But once the gentlemen's agreement was broken, more cranes quickly littered Philly's sky. Between 1987 and 1992, six other skyscrapers defied the height limitation, strengthening the "Curse of Billy Penn," a purported hex on Philly sports teams set in place by the breaking of the agreement. (Hoping that the last 19 years without a major sports title are merely coincidence, we're moving on from this subject.)

Philly's skyscraper development trends were not unique in the United States. Fifteen of the nation's 25 tallest towers were completed during an American building boom that occurred between 1982 and 1992. From 1993 throuth 2005, no top 25 skyscrapers have risen in the US, and no new structure in Philly has eclipsed William Penn.

These days, Philadelphia's growth is again following wider trends. As the city's new tallest is under construction, so is New York's Freedom Tower, which will rise 1776 feet to become the tallest building in the United States.

So, in these last few months before One Liberty Place loses its status as our tallest building, we offer this photographic tribute. We have an enormous and amazing piece of postmodern architectural artwork nearly 1000 feet above our city's streets, and we appreciate it.


More photos in the continuation of this article.

Having outgrown the Independence Blue Cross Tower within the past few weeks, the under-construction Comcast Center is now the fifth-tallest building in the city.

Watch for it to rise another on its way to Philadelphia skyline immortality. We're less than six months from topping out and about a year from opening day.

Work has been going on at the site, located along 17th Street between JFK and Arch, for almost two years now. The concrete core is about the same height as the William Penn statue at the top of City Hall, making the building's impact on the skyline impossible to miss.