How tall is the philadelphia comcast building

On the ceiling, a Jenny Holzer digital ticker energizes the space with a constant stream of words about Philadelphia, while a mirrored, multifaceted kite sculpture by Conrad Shawcross grounds the massive room and provides a central visual focus. Take the escalator to the mezzanine and order a gourmet pretzel at the Vernick Coffee bar or a sit-down meal at the restaurant.

Even more than the winter garden at the first Comcast tower, this lobby feels like a public living room. Once the Four Seasons opens, the high-speed glass elevators on 19th Street are likely to become the greatest carnival ride in town. Because the site is long and narrow, Foster conceived of the project as two separate pieces, one horizontal, the other vertical.

The horizontal piece — a shoe-box-shaped podium — runs the length of the block between 18th and 19th Streets. The aesthetic treatment is so different, you might think the two pieces had different architects.

The tower is light and airy, faced mainly in glass that has been crisply detailed with thin metal bands and the distinctive, zigzagging corset. Its facade sparkles in the sunshine. The podium, on the other hand, is virtually opaque. The foot-high shoe box has been so tightly wrapped in strips of corrugated metal that there are only narrow slits for windows above the ground floor. What gives? As it turns out, those corrugated bands were inspired by the steel train cars manufactured at the old Budd plant in North Philadelphia.

Like racing stripes on a sports car, they infuse the podium with a sense of motion. Foster grew up in Manchester, England, a city that, like Philadelphia, suffered the ravages of deindustrialization and is only now finding its way back through new industries like tech.

Rather than painting over markings made by contractor LF Driscoll during construction, those crude calculations have been left exposed to emphasize that even a building this size and complex is the work of human beings. That aesthetic is a long way from the marble-slathered corporate office towers that defined American cities in the s. Comcast is, of course, a major corporate power, that exerts enormous influence over our daily lives, but Foster uses his immense skills to present the company in a softer light.

Both buildings are even more deluxe and bespoke than Comcast. While the Bloomberg headquarters includes restaurants on the ground floor, its lobby and interior spaces are as fortified as Fort Knox. Apple is many times worse. It sits in splendid isolation behind a security perimeter on a acre suburban campus. Both are temples where the engineer-gods cook up new ways to keep us connected to our devices. In contrast, Comcast weaves its building directly into the fabric of the city — through a pristine, art-filled SEPTA concourse, through a new, midblock crosswalk on 18th Street, through its restaurant, theaters, and ballroom.

By making its new tower accessible to the public, Comcast offers a different, and far preferable, model for the architecture of tech.

City Hall remains the tallest masonry building in the world, and set the unofficial height limit for the city for much. Those are a kind of exoskeleton, supporting the structure so it can stand upright. Models and animation by Thomas Koloski. The bright feature on top is reminiscent of One Liberty Place and the other towers that broke through heights once thought unreachable. By now the tower has been open for nearly two years now with a beacon that crowns the expanding skyline.

We can only wonder what building will pass the Comcast Technology Center in height next and how it will fit into the Philadelphia skyline. Lord Foster designed Park Avenue with the 3 fins which is a very similar design element to the latern spire atop of the Comcast Technology Center.

It was such an honor to have Lord Norman Foster in Philadelphia. I really enjoy his designs. There is a historically protected church on the Comcast site It was planned to put a shorter building after clearing the site but that has not happened at all as they have not moved a muscle at all on the site.

Do you think Comcast will buy an existing building not too far away for their needs? The roof is at about feet tall. When they added the 60th floor to the design, they added that extra height, but the media never found out. Thank you for sharing this interesting news, unfortunately all of the online publications have recorded 1, feet for the Comcast Technology Center.

I do rather like the look of the CTS. I have not seen this but is not some the other buildings are taller? The Comcast Center has a mechanical roof that appears higher than the actual roof on the Comcast Technology Center.

You see that allot in Manhattan. Just look at the shameless thin spire atop of the New York Times building on 8th Avenue. The Conde Nast building in Times Square is cheating just as bad. Photo by Thomas Koloski. Comcast Technology Center.

The rumor of a third tower is a much shorter building in height. This tower was designed for startups with lofts, very similar to Park Avenue. I hope he comes back to Philadelphia soon to help develop the next supertall. James March 21, at am Reply. Facebook Logo. Link Icon. An inside look at the new Comcast Technology Center. This entrance also serves the fifth-floor ballrooms, utilizing the longest escalator in city. Arch Street Presbyterian church. Main entrance. Arch St.

Published Jan. Jon Snyder Email. From the lobby to the lantern, here are the details of Philadelphia's newest skyscraper.