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Comcast Center, also known as the Comcast Tower, is a
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
in
Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...
. The 58-story, tower is the second-tallest building in Philadelphia and in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
(after the
Comcast Technology Center The Comcast Technology Center is a supertall skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The 60-floor building, with a height of , is the tallest building in Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the fourteenth-tallest building in the ...
), as well as the twenty-third
tallest building in the United States The world's first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Since then, the United States has been home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers. New York City, specifically the borough of Manhattan, notably has the tallest skyline in the cou ...
. Originally called One Pennsylvania Plaza when the building was first announced in 2001, the Comcast Center went through two redesigns before construction began in 2005. Comcast Center was designed by
Robert A.M. Stern Architects Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP (RAMSA), is an architecture firm based in New York City. First established by Robert A. M. Stern (as Stern Hagmann Architects) in 1969, it is now organized as a limited liability partnership with 16 general partne ...
for
Liberty Property Trust Liberty Property Trust was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings and industrial properties. As of December 31, 2017, the company owned interests in 461 industrial and 48 office properties comprising 86.0 million square fe ...
. In early 2005, the final redesign and its new name—the Comcast Center—were unveiled. The building is named after its lead tenant, cable company
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
, which makes the skyscraper its corporate headquarters. Leasing , Comcast takes up 89 percent of the building. The building features retail and restaurant space and a connection to the nearby
Suburban Station Suburban Station is an art deco office building and underground commuter rail station in Penn Center, Philadelphia. Its official SEPTA address is 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. The station is owned and operated by SEPTA and is one of the three ...
. In Comcast Center's lobby is the ''Comcast Experience'', which is a high-definition
LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
screen that has become a tourist attraction. Designed to be
environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...
, the skyscraper is the tallest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building in Philadelphia.


History


Planning (1999–2004)

In 1999, class-A office vacancy in the city was at 6.6%, leading developer
Willard Rouse Willard Goldsmith Rouse III (June 19, 1942 – May 27, 2003) was an American real estate developer, best known for his role in the construction of Philadelphia's One Liberty Place. Early life and education Willard Rouse, a native of Baltimore, ...
to envision a new tower. Eventually the developer settled on the location where he constructed this building, a , $288 per square-foot parcel owned by Equitable Life Assurance Co. In 2000, the architect and
Driehaus Prize The Driehaus Architecture Prize, fully named The Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame, is a global award to honor a major contributor in the field of contemporary traditional and classical architecture. The Driehaus Prize was ...
winner
Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
began working on a design for a skyscraper being planned by
Liberty Property Trust Liberty Property Trust was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings and industrial properties. As of December 31, 2017, the company owned interests in 461 industrial and 48 office properties comprising 86.0 million square fe ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. In 2001, Liberty Property Trust announced its plan to build the 52-
story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...
One Pennsylvania Plaza in Center City. Anticipated US$400 million, One Pennsylvania Plaza was to be and made of
kasota stone Kasota limestone or simply, Kasota stone, also called Mankato stone, is a dolomitic limestone found in southern Minnesota, especially near the Minnesota River and its tributaries. This sedimentary rock is part of the Oneota Dolomite of southern ...
similar to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
. The site for the future skyscraper was situated at 17th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, a site occupied by a building that housed the
Defender Association of Philadelphia Defender Association of Philadelphia is a non-profit corporation, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that provides defense on a court-appointed basis for criminal and delinquency cases in which the defendants and respondents are indigent adults a ...
and a parking lot. Demolition of the building began in 2002 and ended in 2003. Cable company
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
had been looking for possible new headquarters space in anticipation of the end of its lease in Centre Square in 2006. Comcast was looking for more than of office space and developers were actively courting the company for their developments. Comcast was the only employer in the city with major expansion plans at the time. Comcast was considering staying in Centre Square, while also contemplating moving their headquarters to the new
Cira Centre The Cira Centre is a 29-story, office high-rise in the University City section of Philadelphia, directly connected to Amtrak's 30th Street Station. Developed by Brandywine Realty Trust and designed by César Pelli, it was built in 2004-05 on a ...
building or One
Pennsylvania Plaza Pennsylvania Plaza (Penn Plaza) is the office, entertainment, and hotel complex occupying and near the site of Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded by 31st Street to the south, Eighth Avenue to the west, 34th ...
. Comcast was spread out over 10 floors in two buildings at Centre Square and wanted space on contiguous floors. In January 2004, Liberty Property Trust unveiled a redesign for the building. The redesign turned One Pennsylvania Plaza into a 60-story, tower, making it the tallest building in the city at the time. In the redesign, the kasota stone was changed to a lighter granite and a short pyramidal roof was added. The redesign was a result of discussions that had begun in 2003 with Comcast about moving into the tower. On January 3, 2004, Liberty Property Trust signed a 15½-year lease with Comcast and a construction contract with L.F. Driscoll Co. Liberty Property Trust also unveiled another redesign of the building and its new name, the Comcast Center. The now , 58-story Comcast Center would no longer have a pyramid top and would have a complete glass facade. The architectural model was created by
Richard Tenguerian Richard Tenguerian ( hy, Տիգրան Թընկըրեան; born, August 3, 1955) is an architectural model maker of Armenian descent. Some of his notable physical models include the Kingdom Center in Riyadh (1998), Yankee Stadium in New York (2 ...
.


Controversy

Liberty Property Trust hoped to get the One Pennsylvania Plaza site designated a Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone (KOZ). KOZ designation was intended to encourage development in poor, blighted areas by exempting the tenants of the building from all state and local taxes. Designating One Pennsylvania Plaza a KOZ was supported by then Pennsylvania Governor
Ed Rendell Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philade ...
, who said it was important to keep corporations within the city. At the time, many of Philadelphia's big employers' leases, including Comcast's, were due to expire, and the employers were considering the possibility of moving out of the city and state. Rendell also said allowing Comcast to enlarge its headquarters by moving into One Pennsylvania Plaza could attract other corporate headquarters to the city. However, other Center City building owners, including Comcast's landlord at Centre Square, HRPT Properties Trust, were opposed to the plan. They said giving the tower the KOZ designation would give it an unfair advantage because Liberty Property Trust could charge above-market rents since the tax breaks would offset the cost for tenants. The group believed tenants attracted to One Pennsylvania Plaza because of the tax breaks would cause more vacancies in other Center City skyscrapers, rather than attracting more business to blighted areas as intended under the law. In early 2004, Center City had a vacancy rate of 12.8%. Both sides of the issue hired law firms, lobbyists, and business associates to promote their positions to city and state officials. A report by the Center City District said if both One Pennsylvania Plaza and the Cira Centre, another skyscraper in the KOZ controversy, were filled by corporations moving from other Center City office towers, the city could lose US$153 million by 2018. A report released by the group of building owners opposed to KOZ says the two buildings could cost the city almost US$91 million a year. In contrast, a report issued by a consulting company hired by Liberty Property Trust said that a KOZ designation for the skyscraper could generate US$27 million for the city. Critics of the KOZ designation also claimed that close relationships between Liberty Property Trust and Comcast and the Rendell administration were inappropriately influencing the governor's position on the issue. When Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia,
David L. Cohen David L. Cohen (born 1955) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Canada. He previously served as the senior advisor to the CEO of Comcast Corporation. Until January 1, 2020, he was ...
, a Comcast executive vice president, was Rendell's chief of staff, and William P. Hankowsky, Liberty Property Trust's chief executive, was director of Philadelphia's development agency. Rendell dismissed the claims, saying "Every building owner in town was a contributor to me." Chances the bill would be passed ended in November 2004 when
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
Republicans in the
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
decided not to bring the bill to a vote. Later that year, Governor Rendell released US$30 million from the Redevelopment Assistance Budget to Liberty Property Trust. Through the state's Department of Economic and Community Development, Comcast received US$12.75 million that included a US$4-million opportunity grant, US$6.75 million in job-creation tax credits, and US$2 million in job training assistance. Despite the failure to gain KOZ status, the project received US$42.75 million in financial incentives from the state.


Construction (2005–2008)

The official
groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...
ceremony was on March 31, 2005. The ceremony, which was held at night, featured a light show coordinated with a piece of music entitled "Elevation". The song was composed specifically for the event by
Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...
graduate Steven Hackman and recorded by the Curtis Institute of Music Orchestra. The groundbreaking also featured
Kodo __NOTOC__ Kodo may refer to: Japan * ''Kōdō'' (香道), ceremonial appreciation of incense * Nippon Kodo (日本香堂), an incense company * Kodō (taiko group) (鼓童), a ''taiko'' drumming group * Kodo-kai (弘道会), a yakuza criminal orga ...
, the Germantown High School
drumline Marching percussion instruments are instruments specially designed to be played while moving. This is achieved by attaching the drum(s) to a special harness (also called a carrier or rack) worn by the drummer, although not all marching bands us ...
, and a ice sculpture of the Comcast Center. As the building was under construction, in March 2006, Liberty Property Trust ran into trouble with Philadelphia's Plumbers Union Local 690, which had issues with the building's waterless urinals. The waterless urinals were part of the plan to make the Comcast Center an environmentally friendly building because they would save an extra of water a year. The plumbers union opposed the waterless urinals, claiming they were unsanitary and would provide less work for the plumbers. Philadelphia's Plumbing Advisory Board approved the waterless urinals on April 5 after a compromise, which stated that the building's owners and city officials would monitor the performance of the waterless urinals, was reached. Piping that would allow water to flow to the urinals in case they needed to be converted was installed in the Comcast Center, which Liberty Property Trust says was always part of the building's plan. A week later, on April 13, Liberty Property Trust sold an 80-percent interest in the Comcast Center to German real estate firm CommerzLeasing & Immobilien AG, a subsidiary of
Commerzbank AG Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambur ...
. The deal completed Liberty Property Trust's planned recapitalization of the anticipated cost of the building, and the value of the joint venture, called Liberty/Commerz 1701 JFK Boulevard L.P., included mortgage debt and equity. On June 18, 2007, the Comcast Center was
topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
. The ceremony, which was held in the building's future plaza, featured the raising of a steel beam to the skyscraper's highest point. The beam was signed by workers and guests and as it was raised, on account of tradition, an American flag and a tree sat on the beam. Also sitting on the beam was a statue of Philadelphia-founder
William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
. The statue was there to counteract the 1980s "curse" of Billy Penn, which prevented Philadelphia's sports teams from winning a championship following the construction of buildings taller than the statue of William Penn on top of the
Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It ...
. The statue of William Penn remained on the beam until it was stolen. The statue was replaced and the "curse" ended when the
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
won the 2008 World Series. Even though the building had not officially opened, Comcast office workers began moving in early December 2007, ahead of the scheduled completion in March 2008. The Comcast Center officially opened on June 6, 2008. A study sponsored by Comcast and Liberty Property Trust said the construction of the Comcast Center created 17,200 jobs and generated US$2 billion of economic activity for Pennsylvania. Despite opposition by other building owners to construction of the Comcast Center, by the time most space in the Comcast Center had been leased vacancy rates in Center City offices were falling and rents were rising. Even HRPT Properties Trust had leased 70 percent of the space Comcast vacated by 2007. The predictions by opponents did not occur mainly because Comcast ended up leasing 89 percent of the building and the offices for the Comcast Center's second-largest tenant, Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, were new to the city.


Building

Comcast Center has 58 floors, of which 56 are occupiable. The structure of the Comcast Center comprises a central concrete core with steel-framed floors. The building's exterior features a glass curtain wall made of lightly tinted, non-reflective
low-emissivity Low emissivity (low ''e'' or low thermal emissivity) refers to a surface condition that emits low levels of radiant thermal (heat) energy. All materials absorb, reflect, and emit radiant energy according to Planck's law but here, the primary co ...
glass. The tower tapers inward towards the top and features two cutouts near the top of the building on the north and south sides. To prevent the tower from swaying too much in the wind, the Comcast Center contains a double-chambered concrete tuned liquid column damper, the largest such damper in North America. Receiving a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in April 2009, the Comcast Center is the tallest LEED building in Philadelphia. The building was designed to use 40 percent less water than a typical office building, and the plaza was designed to reduce heat-island effect from the pavement by 70 percent. Reducing air conditioning and lighting costs, the low-emissivity glass curtain wall blocks 60 percent of heat while allowing 70 percent of the Sun's light inside. The Comcast Center can be viewed from some Philadelphia suburbs, such as this view from Cheltenham. The skyscraper has of rentable space, including of restaurant and retail space called The Market at the Comcast Center. of retail space is on the underground concourse while the rest is located on the street level. The building features high ceilings with some floors having a ceiling height of . The lower floors on the south side of the building feature four three-story stacked atrias. The building also features a 500-seat concourse level dining court and an 87-space private underground parking garage.
ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and h ...
provided the building's 30 gearless
elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
s, seven hydraulic elevators, and two
escalators An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...
. The Comcast Center faces a half-acre public plaza. The plaza, designed by
Lucinda Sanders Lucinda Sanders is CEO and partner at OLIN, a landscape architecture firm. She has had a leading role in many of OLIN's most recognized projects, and she shapes OLIN's goals of design and sustainability. Background and education Sanders studied ...
of
OLIN Olin may refer to: People Organizations * OLIN, American landscape architecture firm * Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis * Olin College, an undergraduate engineering college in Massachusetts * Olin Corporation, a chemica ...
, sits over underground railroad tracks. It features a seasonal outdoor restaurant, Plaza Cafe at Table 31, that is sheltered by a trellis. Between the cafe and the building entrance is a choreographed fountain designed by Wet. The tower's entrance is a tall
winter garden A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime. History The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...
. The winter garden entrance directly connects to the underground concourse of
Suburban Station Suburban Station is an art deco office building and underground commuter rail station in Penn Center, Philadelphia. Its official SEPTA address is 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. The station is owned and operated by SEPTA and is one of the three ...
. The building also has a lobby entrance that leads to the Arch Street Presbyterian Church adjacent to the tower. The exterior lighting scheme of the building was designed by Quentin Thomas Associates, and consists primarily of white LEDs color-temperature matched to the fluorescent lights used by the interior. Along each floor, the corner spandrel panels feature upward and downward-facing 4,100K LEDs to create the appearance that the length of the building has been bottom-lit by spotlights. The only major consistently active color element can be found at the top of the tuned mass damper; a single row of color-changing LEDs that is programmed to commemorate special events. For example, the top would be colored pink for
Breast Cancer Awareness Month Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM), also referred to in the United States as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awaren ...
. ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' architecture critic
Inga Saffron Inga Saffron (born November 9, 1957) is an American journalist and architecture critic. She won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism while writing for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. Biography Saffron was raised in Levittown, New York and attende ...
described the Comcast Center as "a respectable work of architecture" that was "dignified in its stance on the grid, generous in its relationship to the city, responsible in its treatment of the environment". She felt the tower's shape reminded her of a giant
flash drive A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write entire block of cell ...
. Saffron said the building excelled at the street level, praising the plaza, concourse, and its connection to Suburban Station. In 2009 the Comcast Center was awarded the
Urban Land Institute The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI advocates progressive development, conducting research, and education in topics such as s ...
Award for Excellence in the Americas category for the transformation of what was once mostly a vacant lot into a transit gateway.


Art

The Comcast Center's winter garden entrance contains two works of
installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
.


The "Comcast Experience" LED animation display

The ''Comcast Experience'' is a tall, wide, high-definition
LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
screen situated on a wall in the winter garden. The screen is composed of 7.8 million, 4.66mm pitch pixels housed in 6,771 LED modules of the type used in the Barco NX-4 panel. The installation, designed and produced by Niles Creative Group, premiered on June 6, 2008, and runs eighteen hours each day. The content of the video includes panoramic views of Philadelphia historic sites, images of space, dancers, acrobats and actors moving around a background designed to mimic wood paneling of the walls of the lobby. Another part of the installation displays images of cranes and machinery forming the design of a clock that tells the correct time of day. The ''Comcast Experience'' quickly became a popular tourist attraction, prompting city officials to add the Comcast Center to its tourism website. Between
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
2008 and
New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...
2009, a holiday video was included as part of the installation.


Humanity in Motion statuary

The second piece of art is
Jonathan Borofsky Jonathan Borofsky (born December 24, 1942) is an American sculptor and printmaker who lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine. Early life and education Borofsky was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mel ...
's ''Humanity in Motion''. Located in the glass atrium of the winter garden, ''Humanity in Motion'' shows ten life-size human figures walking across ten horizontal poles positioned at different levels of the atrium. At ground level, looking up at the stainless steel figures, are two more figures shaped to look like a father and son.


Tenants

Comcast is the skyscraper's largest tenant, leasing , or 89 percent of the building. The second-largest tenant is Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, which leases of office and retail space. Other tenants include the Judge Group, a staffing agency, which leases . Comcast's office space was designed by Daroff Design + DDI Architects and
Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...
. Comcast's space is topped by a conference room floor with the executive offices on the four floors below it. Below that are more offices and then, on the 43rd and 44th floors, is Ralph's Cafe, a two-story cafeteria space named after the company founder Ralph J. Roberts. Below the cafe is the training center called "Comcast University". The rest of the space is used for content and programing teams, customer service, Technology & Product teams, Finance and Legal. The
interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...
of the offices are designed with a variety of shape and color ranging from the open white space of the upper offices to the colorful walls of the training center. Other designs include a glass and stainless steel staircase that wraps around a four-story column of flat-screen monitors and connects the executive floors. The retail portion of the tower includes numerous shops and eateries. The shops and eateries include national and regional chains, and initially featured a restaurant called Table 31. Table 31, which had a cafe on the plaza and a restaurant spread over three floors in the tower, was owned by Philadelphia restaurateurs and chefs Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio. The restaurant was named after a popular table at the former Perrier and Scarduzio establishment Brasserie Perrier. Table 31 closed in 2013, amid a dispute among its owners, and was replaced by another upscale steakhouse, named "Chops".


See also

*
List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia Philadelphia, the largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is home to more than 300 completed high-rise buildings up to , and 58 completed skyscrapers of or taller,
*
Comcast Technology Center The Comcast Technology Center is a supertall skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The 60-floor building, with a height of , is the tallest building in Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the fourteenth-tallest building in the ...


References


External links


Liberty Property Trust overview

Comcast Center
on
CTBUH The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...
Skyscraper Center
''Philadelphia Inquirer'' construction slideshow
{{good article Office buildings completed in 2008
Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings Postmodern architecture in Pennsylvania Modernist architecture in Pennsylvania Skyscraper office buildings in Philadelphia Telecommunications company headquarters in the United States 2008 establishments in Pennsylvania Center City, Philadelphia Robert A. M. Stern buildings Structures with tuned mass dampers