The Comcast Technology Center is a supertall

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

in Center City Philadelphia. The 60-floor building, with a height of , is the tallest building in both

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and the state of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere outside of Manhattan and Chicago. The tower is located on the southwest corner of 18th and Arch Streets, one block west of the Comcast Center, the headquarters of

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

Corporation. A hotel, representing the highest hotel in the nation, and restaurant are located on the top floors. The building's central floors are offices for Comcast

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

s and

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

, and the lowest floors have television studios and retail stores. Construction on the building began in mid-2014 and was completed on November 27, 2017. The first personnel began moving into the building in late July 2018, and the tower was open to the public in October of that year.

Design and construction

The lead architect was Foster and Partners, with Kendall/Heaton Associates the collaborating architect, and interior design by

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $1.785 billion in revenue, the most o ...

with Foster and Partners in collaboration. The L.F. Driscoll Company was the construction contractor. The tower contains approximately 1.566 million rentable square feet, including 1.334 million rentable square feet of office space, 230,112 square feet of hotel space, and 2,682 rentable square feet of retail space. A set of five tuned sloshing dampers containing 125,000 gallons of water are located in the ceiling of the 57th floor, beneath the hotel lobby. The moving water is a counteracting force on windy days to reduce swaying of the upper part of the tower. A-shaped steel braces are embedded between hotel rooms on the east and west sides, to stiffen the upper part of the building against strong, prevailing winds.

Use

The building consists primarily of workspace for Comcast employees and the Four Seasons Hotel, formerly on Logan Circle. The hotel is on the 48th to 56th floors with a lobby and restaurant on the 60th floor. Accommodations include 219 rooms, 39 of them suites. The building also includes television studios, restaurants, a retail mall, and a parking garage. The entire project contains about . The property is co-owned by Comcast and Prologis, and had an estimated construction cost of $1.5 billion. Comcast's NBC owned-and-operated station WCAU (channel 10), along with Telemundo's owned-and-operated station WWSI (channel 62) announced plans to move their studio operations and offices from City Avenue, the Philadelphia- Bala Cynwyd boundary, to several of the lower floors of the building. The stations completed the on-air move on October 21, 2018, though some operations (such as the base for the station live vehicles) will remain in Bala Cynwyd for the time being.

Gallery

File:Comcast Innovation and Technology Center - Philadelphia (by MyWikiBiz) - view of northwest corner.jpg, Construction from northwest corner, October 2015 File:Comcast Innovation and Technology Center - Philadelphia - view of east side.jpg, Construction of the concrete core, from inside the Comcast Center, March 2016 File:CITC 20160523.jpg, Construction from the southeast, May 2016 File:CTC_December_2016.jpeg, From the base of the Comcast Center, December 2016 File:A picture of the Comcast Technology Center from south west side in November 2017.jpg, From the southwest corner, November 2017 File:CTC Tower April 2018.jpg, After top-off and prior to opening, as viewed from a

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

on the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

, April 2018 File:Comcast Centers in Philadelphia.jpg, From Interstate 76, June 2018 File:Comcast Technology Center 2018.jpg, Nearly complete Comcast Technology Center, July 2018

References

External links

Comcast press release

{{Authority control 2018 establishments in Pennsylvania Arch Street Center Modernist architecture in Pennsylvania NBC NBC buildings NBCUniversal Office buildings completed in 2018 Postmodern architecture in Pennsylvania Skyscraper office buildings in Philadelphia Telecommunications company headquarters in the United States Television studios in the United States

Design and construction

Use

Gallery

See also

References

External links