Comcast Technology Center
The Comcast Technology Center is a supertall skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The 60-floor building, with a height of 1,121 feet (342 m), is the tallest building in Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania, the tenth-tallest building in the United States and the tallest outside 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 Corporation. A hotel-the highest in the country-and restaurant are located on the top floors, while central floors contain offices for Comcast software developers and engineers, and the lowest floors have television studios and retail stores.
Construction began in mid-2014, topped out on November 27, 2017, and the first personnel began moving into the building in late July 2018. The tower was open to the public in October 2018.
Design and construction
The lead architect was Foster and Partners, with Kendall/Heaton Associates the collaborating architect, and interior design by Gensler 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 1,566,000 square feet (145,500 m2). The property is co-owned by Comcast and Liberty Property Trust, and had an estimated construction cost of $1.5 billion.
Comcast's NBC station WCAU (channel 10), along with Telemundo's 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.
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