Comcast Center

The Comcast Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed between 2001 and 2005 by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, in association with Kendall/Heaton Associates, and built between 2005 and 2008, for a reported $540 million dollars, in Philadelphia, PA.

Comcast Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Comcast Tower.

Its precise street address is 1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2018 the Comcast Center was awarded with the CTBUH Awards of Excellence.

The Comcast Center overlooks a public square of approximately 2,000 square meters, designed by the Olin Partnership. The square extends above the train and underground Metro area. The tower's main entrance features a 34-meter-high winter garden that provides direct access to the underground train station. Additionally, the building includes an entrance hall that connects to the adjacent Arch Street Presbyterian Church.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Kendall/Heaton Associates.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Comcast Center a reality:

• Thornton Tomasetti in charge of Structural Engineering
• L. F. Driscoll Company as the Main Contractor
• Curtain Wall Design and Consulting and Enclos Corp. in charge of Facade Consultancy
• Liberty Property Trust as the Main Developer
• Paul H. Yeomans, Inc. in charge of MEP Engineering
• Olin Partnership in charge of Landscape Architecture

The Comcast Center can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The Comcast Center uses a frame structure made of steel columns and poured concrete over metal decking slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light-colored silver ultra-clear, non-reflective glass, with low iron content and low emissivity.

At night, the building's crown is illuminated with an integrated lighting system primarily in white, matching the luminous panels located at the corners of the joints.