Comcast Technology Center

The Comcast Technology Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed between 2013 and 2014 by Foster + Partners, in association with Kendall/Heaton Associates, and built between 2014 and 2019, for a reported $1.50 million dollars, in Philadelphia, PA.

Its precise street address is 1800 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA. You can also find it on the map here.

The Comcast Technology Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2019. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• CTBUH Awards of Excellence in 2019
• CTBUH Awards for Best Tall Building by Region in 2020
• ULI, Philadelphia Rouse Award in 2019
• Gold London Design Awards for Mixed-use buildings in the International category in 2020
• International Property Awards for Best Mixed-Use Architecture in 2020
• International Property Awards for Best Mixed-use Architecture in Americas in 2021
• Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) - Best Tall Building in Americas in 2021

In the building's lobby, behind the nearly 22-meter-high glass wall that separates it from the outside, we find a space known as an "urban room". This public area is surrounded by trees and seating, and features an escalator that provides access to a Coffee Bar and The Universal Sphere, a structure created by Steven Spielberg that offers a cinematic experience for all ages based on the power of ideas.

In addition to parking, the underground levels feature a passenger lobby that connects to the Suburban metro station and commercial area .

Foster + Partners 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 Technology Center a reality:

• Thornton Tomasetti in charge of Structural Engineering
• L. F. Driscoll as the Main Contractor
• Vidaris in charge of Facade Consultancy
• Schindler as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Liberty Property Trust as the Main Developer
• BALA Engineers in charge of MEP Engineering
• OLIN in charge of Landscape Architecture
• Gensler, Daroff Design, and Rottet Studio in charge of Interior Design
• Jenny Holzer, Conrad Shawcross as the collaborating Artist

The Comcast Technology Center can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

By today's standards the Comcast Technology Center could probably be classified as a "high-tech" building. Only time will tell if this substyle will grow and stick onto the history books, or if perhaps it will become a substyle of a larger style. Only time will tell. Until then, we believe it's best to refer to the Comcast Technology Center as a contemporary building.

The Comcast Technology Center uses a trussed tube-in-tube structure , with steel columns and poured concrete over metal decking slabs.

A trussed tube-in-tube structure uses a central core, known as inner tube, which usually holds stairs, lifts and installations, and a perimeter of columns around it, which form the exterior tube. The interior tube is tipically more massive (often made of reinforced concrete), and the exterior tube is "lighter" (made of steel or concrete columns). Both tubes are conencted via horizontal elements which make up the floors and also transmit any horizontal froces from the facade to the core.

The facade employs a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame at the edges of the floor slabs. The perimeter columns are set back slightly from the facade, allowing them to remain independent of the curtain wall system.

This configuration enables a completely free design of the curtain wall, unencumbered by structural elements, thus providing greater flexibility in aesthetic choices and maximizing the visual impact of the exterior.

This, together with five tuned dampers installed below he hotel lobby, on the 57th floor, enhance the resistance fo the building to the characteristic winds of the area

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features low-emissivity, non-reflective, and slightly tinted glass. The exterior of the building is further accentuated by a stainless steel mesh cladding, featuring distinctive 8-meter-long diagonal chevron-shaped panels.

Another distinctive feature of the building is the 13 elevated gardens on the east facade, known as "sky gardens." Each spans three floors, allowing vegetation to extend throughout the building.