User:Alogue2/comcastcenter
INTRODUCTION: The Comcast Center is the tallest building and staple of the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA. The Comcast Center is located at 1701 John F. Kennedy Boulevard; it is 975 feet tall and consists of 58 floors, with 3 of the floors below ground. The building made its grand opening on June 6th, 2008 and since then it has been a new and intriguing part of experiencing Philadelphia. Robert A.M. Stern, the lead architect, and Thorton Tomasetti, the lead structural engineer, uniquely constructed the Comcast Center for the 21st Century by making it sustainable and environmentally friendly. The Comcast Center is a building that was constructed to truly represent an efficient, economical, and elegant design of structural art.
SOCIAL: The Comcast building is not a regular building that can be viewed as a nice attribute to the Philadelphia skyline; it is an experience that can be felt from inside and outside the building. It is not just for the people who work there either. The Comcast Center invites onlookers, tourists, and people just passing by to come in and view the 2000 square foot LED screen that projects realistic images with a resolution 500 times greater than a high definition television. There is also a 36,000 square foot market place on the bottom floor, an outdoor restaurant and fountain, an elite steakhouse on the 48th floor, and an easily accessible entrance to the subway station.
ECONOMICAL: Economically, the Comcast Center, which cost $540 million , was relatively cheap when compared with similar structures such as the Duke Energy Center in Chicago, which was $880 million , and the Bank of America Tower in New York, which cost $1 billion . Also, the Comcast Center is estimated to generate almost $1.16 billion in total expenditures and support 6,500 jobs and $460 million in earnings within the city of Philadelphia.
EFFICIENT/SCIENTIFIC: The Comcast Center is one of the most efficient and scientifically advanced buildings in the United States. It has received a gold rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design because of its unique designs throughout the building. It uses 40% less water than a comparable office building such as the Bank of America Tower and saves an estimated 3 billion gallons of drinking water per year. Unique shading on the plaza reduces the heat island effect caused by pavement by 70%. Also, there is a glass curtain that blocks heat from the sun while still allowing sunlight to enter the building.
The Comcast Center is not only environmentally friendly, but it is also safe and structurally sound. It is composed of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete. Since it is the tallest building in Philadelphia, the Comcast Center was built with post 9/11 designs. There is a high-strength freestanding core that carries much of the buildings load along with concrete columns and the exterior steel frame. The core is designed to hold up even if the steel frame on the outside is compromised. Also, there is a 300,000-gallon double-chambered concrete tuned liquid column daper that helps prevent the building from swaying too much in the wind.
ELEGANCE/SYMBOLIC: Next to Philadelphia’s city hall, the Comcast Center is Philadelphia’s most recognizable building. Its elegance is in the building’s simplicity. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, the Comcast Center does not have an antenna that makes it look taller than it is. The top of the building is used for mechanical purposes and not to artificially inflate the height of the building. Also, the glass that covers the building reflects the Comcast Center’s surroundings making it a beauty to look at. Finally, it will always be symbolic in the eyes of native Philadelphians because it broke the curse of “Billy Penn”. The curse of “Billy Penn” is that no Philadelphia Sports team has won a championship since a building had surpassed the height of William Penn on top of City Hall. That is until the Comcast building had a 2-foot William Penn statue placed on top of it upon its completion and the Phillies won the 2008 World Series, forever endearing it into the heart of the people of Philadelphia and all Phillies fans around the country.
The Comcast Center is an efficient, economical, and elegant design that truly exemplifies modern day structural art. The Comcast Center isn’t just the tallest building in the city, but it is a building that can be experienced on the inside and outside. Through the 2000 ft. LED television and the many restaurants everyone is able to eat at, to a place where people come for work everyday. The Comcast Center is the 21st Centuries version of structural art with its environmental consciousness and sleek, simple design. This is an amazing structure and one that will be around for many years to come.
Link to Structural Art Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_art Link to Comcast Center Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center_(Philadelphia)
References: http://www.visitphilly.com/museums-attractions/philadelphia/comcast-center/, http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=4894, http://www.libertyproperty.com/comcast.asp, http://www.libertyproperty.com/pdfs/News-Release-Comcast-Center-Opens.pdf, http://constructor.agc.org/features/archives/0711-40.asp, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comcast_Philly.JPG
