Philly Chit Chat

Friday Chit Chat: What I Know About The New Comcast/Four Seasons Building

The very exciting new Comcast Technology Center is nearly complete, adding another exciting building to the skyline.

Early in December officials from both the Four Seasons hotel and Developer Liberty Property Trust came to my condo building to give us the lowdown on the new structure. I didn’t have time to write it until today.

According to the Comcast website: The $1.5 billion 60-story, 1,121-foot tower will neighbor Comcast Center, Comcast Corporation’s global headquarters, and become a dedicated home for the company’s growing workforce of technologists, engineers, and software architects. The facility will also create a media center in the heart of the City by becoming home to the operations of local broadcast television stations NBC 10/WCAU and Telemundo 62/WWSI and offer space for local technology startups.  At the top of the new building will be a Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center Rooms: 217 (38 suites). Total square footage of hotel: 263,000. Hotel floors 48th to 60th: Guest rooms: 48th-56th.

I’ve been kinda obsessed with what I’ve dubbed the ladder in the sky, cause without it’s skin (facade) it looks like a steel ladder. The lantern adds the additional footage to make the building the tallest in Philadelphia. It’s official building name is “Lantern”. The Lantern is actually the chimney for the building, it’s where the exhaust from the HVAC system will be venting. The HVAC system, ie cooling and heating, is housed in the lower part of the Lantern. So if you ever see smoke from from the Lantern, know it’s really a chimney. It’s a pretty impressive design.

The front door for the Comcast Technology Center will be on 18th Street, closest to Arch Street. It’s across the street from the side entrance of the Comcast building. There will be a walkway connecting the two buildings, as well as an underground tunnel which I will get to in a moment.

The representative from Liberty Trust said there were also upgrades made to the Arch Street Church which is located along the the walkway. For the first time ever the Arch Street Church will have a door that opens into the newly landscaped plaza.

The entrance to the Four Seasons is at 19th and Arch Streets, is a mirror image to the Comcast Technology Center entrance. The lower level of the Four Seasons will house two restaurants and a cafe, with cafe tables along Arch Street. There are two ballrooms as well. I am really surprised that one of them wasn’t located on a higher floor for maximum wow factor for wedding and events.

To get to the upper floors guests will take express GLASS elevators, those with vertigo may have a bit of a hesitation, but imagine the video selfies as you speed to floor 57 and up.

The very top floor of the Four Season’s will house two premiere restaurants in Philadelphia, the only ones with the most amazing, unobstructed views of the Delaware Valley, up to 25 miles away.

Here’s a Instagram photo from a construction worker of the view from the 60th floor. In the foreground is Rittenhouse Sq.

Here is a cross section of the first several floors of the Comcast Technology Center building. The right side is the “entrance” to the Comcast part of the building. The lobby will be open to the public and soars several floors high. This is also the entrance for the workers at Comcast. The far left side is the Four Seasons lobby. You can see there’s a parking garage below, but it’s not a public garage as the space is limited.

Here’s a sculpture that is being installed in the lobby of the Comcast Technology Center by Conrad Shawcross

There will be nearly 50 bike racks for workers, and there’s shower facilities for the workers who want to freshen up before work. Interesting there is not a door between the Four Seasons lobby and the public space of the new Technology Center.

On the floor above the garage is a tunnel that takes you from the Technology Center to the new Comcast building, and Market Place Food Court, and then connect you with the SEPTA Concourse at Suburban Station. In essence I think you can walk underground from 19th & Arch Street all the way to 13th and Market, and eventually when the the Fashion Outlets open, to 8th and Market Streets, as well to Broad and Spruce and 13th & Locust (This came in hand for me when I was a paralegal at 11th & Market and I needed to get home at 12th & Locust). Pretty cool. (this was a terrible photo I took from my IPhone at the chat with Comcast folks.)

The loading dock is located on Cuthbert Street

One of the construction workers instagramed a shot of the new NBC10 Studios. BTW years ago I rumored about the whole project, someone had tipped me off all the way down to the NBC studios moving to the building, which I wrote about in 2013 It’s been fun watching it come to fruition.
The Four Seasons Hotel is on schedule to open in the Fall. The Technology Center a little before that time.
I can’t wait….here are a few outlets with more in-depth articles on the building. Some of the pixs came from these sources, Instagram, my bad old phone and the Comcast site.
 15 things to expect when Comcast Technology Center opens this year