Well this is kind of fun. This week, our own social media guru, Jack Cotter, spotted a lighted Christmas tree on the southwest corner of the rising core of the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center at 18th and Arch.
The Foster + Partners-designed mega project will eventually rise to 1,121 feet in the sky, becoming the tallest building (spire included) in Philadelphia, and tallest in the nation outside of New York and Chicago.
While that’s all well and good, but we want to know if this is (was) the highest Christmas tree in the city.
As you can see from the picture taken today, the tree is no longer in place and crews have made quick work of the current floor. It looks like the core is about ten floors shy of Three Logan Square (aka Bell Atlantic Tower) at 1717 Arch Street. That handsome building reaches 739 feet high, which would have put the Christmas tree somewhere in the 500- to 600-foot range, give or take. It’s possible that the upper floors of the nearby skyscrapers have trees inside an office or shared corridor, but we’re pretty certain this might be the tallest one exposed to the elements, and definitely on a construction site!
CITC is expected to be completed in 2017, and also feature a glitzy Four Seasons hotel on the upper floors. As you know, the former Four Seasons at One Logan Square recently reopened as The Logan.
