One Liberty Place

Infobox Skyscraper
building_name= One Liberty Place


caption= Upper floors and spire of One Liberty Place in 2005
preceded= Philadelphia City Hall
year_built=
surpassed= Comcast Center
year_highest=
year_end=
plural=
location= 1650 Market Street
Philadelphia
status=
groundbreaking=
constructed= 1987
est-completion=
opening=
destroyed=
use=
antenna_spire= 945 feet (288 meters)
roof=
top_floor=
floor_count= 63 (61 rentable)
floor_area=
elevator_count=
cost=
architect= Murphy/Jahn Architects
engineer = Thornton Tomasetti
contractor=
developer=
owner= Philadelphia Liberty Property

The One Liberty Place Building is currently the second tallest building and skyscraper in the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, after the Comcast Center. It is the 17th tallest building in the United States. Completed in 1987, One Liberty Place has 61 floors and is 945 ft (288 m) tall, only two feet (0.6 m) shorter than the Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects, the building's spire echoes that of the Chrysler Building in New York City. After its completion, a slightly smaller sister building, Two Liberty Place, was erected in 1990 within the same complex. Rouse and Associates, which later went public as Liberty Property Trust, developed both One and Two Liberty Place as well as the Comcast Center.

Cigna, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, has its headquarters in this building.

Structural height

One Liberty Place was locally famous for being the first building to break the gentlemen's agreement not to exceed the 548 ft (167 m) height of the William Penn statue atop Philadelphia City Hall built in 1901. In breaking this agreement, the so-called "Curse of Billy Penn" was born—a Bambino-like hex that supposedly affects the city's professional sport franchises. Since One Liberty Place was completed, Philadelphia's major sports teams (the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, and 76ers) have all failed to win league championships. [Does the Curse of Billy PennContinue to Haunt Philadelphia? June 12, 2007. [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118165107120832442-RmqwZzTYN0GQYiLRdW4CLZzEoJY_20080611.html] ]

On January 3, 2005 it was announced that another tower, the Comcast Center, would be completed by early 2008 at a height of 975 feet (297 m). This tower ended One Liberty Place's reign as Philadelphia's tallest building on June 18, 2007, with an official topping-out ceremony led by Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street.

Additional information

In addition to its modern exterior, One Liberty Place is equipped with modern building-system technology, including an ice and snow melting system and a chilled-water plant equipped with cooling towers, pumps, and chillers.

On October 12, 1999, One Liberty Place was sold to Philadelphia Liberty Property, L.P for $185 million and an additional US$28.2 million for the land.

ee also

*List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia
*Tallest buildings in the United States
*List of skyscrapers
*World's tallest structures

References