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One Liberty Place
One Liberty Place
	Upper floors and spire of One Liberty Place in 2007
Information
Location	1650 Market Street; Philadelphia, PA
Coordinates	39°57′09″N 75°10′04″W / 39.9525°N 75.16778°WCoordinates: 39°57′09″N 75°10′04″W / 39.9525°N 75.16778°W
Status	Complete
Constructed	1987
Use	Office, Hotel, Shopping
Height
Antenna/Spire	945 feet (288 meters)
Technical details
Floor count	63 (61 rentable)
Companies
Architect	Murphy/Jahn Architects
Structural Engineer	Thornton Tomasetti

Not to be confused with One Liberty Plaza.

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.

[edit] 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 affected the city's major professional sport franchises. From the time One Liberty Place was completed until 2008, Philadelphia's major sports teams (the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, and 76ers) had all failed to win league championships.^[1] This changed on October 29, 2008, when the Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series. Prior to this win, a small replica statue of William Penn was placed on top of the Comcast Center, allowing the statue to be the "highest structure" in Philadelphia once again. [2].

[edit] Broadcast Tower and Communications Center

One Liberty Place is equipped with a roof mounted broadcast tower and Communications Center. Redesigned by James T. Chiles and Telecommunication Properties, Inc. this modern facility supports both television and FM broadcasters. The broadcast center facility accommodates a wide variety of wireless providers for government, wireless broadband operators as well as microwave back haul networks.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Gallery

Closeup of top of building, 2005

One Liberty Place with Two Liberty behind, 2009

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Does the Curse of Billy Penn Continue to Haunt Philadelphia? June 12, 2007. [1]

Preceded by Philadelphia City Hall	Tallest Building in Philadelphia 1987—2007 288m	Succeeded by Comcast Center
Preceded by U.S. Steel Tower	Tallest Building in Pennsylvania 1987—2007 288m	Succeeded by Comcast Center

[0] Does the Curse of Billy Penn Continue to Haunt Philadelphia? June 12, 2007. [1]

[1]