Just a six years after completing the tallest building in Philadelphia, the Comcast Center at 974 feet, Comcast has announced plans for Philadelphia to join that elite group of cities around the world with skyscrapers exceeding the magical 1,000 foot threshold. Currently, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles are the American members of this group of high-fliers. If you count observation towers, Las Vegas joins the list too.

The impressive 59 story, 1,121 foot tall tower (tentatively coined the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center) will contain approximately 1.5 million square feet of floor space and is due for completion in 2017. To this urban planner, Philadelphia has garnered one of the most aesthetically pleasing skylines in North America since allowing new buildings to be constructed beyond the height of its 548 foot City Hall starting in 1987. Based on the artist renderings of the new tower above, that trend of handsome, well-designed buildings appears to be continuing.

Thank you to Anthony for first making me aware of this news.