The tower, which will house the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center, will be built in downtown Philadelphia, next to the Comcast Center, the existing headquarters of the world's largest media company. Comcast is the main provider of Internet and cable television services in the United States, owner of the national television channels NBC and Telemundo, as well as the Universal Pictures film studio.
The 341 m (59 storey) skyscraper will house Comcast engineers, technologists and software developers, as well as a business incubator for new IT companies, NBC and Telemundo. In addition, a 200-room Four Seasons hotel with a fitness center and meeting rooms, a panoramic restaurant on the top floor, and offices for rent of 119,380 m2 are planned there. A transport terminal will appear in the lower part of the building, connecting metro and electric train stations.
The tower will be the tallest in the United States outside of New York and Chicago; its construction is scheduled for 2014-2017, and the budget will be $ 1.2 billion. The green characteristics of the project will qualify it for LEED Platinum Resource Efficiency Certification.
This is the second time that Foster has designed the UAE pavilion for the World Expo: after a successful experience in Shanghai in 2010, British architects took over the construction for Expo 2015 in Milan. The building will be located in the center of the exhibition complex, on an elongated 140-meter area. Visitors will enter through a narrow passage between the 12-meter walls, reminiscent of the streets of the traditional villages of the Islamic world, where shade can always be found. The texture of the walls of the pavilion reproduces the scans of the desert landscape, and the colors correspond to the color of the sand in different parts of the UAE.
A round auditorium will be placed in the center of the pavilion, where a thematic film will be shown, and after that visitors can - in accordance with the Milan Expo theme "Feed the Planet" - taste modern UAE cuisine in a cafe and restaurant, as well as relax on the rooftop terrace.
After the exhibition, the pavilion will be disassembled and taken to the UAE, so its project is designed for both the Mediterranean climate of Milan and the subtropical heat of the Arabian Peninsula. From a roof garden rainwater management system to solar panels, it will be awarded a LEED Platinum Resource Efficiency Certificate.
