Comcast Center

Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Directly above Suburban Station

This

space

has been given the award for the tallest LEED certified building in the United States. Why this needs an award, I do not know. It earned a Gold Certification for LEED-CS (core and shell). The Comcast building uses high performance glass and sun screening. It also uses louvers in the atrium to optimize daylight. High performance windows block 60% of the sun's heat and lets in 70% of the suns daylight. Also, the building uses 40% less water than normal office buildings. Lastly, it uses a shaded plaza to minimize the urban heat island effect by 70%. The urban heat island is caused by the many buildings and roads that are built in cities, but cover up tons of fresh vegetation needed to keep the earth healthy, so this causes a bubble of higher temperatures around cities. This building is very glossy and high tech looking, hopefully it does what it got its award for. This building is also good because it brings newness to Philadelphia, which definitely needs it.