Some weather we're having.

It may seem like the sun hasn't shone (outside of those fifteen minutes this afternoon) in weeks and it may seem asinine that you've been wearing a hoodie for consecutive days in what should be peak heat summer, but it was only two weeks ago that those dog days of August were keeping us stuck to the furniture. Naturally, the law of averages dictates that this month of August is right on par with every other August, says CBS 3 meteorologist Maria Larosa on her blog, Doppler Diaries. (That's a hell of a risqué name for a blog about weather, innit?)

If you've been following our Comcast Center construction section for the past two and a half years, you've like us watched the men and women of many trades build Philly's new tallest building in all kinds of weather, from overnight concrete pours to welding in fog so thick you can't see across the street, to ironworkers performing a balancing act on beams 900 feet in the air with driving wind gusts socking them in the face. Those guys smile and keep going.

Atmospherically speaking, my visits to the work site have also run the gamut. In December with the liquid mass damper engineers, it rained hard in the morning and settled off into a thick, cool, misty fog. In March, as the guys from Madison Concrete were finishing up the tower's core, it was perfectly clear, with that day-after-a-snow frigid winter air. In June, when I tagged along with the City Planning Commission, spring was sick of being spring -- past Memorial Day after all -- and socked us with a 90 and humid, making the skies white and the visibility low.

This 4th time, on August 7th, Nathaniel, Steve, Albert, Scotty and myself took to the summer, summer skies to check in on the progress, kindly escorted by John from Liberty Property Trust. Fifty-five stories up, surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as bad as you might remember that day. The air was dead and there was no breeze, but it didn't feel like 95°. Visibility wasn't prime, but it wasn't awful, either.

As before, this set of photos -- 48 this time around -- is a combination of the work itself and the views from the top of Philadelphia's new tallest skyscraper. Of note in the construction itself is the progress on the grand staircase, the secondary staircase (along Arch Street), the fitting out of the offices, and -- TA DA -- waterless urinals!

Comcast Center is on schedule, the plaza is shaping up, and the first tenants will move in on September 21st while work continues on the upper floors. A ribbon cutting ceremony will occur in the spring, marking the official opening of the building.

Enjoy.

LAUNCH PHOTOS




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