Robert A. M. Stern (1939-)
Comcast Centre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2008)—project partners Meghan L. McDermott, Robert A.M. Stern and Graham S. Wyatt.
The Comcast Center rises 58 stories as a 975-foot-high faceted obelisk clad in silvery high-performance glass. The building and its south-facing, half-acre plaza straddles the underground tracks and concourse of Suburban Station. Radiant heating, thermal extraction, and displacement ventilation combine to provide exceptional energy performance for this civic-scaled space. A winter garden houses Humanity in Motion, a commissioned installation by American sculptor Jonathan Borofsky, and The Comcast Experience, a high-definition video installation by David Niles of Niles Creative Group. The garden features a double-skin glass curtain wall with sunscreens and louvers which optimize daylight and views while moderating daily and seasonal thermal performance. Three three-story "sky-atria" in the lower portion of the tower's south facade overlook the plaza and provide tenants with unique and identifiable homes. At the time of its certification, Comcast Center was the tallest LEED™ CS Gold building in the U.S.
Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida (2010)—Robert A.M. Stern
The Christoverson Humanities Building at Florida Southern College provides a new gateway to campus and additional space for humanities instruction and faculty. A dramatic roof greets the visitor approaching along Lake Hollingsworth Drive. Two sets of stairs lead up from the lawn to a loggia overlooking the lake. Behind the building are 20 parking spaces for faculty and visitors. Beneath the sweeping roof, on the piano nobile, is the student lounge; a double-height heart of the building that encourages mixing between faculty and students. Grouped around this central social space are four classrooms and a seminar room while at the upper level the space is ringed by 20 faculty and staff offices. At ground level are four laboratories dedicated to film studies, language instruction, writing, and computers.
© Alan John Ainsworth Photography