One Liberty Place

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The One Liberty Place Building is currently the tallest building and skyscraper in the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the 16th tallest building in the United States. Completed in 1987, One Liberty Place has 61 floors and is 945 ft (288 m) high, only two feet (0.6 m) shorter than the Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects, One Liberty Place's spire echoes that of the Chrysler Building in New York City.

After One Liberty Place's completion, a slightly smaller sister building, known as Two Liberty Place, was built in 1990 within the same complex as One Liberty Place.

[edit] Additional information

In addition to its modern exterior, the One Liberty Place building is also equipped with modern building-system technology, including an ice and snow melting system and a chilled water plant that is equipped with cooling towers, pumps, and chillers.

On October 12, 1999, One Liberty Place was sold to Philadelphia Liberty Property, L.P for $185 million and an additional US$28.2 million for the land. CIGNA, a large insurance corporation in the United States, has its corporate headquarters stationed in One Liberty Place.

On January 3, 2005 it was announced that another tower, the Comcast Center, will be completed by late-2007 at a height of 975 feet (297 m), which will end One Liberty Place's reign as Philadelphia's tallest building.

[edit] "Curse of Billy Penn"

One Liberty Place was locally famous for being the first building to break the gentlemen's agreement, which was not to exceed the 548 ft (167 m) height of the William Penn statue on Philadelphia City Hall built in 1901. In breaking this "agreement", the so-called "Curse of Billy Penn" was born - a Bambino-like hex that supposedly affects the city's professional sport franchises. Since One Liberty Place was completed, Philadelphia's major sports teams (the Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, and the 76ers) have all failed to win their respective league championships.