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Security Technology Executive
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Comcast Center Sets a New Standard
Mark Farrell and Jim Birch have created a unique commitment to service-oriented security at the Philadelphia skyscraper
By Marleah Blades
Security Technology & Design
The new Comcast Center skyscraper in Philadelphia has a lot to be proud of. It’s the 14th-tallest building in the United States and the tallest skyscraper between New York and Chicago. Designed to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, it’s the tallest LEED-registered building in the country. The towering all-glass building is state-of-the-art, featuring the latest advances in building construction and has changed Philadelphia’s skyline. Its south wall reflects a shimmering portrait of One Liberty Place, the structure it surpassed to become the tallest building in Philadelphia.
Comcast Center was built to be elegant, professional and inviting, both inside and out. When visitors enter the building, they walk into an expansive, open lobby and the soaring “Winter Garden,” a 120-foot-high atrium marked by a Jonathan Borofsky sculpture entitled “Humanity in Motion,” where life-sized figures are affixed to steel poles that criss-cross the lobby. Visitors are greeted cordially by ladies and gentlemen in matching sharp blue suits.
Tour guides? Salespeople? Not exactly. These are the building’s security officers, and they have been carefully chosen and trained to help accomplish the mission of the two security executives in charge here: to provide excellent, seamless security along with excellent customer service.
A Tenant-Owner Marriage
Comcast Center is owned by a joint venture of Liberty Property Trust, a leader in developing and managing high-performance green buildings, and CommerzLeasing und Immobilien AG. It sits atop a commuter rail station, and the underground concourse features an upscale food and shopping marketplace, while the ground floor includes a full-service restaurant and a seasonal cafe. More than 90 percent of the building is leased by Comcast.
As the lead tenant, Comcast was able to work with Liberty during construction to develop the security plan for the building. Mark Farrell, chief security officer for Comcast, and Jim Birch, director of security and life safety for Liberty Property Trust, collaborated from the beginning to eliminate disconnects between Comcast and base building security.
“We decided that the best way to secure this building was a seamless approach both from a technology and security officer perspective,” Farrell says. “There is integration and communication between both groups, and that has created a smooth working environment. Sometimes there’s competition between officer forces in a building because they’re doing different things and have different priorities. In our situation, the relationship is more like a marriage.”
“It started with a shared vision of what we wanted to create here,” Birch adds.
Ambassadors for Security
Not only were both tenant and owner looking for seamlessly integrated security, they both wanted to use customer service to make visiting Comcast Center an experience. “We did not want it to be just another office building; we wanted it to be a world-class destination, similar to Rockefeller Center in New York.” Birch and Farrell recognized that a focus on customer service would also work to enhance security.
