Inga Saffron, the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, posted her review of Philadelphia’s tallest building today — The Comcast Center — Changing Skyline: Comcast’s New Tower a Blank Slate for City. She says that this building is, in fact, the 12th tallest in the country, and I’ve heard that it is the tallest between Chicago and NYC. The Comcast Center is easily seen in Fen Branklin’s photo of my previous post. I think Ms. Saffron gives a balanced review. She is disappointed that more daring was not taken in the building’s design, but I’m not sure more daring in such a prominent edifice would have resulted in a better building for the city. This is not a particularly daring city after all. I’m just pleased that the building is not the even more staid rectangular glass box that I was afraid it would turn out to be. The taper with contrasting mirrored and clear glass segments save it (and us) from that. It is true that the see-through top with the girders visible gives it a vaguely unfinished look during the day but when it is lighted from within at night there is a muted lighthouse/beacon effect that enlivens the skyline without being overpowering. I think what Ms. Saffron is getting at is that this “quicksilver obelisk” which tends toward looking “like a giant flash drive” is not the gem that the quirkier and generally admired Cira Centre has turned out to be. That is not so bad, in my opinion. The positive things that I learned from Ms. Saffron’s review was that the Comcast Center is the tallest ‘green’ building in the country and that the plaza and underground shopping complex deserve a visit. I’m just relieved that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts did not put up a giant version of that horribly gaudy and self-aggrandizing marquee on the Avenue of the Arts that bears his mother’s name — the Suzanne Roberts Theater. I may even grow to like the Comcast Center but I doubt I will ever stop cringing when I walk past the excellent Kimmel Center and am next affronted by that mashup of metal pretending to be billowing fabric, uhgg.