PHILADELPHIA -- Some Philadelphia sports fans say their teams are cursed.

 

For nearly a century, Philadelphia developers kept their buildings shorter than a statue of William Penn that sits atop City Hall. That gentleman's agreement was breached in 1987 by One Liberty Place, which is ceding its title as the city's tallest building to the Comcast Center.

 

Pressing the red power button on a giant Comcast remote control, Ralph Roberts on Monday symbolically set in motion the ascent of a steel beam to the top of Comcast Center, the last beam in what is now the city's tallest building.

 

Roberts is the 87-year-old founder of Comcast Corp., which is leasing nearly 90 percent of the building for the cable giant's new headquarters. When completed next May, the 975-foot building will be the tallest skyscraper between New York and Chicago.

 

Under a blazing midday sun, Roberts and his son, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts, joined Mayor John Street and executives of developer Liberty Property Trust at a topping off ceremony.

 

?This will be one heck of a house,? said Brian Roberts as he waited for the event to start. Comcast has signed a 151/2-year lease.

 

The ceremony heralded the hoisting of the steel beam to the building's highest structural point. The beam held the traditional evergreen and U.S. flag, plus an extra figure - a small bronze statue of William Penn.

 

William Hankowsky, Liberty Property's CEO, suggested the miniature statue could break the curse that some sports fans say has kept the city's teams from winning a title since 1983.

 

?So Philadelphia, here come the championships!? Hankowsky said.

So a statue of William Penn is gonna help bring Philadelphia it's first world championship

since 1983? Interesting. All the while I thought they hadn't won anything cuz their

teams sucked. :mischief2

i love philly in that i swear the designers had a sense of humor - this is the view of the statue on city hall as you are going down the Ben Franklin Parkway (a diagonal street that has museums, fountains, etc on it)

 

it's gold when it's raining