BNY Mellon Center (Pittsburgh)
| BNY Mellon Center | |
|---|---|
Welton Becket and Associates | |
| Developer | U.S. Steel |
| Main contractor | Turner Construction |
| Other information | |
| Public transit access |  Steel Plaza |
| References | |
| [3][4][5][6] | |
BNY Mellon Center is a 55-story
Prominent features of the building include its eight-sided design and
History
The 500 block of Grant Street was for decades the site of the Carlton Hotel, Plaza Building and the "Interlude Lounge" across the street from the Allegheny County Courthouse on the current complex's southern extreme. In the early 1980s, U.S. Steel, which has its global headquarters one block north at the U.S. Steel Tower bought the land Mellon Center was to be built on and planned a 54-floor skyscraper replacing the Carlton Hotel and Plaza Buildings. The naming rights originally went to the Pittsburgh manufacturing firm Dravo Corporation and was to serve as their leased headquarters space (while still owned by U.S. Steel). After the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s combined with the rapid deindustrialization of the 1980s, Dravo was bought out by a foreign conglomerate and its regional facilities were shuttered. U.S. Steel, having diversified into oil and other industries, sold the almost completed skyscraper on February 16, 1983, to a Connecticut Limited Partnership, the 500 Grant Street Partners, for what was then the second-largest real estate purchase in Western Pennsylvania history.[9]
In March 2010, installation began on a new rooftop sign that would replace the old Mellon signage with the company's new triangular logo and the new brand name "BNY Mellon". The effort lasted until the end of 2010.[10]
On Monday, March 29, 2010, at approximately 4:30 p.m., a maintenance worker committed suicide by intentionally falling from the roof. The worker who died, from the North Side region of the city, was a 10-year employee of the building's maintenance contractor.[11]
Popular culture
The skyscraper features prominently in the 1983 film Flashdance (while still under construction) and the 1998 Michael Keaton film Desperate Measures (serving as part of the "hospital"). It also makes cameos in Sudden Death, Striking Distance and the 2010 rap video "Black and Yellow".
See also
- List of tallest buildings in Pittsburgh
- List of tallest buildings in Pennsylvania
- List of tallest buildings in the United States
References
- ^ a b David Guo (28 March 1980). "U.S. Steel Unveils the Plan of 54-Story Dravo Building". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "BNY Mellon Center". Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Retrieved 2017-07-29.
- ^ "BNY Mellon Center". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
- ^ "Emporis building ID 121897". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 26, 2016.
- ^ "BNY Mellon Center". SkyscraperPage.
- ^ BNY Mellon Center at Structurae
- ^ "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search".
- ^ Belko, Mark (December 11, 2008). "BNY Mellon name to adorn One Mellon Center, while Consol buys rights to new arena". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "U.S. Steel Sell Tower in Pittsburgh". The Toledo Blade. Associated Press. 17 February 1983. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
- ^ "BNY Mellon installing rooftop sign on Downtown Pittsburgh HQ". The Pittsburgh Business Times. 2010-02-26.
- ^ "Man who fell from BNY Mellon building committed suicide". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 31, 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
Further reading
- Toker, Franklin (2007). Buildings of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Chicago: Society of Architectural Historians; Santa Fe: Center for American Places ; Charlottesville: In association with the University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-2650-6.
External links
