Fifth Avenue Place (originally "Hillman Tower", sometimes called Highmark Place) is a skyscraper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. United States. The building is owned by Highmark subsidiary Jenkins Empire Associates and has served as the company's headquarters since it was completed in 1988.

The building was completed on April 14, 1988[3] and it has 31 floors. Located at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Fifth Avenue, it rises 616 feet (188 m) above Downtown Pittsburgh. The structure is made up of a unique granite frame for roughly the first 450 feet (140 m), then collapses inward in a pyramidal shape for another 124-foot-tall (38 m) roof structure. The roof utilizes four prisms clad in granite and encloses a penthouse area that stores the mechanics for the building as well as the cooling towers. Before Highmark's branding of the top of the tower, there were video screens at the base of the decorative summit of the building.

Protruding from the top of the skyscraper is a 178-foot-tall (54 m) mast manufactured by Meyer Industry of Minnesota. Despite its rounded appearance, the 13-story steel structure is actually 12-sided and measures four feet in diameter. Due to high winds, the mast allows for up to three feet of sway. The height at the top of the mast represents the intended height for the building when it was in development. However, the city decided that that height would not fit in well with the skyline, so the height of the main structure was restricted to what it is today.[4]

Crane operator David Angle, the father of future Olympic wrestler and professional wrestler Kurt Angle, was killed in a construction accident during construction of Fifth Avenue Place on August 29, 1984.[5]

Retail

Commercial space on the first two floors.

There is a shopping center on the first two floors.[6] [7] A renovation of the space was announced in September 2019; the remodeled shopping mall will mainly focus on dining and is planned to include an open atrium and more natural lighting, plus other amenities. The renovation was expected to take three years to complete. The renovation was completed in May 2023 (new article section and pictures will need to be added.) [8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. ^ "Fifth Avenue Place". Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  3. ^ "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  4. ^ "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  5. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Kurt Angle's Road to the Olympics 1996 before WWE HD. YouTube.
  6. ^ "Fifth Avenue Place - Downtown Pittsburgh's premier shopping and office complex!". Fifthavenueplacepa.com. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  7. ^ "Fifth Avenue Place Arcade Shops | Pittsburgh, PA 15222 | Entertainment Districts in Pittsburgh, PA". Visitpittsburgh.com. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  8. ^ Rayworth, Melissa (2019-09-04). "Highmark announces $20 million renovation of their Fifth Avenue Place headquarters". NEXTpittsburgh. Retrieved 2020-10-16.

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

Media related to Fifth Avenue Place (Pittsburgh) at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by Pittsburgh Skyscrapers by Height
616 feet (188 m)
31 floors 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Pittsburgh Skyscrapers by Year of Completion
1988 		Succeeded by