200 Public Square is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. The building, located on

Public Square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...

Downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The economic and cultural center of the city and the Cleveland metropolitan area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square, Cleveland, Publi ...

, reaches 45 stories and with of office space. It is the third-tallest building in Cleveland and fourth-tallest in the state of Ohio. The building opened in 1985 as the headquarters for

Standard Oil of Ohio The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American petroleum industry, petroleum company that existed from 1870 to 1987. The company, known commonly as Sohio, was founded by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as one of the separate entities cre ...

or Sohio, and was known as the Sohio Building or Standard Oil building. After British Petroleum (BP) rebranded Sohio as BP in the early 1990s, the building was often called the BP America Building, BP America Tower, BP Tower, or BP Building, and those earlier names are still regularly used even after BP moved its North American headquarters to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in 1998. It was officially renamed 200 Public Square in 2005 and since 2010, has been Cleveland's regional headquarters for

Huntington Bancshares Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is an American bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Its banking subsidiary, The Huntington National Bank, operates 1047 banking offices, primarily in the Midwest: 459 in Ohio, 290 in Michigan, ...

Sohio

In November 1981,

(Sohio) announced plans to build a skyscraper on Public Square. Initially, it was supposed to surpass the Terminal Tower in height, but city officials insisted that the Tower remain the city's tallest building. The BP Building was designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum in the

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

style and angled to be parallel to both

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

and Superior avenues. Construction began in 1982 with the

demolition Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...

of two Cleveland landmarks, the Burnham and Root Cuyahoga Building ( 1892) and the 16-story George B. Post Williamson Building (

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

). The new structure was completed in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

and was officially opened in 1987 as the BP America Tower, when British Petroleum purchased the remaining 45% of Sohio and merged its North American holdings to form BP America, Inc., headquartered in the new building.

BP America, Inc.

Claes Oldenburg's '' Free Stamp'' sculpture was commissioned by Alton Whitehouse and other Sohio executives to stand in front of the tower, but BP officials did not appreciate it, and donated the sculpture to the City of Cleveland. After some modifications, the city installed it in Willard Park, next to Cleveland City Hall. Before the Key Tower was built, the BP Building was the second-most prominent skyscraper in the city, often photographed with the adjacent Terminal Tower as a twin emblem of Cleveland. It contains 36 elevators, 10 escalators, 3 fountains, 1 waterfall, 1,500 plants, and several works of art. 200 Public Square atrium

When BP purchased

-based

Amoco Amoco ( ) is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company i ...

in 1998, the company said it would move its headquarters from Cleveland to Chicago. The building was purchased by the Chicago-based EQ Office in 1996 for $144 million, which in turn sold it to Harbor Group International in June 2005 for $141.25 million. Harbor Group worked with Electra Real Estate (TASE: ELTR) to purchase the building. The building was subsequently renamed 200 Public Square. Most Clevelanders and the Harbor Group still recognize it as the BP Tower, although many still refer to it as the Sohio Building.

Huntington Bank

In June 2011, Huntington Bank placed its corporate logo at the top of the building. The bank moved its regional headquarters to the tower from the Huntington Bank Building that September. Harbor Group International put the building up for sale in June 2011. DRA Advisors bought the building in 2018 and put it up for sale in 2023.

Atrium gallery

File:200 Public Square (2).jpg File:200 Public Square (3).jpg File:200 Public Square (4).jpg File:200 Public Square (5).jpg

References

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