Gateway Center is a complex of office, residential, and hotel buildings covering in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It lies between Commonwealth Place and Stanwix Street at the western edge of the central business district, immediately to the east of

Point State Park Point State Park (locally known as The Point) is a Pennsylvania state park which is located on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, US, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River. B ...

. Construction of the Gateway Center was one of the earliest

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

projects in the United States and part of Pittsburgh's Renaissance I programs which reshaped large sections of the city. The project was developed by the Equitable Life Assurance Society and built between 1950 and 1969. In May 2013, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

designated a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

named the "

Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District The Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District is a historic district in the Central Business District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2013. History Bounded by Sta ...

" which encompasses both the Gateway Center and neighboring Point State Park. All of the Gateway Center buildings were designated as

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

in the district except for one, the former State Office Building, which was considered to have lost its architectural integrity due to a 1980s remodeling.

History

Plans were developed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to redevelop the dense and "blighted" forks of the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

into both

and a "Gateway" of offices. It was announced as fully financed on September 21, 1949, when the Equitable Life Assurance Society agreed to underwrite the project after securing lease agreements from Westinghouse,

Mellon Financial Mellon Financial Corporation was an American investment firm which was once one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset managem ...

and other major corporations. On May 8, 1950, work began to clear the Gateway Center site for the new development. Although mainly a run down

warehouse district This is a list of notable warehouse districts. A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indus ...

the Center did require the demolition of the 1904 Beaux Arts 11 floor

Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal __NOTOC__ The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal was a railroad station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Constructed in 1903 and opened on April 13, 1904, the 11 floor Beaux-Arts domed 197 foot tall terminal was designed by T ...

Most of the existing streets and buildings were wiped away, giving the developers a clean slate to re-imagine the area as a "towers in a park" concept based on the urban planning ideas of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

. The first three office buildings, One, Two, and Three Gateway Center, were completed in 1952.

Eggers & Higgins Eggers & Higgins was a New York architectural firm partnered by Otto Reinhold Eggers (August 4, 1882 – April 23, 1964) and Daniel Paul Higgins (September 12, 1886 – December 26, 1953). The architects were responsible for the construction phas ...

, architects on the

Jefferson Memorial The Jefferson Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C., built in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, a central intellectual force behind the American Revolution, a fou ...

, were the architects for the first three buildings. The Wyndham Grand Hotel was added in 1959, and Four Gateway Center was completed in 1960. The final building in the Gateway Center, the Westinghouse Building, was completed in 1969. In 2004, One, Two, Three, and Four Gateway Center were purchased by Hertz Investment Group, a

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, based real estate investment company, for US$55 million.

Buildings

The original Gateway Center development included a total of ten buildings: eight office buildings, one residential building, and one hotel. One of the office buildings, the State Office Building, was later converted to residential use. As of 2021, Gateway Center consists of four buildings.npochepko The 625 Stanwix Towers building is within the Gateway Center boundaries but was not an official part of the development. One other building on the site, the Pittsburgh Press Building, predates the Gateway Center project.

Major tenants

KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2), branded CBS Pittsburgh, is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside WPKD-TV (channel 19), a ...

studios in One Gateway Center (CBS Broadcast Center Pittsburgh). *Gateway Health Plan in Four Gateway Center. *Industrial Appraisal Company, corporate headquarters in Two Gateway Center

References

External links

*
Hertz purchase of Gateway Center in Pittsburgh closes
{{Pittsburgh Skyscraper office buildings in Pittsburgh

History

Buildings

Major tenants

See also

References

External links