Grant Building (Pittsburgh)
| Grant Building | |
|---|---|
 View of the Grant Building from Mt. Washington. | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Commercial offices |
| Architectural style | Art Deco / Art Moderne |
| Location | 310 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°26′15″N 79°59′51″W / 40.43750°N 79.99750°W |
| Construction started | 1927 |
| Completed | 1929 |
| Cost | $5.5 million ($97.6 million today) |
| Height | |
| Roof | 147.8 metres (485 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 40 5 below ground |
| Floor area | 400,000 square feet (37,161 m2) |
| Lifts/elevators | 12 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Henry Hornbostel Eric Fisher Wood |
| Developer | W. J. Strassburger |
| Main contractor | Dwight P. Robinson & Company |
| References | |
| [1][2][3][4] | |
The Grant Building is 40-story, 147.8 m (485 ft) skyscraper at 310 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The building was completed and opened on February 1, 1929[5] at a cost of $5.5 million ($97.6 million today). The Art Deco building's facade is built with Belgian granite, limestone, and brick. It was famous for a radio antenna that rose roughly 100–150 feet (30–46 m) from the roof of the tower and had an aviation beacon that spelled out .--. .. - - ... -... ..- .-. --. .... or P-I-T-T-S-B-U-R-G-H in Morse Code. The beacon could be seen as far away as 150 miles (240 km) on clear nights. A smaller version of the beacon, still flashing out the name of the city remains to this day, although malfunctions with the relay switch caused it to spell "P-I-T-E-T-S-B-K-R-R-H", and eventually "T-P-E-B-T-S-A-U-R-G-H" before being repaired on July 27, 2009.[6]
The tower on the roof also served as the broadcast antenna for radio station KDKA Pittsburgh which made the first commercially licensed radio broadcast on election night of 1920. At 7:00 AM on its 14th birthday (February 2, 1934), the radio station inaugurated new studios on the Grant Building's third floor.
Huntington National Bank, which operates a branch inside the tower, owns the signage rights, giving them two signs in the Pittsburgh skyline alongside Centre City Tower where Huntington has their Western Pennsylvania headquarters.
Gallery[edit]
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Grant Building advertisement from 1930
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Grant Building". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
- ^ "Emporis building ID 121989". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016.
- ^ "Grant Building". SkyscraperPage.
- ^ Grant Building at Structurae
- ^ "Request Rejected".
- ^ Majors, Dan (July 12, 2009). "A Morse Code typo lights city skyline". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
Further reading[edit]
- 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[edit]
Media related to Grant Building at Wikimedia Commons
