Grant Building (Pittsburgh)

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 ($81.9 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]

Grant Building
View of the Grant Building from Mt. Washington.
General information
TypeCommercial offices
Architectural styleArt Deco / Art Moderne
Location310 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Coordinates40°26′15″N 79°59′51″W
Construction started1927
Completed1929
Cost$5.5 million
($81.9 million today)
Height
Roof147.8 metres (485 ft)
Technical details
Floor count40
5 below ground
Floor area400,000 square feet (37,161 m2)
Lifts/elevators12
Design and construction
ArchitectHenry Hornbostel
Eric Fisher Wood
DeveloperW. J. Strassburger
Main contractorDwight P. Robinson & Company
References
[1][2][3][4]

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.

  • Grant Building advertisement from 1930

See also

References
  1. "Grant Building". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
  2. Grant Building at Emporis
  3. "Grant Building". SkyscraperPage.
  4. Grant Building at Structurae
  5. http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/chronology/chronology_driver.pl?q=Grant+Building&year=&month=&day=&start_line=0&searchtype=single&page=sim
  6. Majors, Dan (July 12, 2009). "A Morse Code typo lights city skyline". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 16 October 2012.

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 0-8139-2650-5.

Media related to Grant Building at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
Koppers Tower		 Pittsburgh Skyscrapers by Height
485 feet (148 m)		 Succeeded by
K&L Gates Center
Preceded by
Bell Telephone Building		 Pittsburgh Skyscrapers by Year of Completion
1929		 Succeeded by
Koppers Tower
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