200 Public Squareis askyscraperinCleveland,Ohio.The building, located onPublic SquareinDowntown Cleveland,reaches 45 stories and 658 feet (201 m) with 1.2 million square feet (110,000 m2) 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 forStandard Oil of Ohioor Sohio, and was known as theSohio BuildingorStandard Oil building.AfterBritish Petroleum(BP) rebranded Sohio as BP in the early 1990s, the building was often called theBP America Building,BP America Tower,BP Tower,orBP Building,and those earlier names are still regularly used even after BP moved its North American headquarters toChicagoin 1998. It was officially renamed 200 Public Square in 2005 and since 2010, has been Cleveland's regional headquarters forHuntington Bancshares.[1]
| 200 Public Square | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Former names | Sohio Building, BP Building |
| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 200Public Square Cleveland,Ohio 44114 United States |
| Coordinates | 41°30′0.5″N81°41′29.5″W/ 41.500139°N 81.691528°W |
| Construction started | 1982 |
| Completed | 1985 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 201 m (659 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 45 |
| Floor area | 1.2 million sq ft (110 thousand m2) (office space) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum |
| Website | |
| www | |
Sohio
editIn November 1981,Standard Oil of Ohio(Sohio) announced plans to build a skyscraper on Public Square. Initially, it was supposed to surpass theTerminal Towerin height, but city officials insisted that the Tower remain the city's tallest building. The BP Building was designed byHellmuth, Obata and Kassabaumin thepostmodernstyle and angled to be parallel to bothEuclidand Superior avenues.
Construction began in 1982 with thedemolitionof two Cleveland landmarks, theBurnham and RootCuyahoga Building(1892) and the 16-storyGeorge B. PostWilliamson Building(1900).[2]The new structure was completed in1985and was officially opened in 1987 as theBPAmerica 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.
editClaes Oldenburg'sFree Stampsculpture was commissioned byAlton Whitehouseand 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 inWillard Park,next to Cleveland City Hall.
Before theKey Towerwas 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.
When BP purchasedChicago-basedAmocoin 1998, the company said it would move its headquarters from Cleveland to Chicago. The building was purchased by the Chicago-basedEQ Officein 1996 for $144 million, which in turn sold it toHarbor Group Internationalin 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[3]still recognize it as the BP Tower, although many still refer to it as the Sohio Building.
Huntington Bank
editIn June 2011,Huntington Bankplaced its corporate logo at the top of the building. The bank moved its regional headquarters to the tower from theHuntington Bank Buildingthat September.[4]
Harbor Group International put the building up for sale in June 2011.[5]DRA Advisors bought the building in 2018[6]and put it up for sale in 2023.[7]
Atrium gallery
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See also
editReferences
edit- ^Bullard, Stan (November 17, 2008)."Huntington moving to 200 Public Square".Crain's Cleveland Business.Crain Communications.RetrievedJune 1,2010.
- ^Livingston, Tom (August 2, 2010)."Remembering the Public Square implosion".WEWS-TV.Archived fromthe originalon October 7, 2011.RetrievedOctober 16,2011.
- ^"200 Public Square".The Harbor Group. Archived fromthe originalon August 13, 2007.RetrievedAugust 27,2006.
- ^Perkins, Olivera (June 3, 2011)."New sign on Public Square: Huntington Bank regional headquarters".The Plain Dealer.Cleveland.RetrievedOctober 16,2011.
- ^Jarboe McFee, Michelle (June 22, 2011)."200 Public Square skyscraper for sale in downtown Cleveland".The Plain Dealer.Cleveland.RetrievedOctober 16,2011.
- ^Jarboe, Michelle (October 8, 2018)."200 Public Square office tower in downtown Cleveland sold".The Plain Dealer.Cleveland.RetrievedSeptember 20,2023.
- ^McDonnell, Sean (September 13, 2023)."200 Public Square office tower, one of downtown Cleveland's tallest buildings, is up for sale".The Plain Dealer.Cleveland.RetrievedSeptember 20,2023.
External links
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