Will there ever be a building taller then the Steel Building in Pittsburgh? (Philadelphia: real estate, apartments)

[MillvaleBucco]

Will the Steel City ever see a building 1,000+ ft?

[bradjl2009]

I'm in my early twenties and I doubt I would even see a building that tall come here in my lifetime. I just don't think we're big or growing fast enough locally to have enough demand for a building like that to be built. I've read in a few places though when US Steel was designing the Steel Building, they at first wanted to make it the tallest building in the world so that could have been nearly 1,400 ft tall.

[MathmanMathman]

There seems to be interest that the height conforms to a desired look of the Golden Triangle. I doubt one will happen, unless they cheat it with a tall spire like the Freedom Tower in NYC.

[Gee Whiz]

Downtown vacancy rates ars super tight for class A office space. There is pent up demand. In a few years, I could see a proposal for a new building approaching 864 feet like the the Steel Building. Pittsburgh does like to keep an aesthetic appeal to it's skyline. Anything over 700 feet will probably be above Smihfield and away from the rivers. Pittsburgh probably has the most buildings over 500 feet when compared to similar sized metros. I think Minneapolis is comparable. I disagree that that the area is not growing. Pittsburgh's office rate has continued to grow. I do agree that 1000 feet may be pipe dream for here, but a few more over 500 feet in the next decade is possible. Downtown is kind of boxed in. The Lower Hill area closer to Crosstown Blvd. may be a possibility for a new tall or two.

[MillvaleBucco]

I'd love a Key Tower type building here. It would make the skyline look even better.

[RightonWalnut]

I don't think there is enough demand in Pittsburgh to warrant a 1,000 footer or a large enough company that would be willing to fill one. I could see a 900 footer at one point.

Want a 1,000 footer? Just come visit Philadelphia

[Rocklobster00]

Hard to say ever, even or even a decade plus down the road. In the near future I'd say no. While it's true there is very little available office space downtown, the real factors for major high rise office development are still lacking. The lack of any in migrating corporation headquarters or even regional office development here eliminates the needed demand for a large scale development in the category of 60 plus floors. Our corporate business environment is not attractive enough to give reason to re locate to Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh will continue to loose headquarter status over attracting such large scale business to locate or relocate here. The reason's to move a large headquarter's to our fair city just don't add up. More likely for Pittsburgh is the holding onto or even growing of the support mechanism of corporations such as having the law, marketing and customer support departments here, etc.. ( ALCOA, MELLON, ) But this need would not drive the massive commitment to build a mega high rise here.

Another source in other cities for giving need to go very high is residential demand. Combine residential with office,retail and even hotel-lodging to some extent and you might achieve a very large scale high rise. This is the case in downtown Miami where a handful of high-rise's are underway or planed that will exceed 60 floors. One is being discussed that could soar better than 1000 feet. Pittsburgh doesn't come close to having that type of high rise residential demand. Heck, I'd be quite happy if in fact that wonderful piece of land on Mount Washington where The Edge was located would become anything higher than 10 floors or anything better than the series of drab looking apartments that are now planned for that rare piece of real estate.

While you can achieve great height by finishing off a project with towers, spires, and other air borne projectiles to gain needed additional feet, It's doubtful the burgh in the near future would have the demand to get up that high. Perhaps Oxford will secure several large enough tenants to justify their 40 or so story high-rise in the near future. I would think that is as tall as what we will see in quite a few years and even that project is having a difficult time getting secured.

[_Buster]

wasn't there some talk about possibly adding floors to the us steel bldg for a large rooftop observation deck and park? whatever was in that plan probably wouldn't put it over 1000 feet but I'd guess it would be close to 900.

for new buildings, there is more demand for downtown housing than there has been for decades, so I think there is potential for tall residential, maybe combined in an office/hotel building. downtown has luxury condos but none that are very high up as far as I know, so there could be some demand for that in the future. If downtown gets a good grocery store then it will also become more attractive for residential. doesn't seem likely that any proposal would be 1000 ft though unless demand suddenly skyrocketed somehow.

[TechCom]

Originally Posted by Gee Whiz

Downtown vacancy rates ars super tight for class A office space.

What about the buildings that were being built? Wasn't there 2 or 3 of them? One being like 30 stories.

[speagles84]

Eventually I would assume. In the next 10-15 years? No.