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PNC Plaza and 210 6th Avenue

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1968–2008. Bounded by Wood St. and 5th, Liberty, and 6th aves.
  • One PNC Plaza (Photograph by SimonP, CC BY-SA 3.0)
  • Two PNC Plaza (Photograph by Cbaile19)
  • Three PNC Plaza (Photograph by Cbaile19)
  • 210 6th Ave. (Photograph by Cbaile19)

There are four skyscrapers shoehorned onto this block that has been reconfigured to accommodate the latest: 3 PNC Plaza (2007–2009, Gensler, with Astorino Architects), a green design with two inter-locking structures of differing height and surface treatment that contains a hotel, condominiums, and retail and office space in its twenty-three stories. Luckily Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) minimized the bulk of its 2 PNC Plaza (1974, Natalie DeBlois for SOM) by creating two skewed thirty-four-story, octagonal towers of reflective glass, which nicely complement the squared orientation of the adjacent thirty-story 1 PNC Plaza tower (1972, Welton Becket and Associates). DeBlois's participation made 2 PNC Plaza (formerly the Equibank Building) the world's largest designed by a woman at that time. The fourth skyscraper at 210 6th Avenue is the tallest (at thirty-nine stories) and was built first (1968, William Lescaze and Associates). While it has had a variety of owners over the years, the rectangular, wine-red high-rise has retained two colorful ceramic murals (neither of which is now visible), one by Pierre Soulages in the north lobby and the other by Virgil D. Cantini in the south lobby.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
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Data

Timeline

  • 1968

    Built

What's Nearby

Dominion Tower
Heinz Hall
Trinity Cathedral and Graveyard, and First Presbyterian Church
Benedum Center for the Performing Arts
Duquesne Club

Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "PNC Plaza and 210 6th Avenue", [Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-AL9.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 49-49.

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