200 Public Square is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The building, located on

Public Square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true square, geometric square, used for community gathe ...

Downtown Cleveland Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio. The economic and symbolic center of the city and the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square laid out b ...

, reaches 45 stories and with 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 for Standard Oil of Ohio or Sohio, and was known as the Sohio Building or Standard Oil building. After British Petroleum (BP) rebranded Sohio as BP in the early 1990s, the building was often called the BP America Building, BP America Tower, BP Tower, or BP Building, and those earlier names are still regularly used even after BP moved its North American headquarters to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1998. It was officially renamed 200 Public Square in 2005 and since 2010, has been Cleveland's regional headquarters for

Huntington Bancshares Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is an American bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The company is ranked 521st on the Fortune 500, and is 26th on the list of largest banks in the United States. The company's banking sub ...

Sohio

In November 1981, Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) announced plans to build a skyscraper on Public Square. Initially, it was supposed to surpass the

Terminal Tower Terminal Tower is a 52-story, , landmark skyscraper located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Built during the skyscraper boom of the 1920s and 1930s, it was the second-tallest building in the world when it was comple ...

in height, but city officials insisted that the Tower remain the city's tallest building. The BP Building was designed by

Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum HOK, formerly Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum and legally HOK Group, Inc., is an American design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning firm, founded in 1955. As of 2018, HOK is the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering f ...

in the

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

style and angled to be parallel to both

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' trea ...

and Superior avenues. Construction began in 1982 with the

demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...

of two Cleveland landmarks, the

Burnham and Root Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root. During their eighteen years of partnership, Burnham and Root designed and ...

Cuyahoga Building (

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies for ...

) and the 16-story George B. Post Williamson Building (

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

). The new structure was completed in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and was officially opened in 1987 as the BP America 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.

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

's '' Free Stamp'' sculpture was commissioned by Alton Whitehouse and 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 in Willard Park, next to Cleveland City Hall. Before the

Key Tower Key Tower is a skyscraper on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by architect César Pelli, it is the tallest building in the state of Ohio, the 39th-tallest in the United States, and the 165th-tallest in the world. The buildi ...

was 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. 200 Public Square atrium

When BP purchased

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

-based

Amoco Amoco () is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a ...

in 1998, the company said it would move its headquarters from Cleveland to Chicago. The building was purchased by the Chicago-based

EQ Office EQ Office is a real estate investment company that owns 80 office properties comprising 40 million square feet. The company is owned by funds managed by The Blackstone Group. The company was formerly known as Equity Office. History The company w ...

in 1996 for $144 million, which in turn sold it to Harbor Group International in 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 still recognize it as the BP Tower, although many still refer to it as the Sohio Building.

Huntington Bank

In June 2011,

Huntington Bank Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is an American bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The company is ranked 521st on the Fortune 500, and is 26th on the list of largest banks in the United States. The company's banking s ...

placed its corporate logo at the top of the building. The bank moved its regional headquarters to the tower from the Huntington Bank Building that September. Harbor Group International put the building up for sale in June 2011.

Atrium gallery

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