Tower on the Maumee (formerly known as ''Fiberglas Tower'') 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 ...

at 200 North Saint Clair Street in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

. Constructed in 1969, the building is an example of the international style of architecture. In 2012, the building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

under the name "Riverview".Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 7/02/12 through 7/06/12

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, 2012-07-13. Accessed 2012-08-25. It was designed as the world headquarters for the Toledo manufacturer Owens-Corning Fiberglas Company, which occupied the building for 27 years until moving elsewhere in

downtown Toledo Downtown Toledo is the central business district of Toledo, Ohio. Both the Warehouse District and the area surrounding the Huntington Center have been areas of recent growth. Major attractions *Fifth Third Field *Hensville *Warehouse Distric ...

in 1996. Until October 2018, the building was vacant. In October 2016, the Eyde Company renamed the building ''Tower on the Maumee'' and announced plans to transform the top floors into luxury apartments and renovate the commercial office space on the lower floors.

History

Riverview One Corp., the developer of the project, expected construction to cost between $12 million and $18 million. The tower was designed by architects

Harrison & Abramovitz Harrison & Abramovitz (also known as Harrison, Fouilhoux & Abramovitz; Harrison, Abramovitz, & Abbe; and Harrison, Abramovitz, & Harris) was an American architectural firm based in New York and active from 1941 through 1976. The firm was a partner ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and Richards, Bauer & Moorhead of Toledo and the general contractor was

Turner Construction Turner Construction is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.41 billion in ...

of New York. The Fort Meigs Hotel, a 10-story building constructed in 1927, occupied the downtown Toledo site at 200 North Saint Clair Street until 1966 when it and other structures were demolished in preparation for the Riverview project.

Groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

for Fiberglas Tower was held on May 1, 1967. Leadership of the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. announced at the groundbreaking that they planned to occupy the tower. The unusual spelling of its original name (''

Fiberglas Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

'' instead of ''

Fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

'') comes from Owens-Corning's use of ''Fiberglas'' as the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

name of its

glass fiber Glass fiber ( or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the inventio ...

products, as the generic name ''fiberglass'' could not be restricted to use as a trademark.

Topping out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...

of the tower occurred on April 5, 1968. Owens-Corning occupied nearly all of the Fiberglas Tower when it opened in July 1969. In 1993, Owens-Corning announced plans to vacate the Fiberglas Tower. The tower remained vacant for more than twenty years after the O-C departure in 1996.

Asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

, which was partially responsible for OC's departure, was removed in 2012. In 2017, Eyde announced that renovations by Quinn Evans Architects were partially complete and that a new tenant would move in in 2018. In October 2018, Directions Credit Union became the first business to occupy space in the renovated building. The company moved its headquarters there from Sylvania.

References

External links

*{{official, https://toweronmaumee.com/
National Register nomination form (Archived)
Office buildings completed in 1969 Buildings and structures in Toledo, Ohio Skyscrapers in Ohio Skyscraper office buildings in Ohio Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Lucas County, Ohio Harrison & Abramovitz buildings

History

See also

References

External links