Fifth Avenue Place (originally "Hillman Tower", sometimes called

Highmark Highmark is an American non-profit healthcare company and Integrated Delivery Network based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a large individual not-for-profit health insurer in the United States, which operates several for-pro ...

Place) is a skyscraper in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The building is owned by Highmark subsidiary Jenkins Empire Associates and has served as the company's headquarters since it was completed in 1988. The building was completed on April 14, 1988 and it has 31 floors. Located at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Fifth Avenue, it rises above

Downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose ...

. The structure is made up of a unique granite frame for roughly the first , then collapses inward in a pyramidal shape for another roof structure. The roof utilizes four prisms clad in granite and encloses a penthouse area that stores the mechanics for the building as well as the cooling towers. Before Highmark's branding of the top of the tower, there were video screens at the base of the decorative summit of the building. Protruding from the top of the skyscraper is a mast manufactured by Meyer Industry of Minnesota. Despite its rounded appearance, the 13-story steel structure is actually 12-sided and measures four feet in diameter. Due to high winds, the mast allows for up to three feet of sway. The height at the top of the mast represents the intended height for the building when it was in development. However, the city decided that that height would not fit in well with the skyline, so the height of the main structure was restricted to what it is today. Crane operator David Angle, the father of future Olympic wrestler and

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

Kurt Angle Kurt Steven Angle (born December 9, 1968) is an American retired professional wrestler, Wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle 100 kg, Olympic gold medalist in American freestyle wrestling, and former Collegiate wrestling, ...

, was killed in a construction accident during construction of Fifth Avenue Place on August 29, 1984.

Retail

There is a shopping center on the first two floors. A renovation of the space was announced in September 2019; the remodeled shopping mall will mainly focus on dining and is planned to include an open

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

and more natural lighting, plus other amenities. The renovation is expected to take three years to complete.

References

External links

Emporis
Skyscraper office buildings in Pittsburgh Postmodern architecture in Pennsylvania {{Pittsburgh-struct-stub Office buildings completed in 1988

Retail

See also

References

Further reading

External links