The Landmark Office Towers is a complex of three historically renovated 1930-completed 259 foot 22 story
high-rises that are located on the property of
Tower City Center
Tower City Center is a large mixed-use facility in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, on its Public Square. The facility is composed of a number of interconnected office buildings, including Terminal Tower, the Avenue shopping mall, Jack Cleveland Casino ...
in
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 ...
's
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 ...
district. The building features very deep recesses on its south side. Actually, the building is three towers in one. These are the Midland Bank Building, the Medical Arts Building, and the Builders Exchange Building. The complex was to include a fourth tower that was never completed and so there is still an empty space where that tower was to go to the present day.
Construction
The towers are the 1920s example of what architects thought future buildings would look like as defined by the
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
movement. They were built at a time when Cleveland's population had reach nearly a million and so there was a demand for more and more office space in the city's central business district. It was hoped by the developers, the railroad and real estate magnates
Van Sweringen Brothers
Oris Paxton Van Sweringen (April 24, 1879 – November 22, 1936) and Mantis James Van Sweringen (July 8, 1881 – December 12, 1935) were American brothers who became railroad barons in order to develop Shaker Heights, Ohio. They are better know ...
, that the buildings would serve this need therefore they invested some $20 million in the project. The towers still sit on some of the most expensive and prized land in the city, making them a vital magnet for Cleveland big business. This can be exemplified by the fact the
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
Sherwin-Williams
Sherwin-Williams Company is an American Cleveland, Ohio–based company in the paint and coating manufacturing industry. The company primarily engages in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings, floorcoverings, and related p ...
calls the complex home, having purchased the three buildings in 1985
''History Timeline''
Retrieved on 2015-09-08
See also
* List of tallest buildings in Cleveland
Cleveland, the second-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio, is home to 142 completed high-rises, 36 of which stand taller than . The tallest building in Cleveland is the 57-story Key Tower, which rises on Public Square. The tower has be ...
* 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 ...
References
{{Reflist
Skyscraper office buildings in Cleveland
Buildings and structures in Cleveland
Art Deco skyscrapers
Office buildings completed in 1930