U.S. Steel Tower Totally Explained

Everything about U S Steel Tower totally explained

U.S. Steel Tower is the tallest skyscraper in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the 35th tallest in the United States. Completed in 1970, the tower stretches 64 floors to and has of leasable space. Its original name was the U.S. Steel Building for many years before it was changed to USX Tower in 1988. The name was finally changed back to the U.S. Steel Tower in January 2002 to reflect U.S. Steel's new corporate identity (USX was the 1990s combined oil/energy/steel conglomerate). Although no longer the owner of the building, U.S. Steel is the largest tenant, occupying more than a half million square feet (46,452 m²) of office space. The building is located at 600 Grant Street, zip code 15219.

History

In the planning stages, U.S. Steel executives considered making the building the world's tallest, but settled on 840-ft (256-m) and the distinction of being the tallest building outside New York City and Chicago. However, it eventually lost even that distinction to newer buildings erected across the United States. Prior to 1970, the tallest building in Pittsburgh, at 44 stories, was the Gulf Building. Now an office complex known as Gulf Tower, it was the original headquarters of the Gulf Oil Corporation.
   The U.S. Steel Tower is architecturally famous for its triangular shape with indented corners. The building also made history by being the first to use liquid-fireproofed columns. U.S. Steel deliberately placed the massive steel columns on the exterior of the building to showcase a new [in1970] product called Cor-ten steel. Cor-ten resists the corrosive effects of rain, snow, ice, fog, and other meteorological conditions by forming a coating of dark brown oxidation over the metal, which inhibits deeper penetration and negates the need for painting and costly rust-prevention maintenance over the years. This metal is commonly seen in bridge supports, guard rails, and other outside structures. The Cor-Ten steel for the building was made at the former U.S. Steel plant in nearby Homestead.
   Rockwell International Corporation, which had its headquarters in the building until the mid 1980s, displayed a large model of the Rockwell-designed NASA Space Shuttle in the building's lobby until it moved to other facilities.
   The tower contains over 44,000 U.S. tons (40,000 metric tons) of structural steel, and almost an acre of office space per floor. The tower also includes retail and restaurant space, parking for 600 cars and features a rooftop heliport.

Features

Internal systems

The U.S. Steel Tower features several redundant systems that have allowed the building to remain free of unplanned service interruptions since it was constructed. It is fed by two redundant water mains, one from Grant Street and one from 7th Avenue. Both are fully maintained and tested annually. There is a fail over system in place, and either main will automatically meet the water demands of the building in the event of a failure. In addition, the building has four redundant water pumps, any one of which can meet the needs of the entire building. The building also has four redundant electrical feeds, which come from several substations. Finally, the building has fully redundant heating and cooling systems, including two boilers and two air chillers. The heating boilers can burn either natural gas or #2 fuel oil. There is no fail over, but manual adjustment of the system in the event of a supply shortage takes only minutes.

Signage

Recently, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center bought five floors of the tower. To go along with this purchase, the company also purchased new signs that will be mounted on the top of each three sides of the building, which will read "UPMC". The Pittsburgh Planning Commission has recently approved the signs.

Nativity scene

Each year, a famous creche or nativity scene goes on display in the building's courtyard. It is larger than the original nativity, and is the only creche nationally to be authorized by the Vatican.

Fictional portrayals

The U.S. Steel Tower makes an appearance in the movie Dogma as the headquarters for Mooby Corp., owner of the Mooby the Golden Calf media empire. It also figures prominently in the movie Sudden Death as a staging area for the group planning to take the U.S. Vice President as a hostage.

Further Information

Get more info on 'U S Steel Tower'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://u_s__steel_tower.totallyexplained.com">U.S. Steel Tower Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.