Gulf Tower
- Architects
- Trowbridge & Livingston Edward Mellon
- Year
- 1932
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Collection
- modern pittsburgh
Gulf Tower is a 44-story, 582-foot Art Deco skyscraper in downtown Pittsburgh, built in 1932 as the headquarters of the Gulf Oil Corporation. Designed by the New York firm Trowbridge & Livingston with local architect Edward Mellon, it cost $10.05 million to build and by 1981 still housed 3,100 Gulf Oil employees. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation named it a Historic Landmark in 1973.
the building
The stepped crown. The tower's crown is modeled on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, stepping upward in a pyramid form and topped with an illuminated beacon — one of the most distinctive and recognizable features on the Pittsburgh skyline.
the style
Gulf Tower's Art Deco design is built around its stepped, pyramidal crown, based on the ancient Mausoleum of Halicarnassus — a form chosen to give the 1932 Gulf Oil headquarters a monumental, unmistakable silhouette against the skyline, capped by an illuminated beacon rather than a plain spire.
More on Art Decosignificance
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation designated Gulf Tower a Historic Landmark in 1973. On June 13, 1974, the Weather Underground Organization detonated a bomb on the 29th floor to protest Gulf Oil's involvement in the oil-rich regions affected by the Angolan War of Independence, and a fire on May 19, 2021 forced the tower to be condemned; it reopened six months later after repairs.
nearby
- Joseph F. Weis, Jr. United States Courthouse
- Ewart Building
- Union Trust Building
- Trinity Cathedral
- BNY Mellon Center
- Benedum Center