PPG Place, Pittsburgh: architect, style and history

PPG Place is a six-building complex spanning three city blocks and five and a half acres in downtown Pittsburgh, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee as the headquarters of PPG Industries - formerly the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company - which had been based downtown since 1895. Groundbreaking took place in January 1981, and the complex opened in stages through a dedication in April 1984, at a total construction cost of $200 million. It centers on One PPG Place, a 40-story tower sheathed entirely in glass.

the building

19,750 pieces of glass. Every building in the complex shares a matching glass curtain wall made up of 19,750 individual pieces of glass, an unmistakable statement from a client whose business was literally plate glass.

One PPG Place. The complex centers on One PPG Place, a 40-story office tower that anchors the six-building group and gives PPG Place its dramatic, pointed skyline profile.

Neo-Gothic reworked in glass. Johnson and Burgee designed the complex in a neo-Gothic vocabulary reworked in glass and steel, drawing on precedents reported to include London's Victoria Tower and the work of H. H. Richardson, translating masonry-era massing into a distinctly modern material.

the style

PPG Place is a landmark of postmodern architecture, deploying historical references - neo-Gothic spires and massing - through an entirely glass skin rather than stone, a signature postmodern move of borrowing historical form while openly using modern materials and construction.

the architect

Philip Johnson, working here with his partner John Burgee, was one of the most influential American architects of the 20th century, and PPG Place is among his best-known postmodern works, completed in 1984.

significance

The Hillman Company, the original developer, sold the complex to Highwoods Properties in 2011.

more by Philip Johnson

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Fort Worth · 1961
One Atlantic Center Atlanta · 1987
Sheldon Museum of Art Lincoln · 1963
TC Energy Center Houston · 1983
WRVA Building Richmond · 1968
101 California Street San Francisco · 1982
IDS Center Twin Cities · 1972
Kreeger Museum Washington, DC · 1994

nearby

Burke Building 210 ft · Greek Revival
109-115 Wood Street 0.1 mi · Renaissance Revival · 1897
Buhl Building 0.1 mi · Renaissance Revival
Pittsburgh Engineers' Building 0.2 mi · 1898
Dollar Savings Bank 0.2 mi · Beaux-Arts · 1868
Heinz Hall 0.2 mi

All 71 buildings in Pittsburgh