THE VIEW FROM THE U.S. STEEL ROOFTOP

Plans are under review to turn the rooftop of the U.S. Steel Tower, Pittsburgh’s tallest building, into an open-air observatory and tourist attraction, according to Jeremy Kronman, CBRE vice chairman and the broker who handles the tower’s leasing.

PLANS ARE BEING CONSIDERED FOR THE FUTURE OF THE U.S. STEEL ROOFTOP

“We have been approached by national-level operators who do the kind of attractions you see in New York, Chicago, London and Dubai,” Kronman says. He says he is working with the building’s owners to evaluate several proposals, and each one pitches some kind of vertigo-inducing thrill: glass-floor sections, view booths that slowly tip forward, even walks along the ledge (while hooked to a safety harness).

THE U.S. STEEL ROOFTOP

Kronman will not specify how many proposals are under review and cautions that the idea is still in a tentative stage. But the fact that it is under consideration at all illustrates how popular rooftop amenities have become.

THE VIEW FROM THE U.S. STEEL ROOFTOP

Areas that used to be reserved for water towers and bulky HVAC machinery — or in the case of the U.S. Steel Tower, an executive heliport that hasn’t been used for decades — are now increasingly seen as potential gathering spaces, here in Pittsburgh and across the country.

THE CONTROL PANEL FOR THE FORMER EXECUTIVE HELIPORT ATOP THE U.S. STEEL BUILDING

Take Kaufmann’s Grand, on the upper levels of the former department store, which reopened in 2021 as a residential complex with 311 apartments. It has a swimming pool and basketball court on the roof, plus grills for cookouts and plenty of outdoor furniture and fire pits. During winter, synthetic ice is laid over the ball court, transforming it into a skating rink.

“You can just sit up there for hours and enjoy the sun, when there is sun in Pittsburgh,” says Yih-Tsyr Sung, a Kaufmann’s resident and University of Pittsburgh dental student.

The 1904 McCreery & Co. building on Wood Street, another former department store, which recently served as GNC headquarters, will have a new rooftop deck and clubhouse when it opens as a residential tower called LiveWell this fall.

“People like being outside,” says Anoop Davé, CEO of Victrix, the project’s New York-based developer. “Pittsburgh’s a beautiful city. You have pretty nice views up there, and if you can incorporate the clubhouse with the outdoors the way we have, I think it’s just a wonderful experience.”

Office workers are not immune to the charms of a lofty roost. When Dollar Bank moved its headquarters from Gateway Center to the corner of Stanwix Street and Fort Pitt Boulevard in 2021, one draw was the possibilities inherent in the location’s broad rooftop. Now converted into an indoor and outdoor space, the roof can accommodate 140 people and offers gorgeous views from Mount Washington and the Monongahela River to the fountain at Point State Park.

THE ROOFTOP AT 20 STANWIX STREET

“The opportunity to construct a rooftop deck and lounge where our employees could relax, collaborate and enjoy the views was certainly appealing. We invested in an incredible space that has become a highlight, not only for our employees, but also for customers and our partners in the community,” says Jim McQuade, the bank’s president and CEO.

THE VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOP AT 20 STANWIX STREET

A top deck can boost the bottom line for a property, either directly through admission fees and concessions — tickets for the latest observatory attractions in New York and Chicago start at around $40, with harness walks costing several times that amount — or indirectly by attracting tenants with exclusive spaces. Because of this, more and more skyscrapers around the globe are putting money into their rooftops, says Daniel Safarik, director of research and thought leadership at the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

“It’s all about … developers trying to get people back into office buildings,” he says. “The whole amenities horse race between all kinds of buildings is stepped up, and I think Instagram and social media fuel the fire of being seen on top of a tall building. You can’t just stand up in the highest place and look out a window. That’s not good enough anymore.”

Koppers’ employees have access to vertiginous vistas of the Strip District, Grant Street and the trio of Allegheny River sister bridges from the deck of their building’s 29th-floor balcony. This was completed in 2018 as part of the company’s innovation space called The ATTIC (Advancing Teamwork Through Innovation & Collaboration), which includes meeting rooms, a kitchen area and a rec lounge with a putting green and shuffleboard table.

KOPPERS BUILDING

“People love to grab a cup of coffee or have lunch there,” says Stephen Lucas, vice president of culture and engagement at Koppers. “We look at it as a space for employees to collaborate, engage with others and have fun.”

Being way up goes way back in Pittsburgh. Henry Clay Frick’s eponymous 1901 granite building still has its rooftop promenade where the tycoon, his guests and members of his private club could smoke cigars and survey the horse-and-buggy traffic below on Grant Street.

At its height, some 25,000 people a year used to visit the Gulf Tower’s public observatory on the 38th floor. But after nearly four decades in operation, it was shut down in 1974 amid security concerns — fears that turned out to be prescient after the Weather Underground set off a bomb in the building a few years later. The wraparound walkway still has its glass panels more than 50 years on, but it is only accessible to the leaseholders on the 38th floor. That is unlikely to change if and when the building goes ahead with a planned conversion into a hotel and apartments, says Larry Walsh, principal and COO of Rugby Realty, which owns the property.

GULF TOWER

After the Gulf Tower and another public observation deck atop the Grant Building closed, people craving a bird’s-eye view Downtown could spy one at the Top of the Triangle restaurant on the 62nd floor of the U.S. Steel Tower. But that venue’s lease was not extended in 2001, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 stymied plans to put a new restaurant in the space, which later became the executive floor for UPMC headquarters.

Today the highest vantage point in the Golden Triangle where the public is welcome is Ollie’s, a hotel gastropub on the uppermost floor of the Oliver Building on Smithfield Street. Tableside windows give lovely views onto the Allegheny River, though arguably the best sightseeing is to be had by looking up at the elaborately detailed glazed terracotta cornice ringing the roof line. It is one of many impressive flourishes by the building’s Chicago architect, Daniel Burnham, the same person who created the Flatiron Building in Manhattan.

A spate of elevated amenities has sprouted Downtown in the last decade. The Clark Building on Liberty Avenue opened its rooftop deck in 2014 with a unique feature: binocular viewers, which residents can use to get a close-up view of Pirates games. Hotel Monaco on William Penn Place debuted a rooftop Biergarten in 2015, and Downtown’s first rooftop basketball court came three years later at the Etage apartment hotel, which crowns a parking structure on Stanwix Street. Lumière, a condo tower on Smithfield Street, opened in 2019 with a fire pit and shaded picnic area on top, plus a dog park.

Kaufmann’s Grand is the second Downtown building to put a pool on its roof. Residents have been taking a dip 14 floors up at the apartment tower at 625 Stanwix St., also known as the Venue, since it opened in 1966.

KAUFMANN’S GRAND

But while some Pittsburghers have access to such airy perks, for most people those spaces are off-limits, except for occasional public tours.

“Every great city has a place you can go up and look at the view, but Pittsburgh doesn’t really at all. It’s not the same from Mount Washington or Fineview,” says David Bear, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette travel editor who campaigned for years for the U.S. Steel Tower to open its roof to the masses.

KAUFMANN’S GRAND

It began with a newspaper column, then reader surveys to demonstrate public support. Eventually Bear put together a detailed proposal, developed in collaboration with architectural and other students at Carnegie Mellon University, to cap the building with a two-story glass-enclosed structure. But the plan ultimately fell on deaf ears.

Certainly, skyscraper technology has come a long way since the U.S. Steel Tower opened in 1970. It was the world’s eighth-tallest building then; now it doesn’t even crack the top 500, according to a global skyscraper database maintained by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Even so, the tower’s broad, triangular roof, nearly an acre in size, is still quite a long way from the ground. And anyway, spectacular views are not determined primarily with an altimeter.

When philanthropist and business owner Bill Benter wanted to put a deck, new offices and a hospitality space atop the 1906 Benedum-Trees Building on Fourth Avenue, it required repeated efforts to win approval from the city’s historic review commission and considerable expense to design, engineer and build. It was all worth it, he says. Particularly in summer, when he and his guests can relax with a wine or scotch and watch the sunset over the Ohio River. But really anytime.

“We can see the city at work, trains going by, barges going down the Monongahela, people and activity with just the right level of detail,” Benter says. “You can look upward at taller buildings, and you can look down at the ground, and it’s like you’re right in the zone. It’s a very interesting view of a city.”

Mark Houser, a speaker and author who has written two books about landmark skyscrapers, also gives rooftop tours. The next events are scheduled for June 8-9 and July 27-28, and participants will take elevators to the tops of four historical Downtown buildings. For information and tickets, go to antiqueskyscrapers.com.