Terminal Tower - Architecture

Architecture

Built for $179 million by the Van Sweringen brothers, the tower was to serve as an office building atop the city's new rail station, the Cleveland Union Terminal. Originally planned to be 14 stories, the structure was expanded to 52 floors with a height of 708 feet (216 m) and rests on 280-foot (85 m) caissons. Designed by the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the tower was modeled after the Beaux-Arts New York Municipal Building by McKim, Mead, and White. The Terminal Tower opened for tenants as early as 1928, though the Union Terminal complex wasn't officially dedicated until 1930. It would remain the tallest building in the world outside of New York City until the completion of the main building of Moscow State University in Moscow in 1953 and would continue as the tallest building in North America, outside of New York City, until the Prudential Center in Boston, Massachusetts was completed in 1964. The building's height allowed radio station WHK to place antennas on the building to increase range of the 1420 kHz signal.

In the 1980s, a plan to build a taller building than the Terminal Tower was put forward, but was rejected by city officials who wanted to keep the Terminal Tower as the city's tallest building. The building, the BP Building, was scaled down, and the Terminal Tower remained the tallest building in Cleveland until the completion of Key Tower in 1991.