Father Pitt

Tag: Hellmuth Obata + Kassbaum

  • UPMC Mercy Pavilion

    The new UPMC Mercy Pavilion is supposed to be tons of fun for the entire neighborhood, according to the sponsored news stories distributed by UPMC. It includes a café and art installations and a gym and even a few medical facilities. According to the “Building Overview” page on the hospital’s site, “HOK—a global design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm—designed the pavilion with input from Chris Downey, AIA. Mr. Downey is one of the world’s few blind architects.” HOK, formerly Hellmuth Obata + Kassbaum, also designed One Oxford Centre and PNC Park (with local favorite Lou Astorino).

  • One Oxford Centre from First Avenue

    Designed by the huge international firm Hellmuth, Obata, & Kassabaum, this nest of octagons was one of many landmark skyscrapers that popped up like mushrooms in the boom of the 1980s.

  • One Oxford Centre (and a Lamppost)

    Seen from First Avenue across Firstside Park.

  • One Oxford Centre

    One Oxford Centre is a cluster of octagons put up during the 1980s construction boom downtown. In fact it was to have an even taller partner next to it, but that never materialized before the boom went bust. The architects were the firm of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, now known as HOK, currently the biggest architectural firm in the United States.

  • One Oxford Centre

    Spelled “Centre” because the conventional wisdom in the real-estate business holds that you can raise the rents if you use a British spelling. Here we see it from the Diamond. This nest of octagons is, depending on how you measure it, our fifth-tallest building, one foot shorter than Fifth Avenue Place. The top, however, is higher than the top of Fifth Avenue Place or even PPG Place (our third-tallest), because downtown slopes upward toward Grant Street, so One Oxford Centre is built on higher ground.

    The first few floors of this building are a shopping arcade connected by a meandering skywalk to the Kaufmann’s (now Macy’s) department store a few blocks away

    One Oxford Centre is a short walk from either the Steel Plaza or the First Avenue subway station.

  • One Oxford Centre

    2009-04-01-oxford-centre

    One Oxford Centre is a typical 1980s tower that looks like a cluster of interlocked octagons. Those horizontal stripes are certainly distinctive, if perhaps a bit monotonous. The lower floors are a shopping arcade for the rich, famous, and prodigal. A skywalk connects the arcade to Macy’s (formerly Kaufmann’s) two blocks away.

    One Oxford Centre is a short walk from the Steel Plaza subway station.