Three Mellon Center

525 William Penn Place
525 William Penn Place
General information
Type	Office / Commercial
Location	525 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Construction started	April 1, 1949
Completed	1951
Opening	1951
Cost	$67,650,000
Owner	FAC 525, LLC
Management	Jones Lang LaSalle
Height
Roof	520 feet (160 m)
Technical details
Floor count	41
Floor area	942,665 square feet (87,576.4 m2)
Lifts/elevators	20
Design and construction
Architect	Harrison & Abramovitz
Developer	John W. Galbreath
Main contractor	Turner Construction Company

525 William Penn Place (also known as the Citizens Bank Tower) was completed in 1951 for the Mellon National Bank and the U.S. Steel Corporation. At 520 feet (160 m) tall, it was the second tallest building in Pittsburgh until 1970, the third tallest until 1984. The building has 41 floors and approximately 950,000 square feet (88,000 m²) of office space. Presently it is the third largest office building by square feet in downtown Pittsburgh.

525 William Penn Place was one of the first skyscrapers built in Pittsburgh as part of longtime Mayor David Lawrence's Renaissance I building initiative to rebuild downtown Pittsburgh from the ground up. The building was built by the then Pittsburgh Pirates owner John W. Galbreath with loans from the Mellon National Bank and additional financing from insurance companies. At the time of construction, Mellon purchased floors 2-8 by deed in 1951 from John W. Galbreath. The building was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz with construction by the Turner Construction Company. It was built on the site of the Henry Hotel which was demolished to prepare the site for the tower in 1949.

The original plan for the building was to construct the ground floors in the same architectural design as the Mellon National Bank on Smithfield Street adjacent to the skyscraper and to allow open flow of Mellon employees between the two buildings with Mellon occupying the first eight floors. This plan was later modified during construction to give the entire building its own modernist style and an open shared lobby with three elevator banks and multiple passages between the skyscraper and the Mellon National Bank on Smithfield Street. U.S. Steel leased the floors 9 through 37 for their corporation and various subsidiaries. The top floors were reserved for the T. Mellon & Sons Company, various Mellon family charities offices, and a penthouse for philanthropist Richard King Mellon. U.S. Steel was the primary tenant until completing their own skyscraper, U.S. Steel Tower, on Grant Street in 1970. At that time, Mellon Bank owned floors 2-8 and leased the remainder of the building from the John W. Galbraith Co. In April 1982, Mellon Bank finally purchased the remainder of the building for $10 million.