Here's a 'Pie in the Sky' idea

04-22-2007

	U.S. Steel Tower -- vantage point par excellence.

Dear Jeffrey Romoff,

Now that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has announced plans to lease five floors in the U.S. Steel Tower, Downtown's tallest office building -- including its topmost rentable space -- consider the possibility of sharing our city's best point of view.

As president of this successful, nonprofit, health-care organization, you can help restore public access to the superb 360-degree panoramic view that Pittsburghers enjoyed before the Top of the Triangle restaurant closed in 2001.

Yes, Pittsburgh offers other excellent vantage points from which to behold its glitter: Mount Washington, the West End Overlook, Fineview Hill, but none offers this commanding midtown perspective.

Since it opened in 1970, the towering black edifice known by a variety of names has been the city's tallest building, both in terms of height (841 feet) and the number of floors (64; the two top floors are for building mechanicals).

Its signature stature is augmented by its location at the higher altitude end of Downtown. Now that the other open spaces along Grant Street have been developed, no taller building will be erected anytime soon. It remains the first building people spot on their approach into town, and there is no higher perspective from which to contemplate all that is Pittsburgh than from its summit.

For more than 30 years, people who wanted a glimpse of that incomparable view were willing to come up with the cash for a meal at one of the various restaurants that occupied the building's 62nd floor. The Top of the Triangle was the setting for countless dates, marriage proposals, weddings and other special memories.

On Aug. 26, 2001, a few weeks before the restaurant closed, I proposed in a column to create what I called the "Pittsburgh Panorama." Reasoning that residents and visitors in other cities are willing to stand in long lines and pony up considerable sums to be whisked to their pinnacles of perspective -- New York's Empire State Building ($40), Toronto's CN Tower ($23) and the Skydeck on Chicago's Sears Tower ($12.95) -- why not Pittsburgh?

None of those cities has our incomparable topography. Certainly a top-floor Pittsburgh attraction could draw people for an urban vista that has been rated America's second-best (after San Francisco).

While this could be a revenue-producing enterprise, it also could provide a public service, like access to a park or a public monument. It didn't have to be a fancy facility -- just a glassed-in, perimeter promenade with mounted binoculars positioned in strategic places, and a few displays providing perspective on selected locations. That and a ticket booth at the lower entrance to the express elevator to the top.

And while I had no illusion about the complexity of staffing, provisioning and attracting patrons for a full-service restaurant 62 stories up, I did think it would also be nice to be able to get a cup of coffee and some light bites and desserts at what might be called the "Pie in the Sky" Cafe.

I thought my idea was a sure winner but, as always, timing is crucial.

Two weeks after that column ran, the traumas of the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed everyone's attitude about being on the top floor of tall buildings. Although certainly one of the smallest tragic legacies of that horrific day, the fact this superb piece of real estate has been unoccupied for more than five years now is more tangible evidence of the fear and anxiety that was created.

That's why UPMC's recent announcement was a welcome signal. Apart from attracting the area's top employer to a Downtown location, perhaps it might mean this long period of fear and mourning is coming to an end, allowing us again to regard our present with the awe and pride it commands and our future with a sense of confidence and optimism.

While UPMC should have the right to take advantage of this superior real estate, it would be a tremendously farsighted gesture for the corporation to find a way to share this magnificent view with the public, the people, patients and practitioners who make its success possible.

Wouldn't a "UPMC Promenade" be a tremendous addition to the roster of attractions the city is putting together to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year? Why, such a facility might even become a "First Night" attraction, especially being situated between the convention center and the site of the new arena (and the old arena). How about an annual "UPMC Stair Climb"? Think of the other possibilities.

In addition to being a wonderful, high-visibility, long-lasting PR move for UPMC, this project might provide added incentive for city planners to permit its name to appear atop the tower of steel.

As I wrote in 2001: "Admittedly, this is blue sky thinking of the highest order, but sometimes, that's what it takes to move the wheels of progress."

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