What’s old is new again. The Davis Companies, a Boston developer with Pittsburgh roots, purchased the Union Trust Building in late 2014 and has just unveiled the $100 million restoration, and it’s a stunner.
Pittsburgh’s Union Trust Building was designed by Frederick Osterling for Henry Clay Frick and opened in 1915.
The 500,000- square-foot building takes up an entire city block and still contains a 400-seat theater, arcade shopping level, and dazzling 150-foot high stained glass atrium.
The entire heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system had to be added to the building; prior to the restoration chilled water and HVAC were pumped in from a building across the street via a network of underground tunnels.
The Davis Companies is utilizing Federal and State Historic Tax Credits for the project. “We could have done it without the tax credits,” says Chris Lasky, vice president of development for The Davis Companies and project manager for the Union Trust Building restoration.
“But we could not have done this without them,” he says, gesturing to the light fixtures and plush, colorful hallway carpeting.
The building is currently 60% occupied with mainly high-tech firms such as Truefit, a software development business that relocated to the Union Trust Building after 15 years in Cranberry, PA.