Fairmont Pittsburgh
More than just a luxury hotel in a multi-faceted city, the new Fairmont Pittsburgh encapsulates two important themes in the civic identity: First, the "new" Pittsburgh economy, which has diversified beyond steel to education, banking, technology and lately, sustainable building. Second, the robust art scene which, for centuries, has been funded and furthered by the city's largest fortunes.
CONSTRUCTED: 2009 - 2010
OWNER
The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
OPERATOR
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
ARCHITECT
Gensler
PROJECT MANAGERS
P.J Dick Corporation
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Astorino
ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR
Lighthouse Electric Company, Inc.
LEED CERTIFIED
For Lighthouse, the Fairmont Hotel was the fit out of 300,000 square feet of tenant space. The base building structure was the 23 story 780,000 square feet mixed use high-rise known as "Three PNC". Three PNC's base electrical package was a separate Lighthouse project.
Story provided as a courtesy by: JustLuxe.com
Pittsburgh’s move toward sustainable, and in the Fairmont’s case, LEED-certified, construction makes sense, when you consider the context. In the early days of the metal industry boom, steel was the great innovation. Today, the major commercial landholders in Pittsburgh look to innovate once again; not just to stay ahead of the industrial curve, but also to protect once-ravaged natural resources.
The Fairmont is located in the Three PNC Builiding. PNC Bank, which owns more LEED-certified buildings than any other company in the US, determined long ago that sustainable construction was simply the smart decision for the long-term.
The Fairmont is a high rise, surrounded on all sides by concrete, and made of glass and gleaming surfaces. However, the glass is filtered and is floor-to-ceiling on the outside-facing guest room walls, to aid climate control. Energy efficient light bulbs and in-room occupancy detectors save energy and reduce CO2 emissions. Even the hotel restaurant, Habitat, sticks with sustainable tenets, using locally farmed/raised ingredients whenever possible.
“Eco” is not what jumps out at you about this hotel. The art connection is much more obvious, with bold local paintings displayed around the lobby. The posh, popular bar is named Andy’s after Andrew Carnegie and Andy Warhol. Prints by the latter are displayed throughout the bar, each one approved by the Board of Directors of the Warhol Museum.
Peculiar, but fascinating, collections of glass artifacts are displayed in glass cases near the elevators on several floors. This collection comes from Pittsburgh’s early days, when locals drank bottled water because the steel industry had tainted their own.
There was a bottling plant here as well, perpetuating an interesting local habit of tossing no-longer-needed glassware down the wells. When the passing of centuries turned the discarded glass from “garbage” to “collectible,” it was rescued from the wells in an archaeologist-supervised, PNC-funded effort. The resulting collection of pieced-together dolls, apothecary jars, colored bottles, trinkets and European antiquities is large and fascinating.
The original story by Lena Katz can be found by following the link Fairmont Pittsburgh.
Fully equipped, state of the art, fitness center.