EQT Plaza

EQT Plaza, formerly known as the CNG Tower and later the Dominion Tower, is a major and distinctive skyscraper in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The structure was built for Consolidated Natural Gas, a regional energy company. In 1999, CNG was purchased by Dominion Energy, which moved out of the building in 2007. During the summer of 2009, EQT Corporation moved its corporate headquarters and several business units from the 6-story building EQT had built and moved into in 2005, just across the Allegheny River in the North Shore neighborhood of the city.[1] Equitable Gas Company, the natural gas utility owned by EQT Corporation, remains on 2 floors of the former headquarters building on the North Shore.

EQT Plaza was completed in 1987 and it has 32 floors. It rises 430 feet (131 meters) above Downtown Pittsburgh. It was influenced heavily by the Art Deco architecture found in other Pittsburgh skyscrapers, like the Gulf Tower, Koppers Tower and Grant Building.[2]

The building was owned between 2005 and 2010 by the Blackstone Group, a real estate firm well known for their management of high risk assets. After buying the structure following the bankruptcy of former owners, they successfully increased the building's occupancy rate from 66% to 97%.[3] In 2010, Blackstone sold the building to Pearson Realty Services.

References

• Toker, Franklin (2007). Buildings of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Chicago: Society of Architectural Historians; Santa Fe: Center for American Places ; Charlottesville: In association with the University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-2650-5. 
• Updates based on several articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette daily newspaper, discussing EQT Corporation's tenancy and renaming of the building (2007-2008).